I’ve never experienced a hurricane while directly on the coast, but have well inland with Hugo. The wind literally howling for hours, driving rainwater into weird places in the house, listening to the framing of the house creak and pop while the power is out, and hearing heavy objects impacting the exterior, that’s just not pleasant. I’d hate to think of experiencing such a thing even more strongly with the threat of storm surge on top of all that.
I just read your homepage and I must say it was fascinating history! Our forefathers had GUTS, courage, bravery, and that fierce and passionate desire for independence....
May the spirit of that independence soon return!
Thanks, and God Bless!
Having lived all my life in the Baltimore, Maryland area and in central Pennsylvania I’ve been through the effects of few tropical storms including Agnes in 72, TS remnants and brushes with hurricanes, not to mention some very mean Nor-Easters – both the Nor-Easters that bring a lot rain and wind but also the Nor-Easters that bring big blizzards -24+ inches of snow in less than 24 hours and driving winds, huge snow drifts.
But as far as howling winds from a hurricane the worst I remember was from hurricane Isabell back in 2003.
My husband and I had recently separated and I was living alone in our 90-year-old house in the NE Baltimore suburbs. At the height of the storm all I heard was the moaning and the creaking and cracking and snapping sounds of the many big trees surrounding the house. I was especially concerned about the two huge pine trees next to the house. At times the windows and doors shook and in fact at times it felt like the whole house was shaking. My three cats were freaked out and hid under the couch for the duration. And I was too afraid to sleep or go upstairs to my bed room so I slept, as best I could that night on the floor of my dining room, the most central room in the house. There was at times some heavy rain squalls but it was mostly the wind. And I was amazed I didn’t lose electric power that night but I did loose cable TV.
When I got up the next morning there were a lot of big limbs and a few trees down in my back yard but fortunately none came close to hitting the house and walking around the house, there was no damage and because there wasn’t a lot of rain, no flooding in my basement.
I showered and got dressed to go to work but my normal 30-minute commute turned into 2 ½ hours because of all the road closures – trees and power lines down and traffic signals not working.
When I got to work, there were quite a few people out, mostly because they had lost power, but I was most concerned about my co-worker with whom I shared an office. I had the radio on and was hearing of the severe flooding because of the storm surge along the Chesapeake, the storm pushed water up the Bay and into the tributaries and also in places like Fells Point and in Bowleys Quarters where she and her husband lived.
She finally called me and told me that yes her house was flooded. But fortunately it was not a total loss unlike some of her neighbors’ homes. But she was without power for over a week. I was very fortunate.