TS Fay, Won't Go Away, Have you ever.....?

Question

TS Fay has been pounding my area with torrential rain and

40 - 60+MPH winds, and we have at least another 25 hours to go.Must be 20-30 inches of rain already.

Have you ever been in violent weather, is so, where and what?

Answer 1

I feel your pain.  I live in FL too and the rain just doesn't stop!

I've been living here for a good while, so yeah,

I've seen weather like this ... HERE!

I'm praying so that the storm finally goes away!

Answer 2

I grew up in New Orleans, and we always "evacuated" to my dad's brick office building in downtown for hurricanes.

I moved from there in 2000.

Anyway, in about 1998 or so, Hurricane Danny hit the coast of Alabama... during my family reunion, which included my parents, my 4 sisters and I, our spouses and kids. We were staying at a hotel in Dauphin Island, which is right off the coast. Most of my family left when it started coming in. My dad said when the hurrican epassed, it would take all the clouds with it and it would be beautiful weather the rest of the week.

So my hubby, my oldest sister and her daughter all stayed. Not cool.

The hurricane came in from the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the night. The hotel was a highrise, with balconies, and walkways between 2 buildings. We were in a corner unit next to a walkway. The winds got violent and picked up furniture from peoples' balconies and slung them around like frisbees and torpedoes. It was incredible. The space between our building and the other one was a wind tunnel so the wind howled through there loudly, constantly.

The rain was so torrential that between it and the wind, it popped our sliding glass doors from their tracks, and the rain was just flooding in from the balcony floor. We were lucky, though - the glass didn't break. We could hear glass breaking all night long in other hotel rooms.

We lined up chairs and tables through the living room to walk on top of, since the carpet was drenched.

A funny sight was a light pole in the parking lot that fell, but the electrical wires kept it secured to its base. But the wind kept picking it up, and slamming it down on top of a little red pickup truck. Poor truck was unrecognizable in the morning.

After a sleepless, electricity-free night, we decided to grab breakfast "on the mainland," then come back to the hotel, pack and leave. But when we got to the big bridge, it was blockaded... no one could come or go... the dang Hurricane Danny had made a U-turn and was coming back!!?!

Soooo, the four of us went BACK to the wet hotel room and hunkered down for another night of craziness. The weather was coming from the opposite direction this time, so it was knocking windows out of the tracks on the OTHER side of our hotel unit. We spent most of THAT night listening to a battery-operated radio, and calling in to a station to tell them what was going on.

As scary as it all was, I'm glad that I went through it with those family members - we laughed so much the whole time. It was unbelievable.

And when we were finally headed home, when we drove over Mobile Bay, there was no water in it! The hurricane had sucked it all out - it was nothing but mud! Absolutely incredible.

Anyway, good luck with Fay. The sister I went through Hurricane Danny with ended up losing her house in La. to Hurricane Katrina. She now lives in Jacksonville, Fla., and just emailed me about how slow Fay is moving. She said she calls it Groundhog Fay... have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day? Where the guy keeps reliving the same day over and over? Every time she looks at the weather, Fay is in the same spot.

Answer 3

The whether isn't THAT bad. We've only gotten 30 mile per hour gusts. My dad has to keep draining the pool because it overflows.

But it's not like as bad as the media is making it out.

Answer 4

Of course, I'm a Floridian too! We've had torrential rain for 3 days now thanks to Fay. The only other severe weather I've been through were the hurricanes of 2004 - Charley, Frances, and Jeanne. Charley was by far the worst, knocking over tons of trees, billboards, and even blowing traffic lights to the ground. Fortunately we didn't have any severe damage. I guess that's one of the good things about living in Central Florida, rather than on the coast.

Answer 5

Yes, many years ago a tornado went through our area (in southern Michigan).  It was pretty frightening.  Fortunately, it didn't hit us.  Unfortunately it did hit in a couple of nearby towns and did some extensive damage to homes and buildings.  The tornado itself was over in a matter of minutes although the storm system hung around for most of the day.  

But I know that's nothing like what you are going through. You've got it much worse and it's been going on for three days now.  Hopefully Fay will go away without generating hurricane force winds.   Hang in there and be safe.