I've been through six hurricanes myself and the storm I refer to in the blog was Hurricane Celia in 1970. The eye came over us and the fiercest wind was in the west eye wall. My wind speed instrument blew away at 110 mph and we estimated gusts of 160 to 180 mph. I don't believe we were in a tornado, but wind that high made the proverbial train noise you hear about and the entire house shook. Nearly 40 years later it's still burned in my mind.

Although my family normally evacuates early to get ahead of heavy traffic, we rode out Claudette in our house on Lavaca Bay. No one expected it to amount to much and so I was surprised at the intensity of the winds and to see a second story ceiling breathing, moving the ceiling fan up and down. Later, I learned my house was flooded in Carla and among snakes and the neighbors’ air conditioner were two dead cows bobbing in our den.

The first hurricane I remember was Beulah around '67. When they did let school out our bus partially floated off the pavement on Kemper City Road. The horror, the screaming kids. Was glad to be one of the first to be dropped off!!! There was some wind out here but mostly a rain event I think. When it was all over and we went outside there was nothing but water as far as you could see. Only Hwy 77 and some houses that were up on blocks were out of water and it stayed that way for days. Claudette was really rough out here. It scared my kids to death! No power for 7 days. Kids went to town. Hubby went back to work. I stayed to "protect" my property. What an idiot!

I love a thunderstorm also! I think they are beautiful! But, I don't like driving in them! We drove through one last Wednesday on our way to San Antonio to a funeral. Not Fun. Apparently there was a nice storm here that day. We got in around 4. There was no power until 6.

The first hurricane I remember was Hurricane Carla. I was 4 and I remember my dad saying the eye of the hurricane was over Victoria.Funny how that memory stuck with me.

The first Hurricane I remember was Celia in 1970.... I was about 6 and riding it out at my grandparents in Refugio. It was a frightening experience for someone so young. The next Hurricane was Allen in 1980. It didn't seem so bad to me, but then again, I was in Beeville at the time. Hurricane Claudette was my first experience as #1 - an adult and #2 as a homeowner. We lost our patio roof -- which flew over our home and hit our neighbor's suburban. And the metal frame to our sliding glass doors was bent. My youngest was 6 and was totally freaked out. I had problems for months afterwards everytime it got cloudy.

We are one of the few people who don't evacuate and don't plan on it. Why? Well, my husband has an uncanny ability to predict exactly where the hurricane will go about 3 days before it does.

Pilot

I take it by some of your posts that you are old enough to remember Carla.. That was my worst ride out i think i have ever had..Man have we come a long way with reporting since that time..I remember the storm had already hit here and school buses were still running.. My Dad had to go out in the thick of things on a tractor and pull buses out of ditches, which were loaded with children.. The tornados were awesome, destroying everything in there way..Hope that type of thing never happens again, thank God, no deaths.

Well.
If you're watching TV on your dish or directtv, they don't seem to be running crawlers across the bottom.
If you don't watch the local news or the weather channel, you may have no idea that a system is coming through your area.
NOAA weather radio is great, but it was off the air a month or two ago, when some severe weather hit near here.
Tornadoes are serious business.

pilot: That's great that you stuck it out with your folks and helped them board up. Since I've moved out, I try to help my family board up and they try to help me board up and then we evacuate together. Claudette was the last hurricane any of us rode through.

N45BA: I'd like to hear those weather stories you have, especially if you can give any insight on how to prepare and deal with the situations you've been through. You never know, perhaps someone that reads them can take it to heart and save themselves from a lot of unnecessary trouble later in life.

I rode through Claudette in Port Lavaca and was fortunate that my parents house, which I was seeking shelter in, didn't get a roof or wall ripped off. The family business wasn't so lucky, though. I initially didn't want to ride through Claudette, myself, but living with stubborn 'rents made me stay through it. That Cat 1 (or 2) storm was scary enough to make me want to always leave when a hurricane threatens my area. I guess a rather old and fairly large tree threatening to fall on the roof over and into your bedroom can do that.

Since I drive back and forth between towns for my job, I try to keep an eye on the weather. If there's a decent possibility of severe weather, I will probably still stubbornly try to drive through it, I admit! (I am my father's daughter, after all!)

But I have some places scattered along on the way to and from work that I can rely on as shelter should the weather seem to start getting worse than I can handle and I try to call them ahead of time to let them know I might need to stop and wait out the weather. I highly dislike driving through hard 'n heavy rain and hard 'n heavy wind, let alone hail and worse, so I make sure I've got a safe place to go if need be. And that's not to say that I'll drive on the road during a tornado warning. Now, that's just silly!