Vietnam Vets vs. Mother Nature

[82Rigger]

There have been quite a few posts over the last couple of weeks with reference to cold weather (up North), not so cold weather (here in the South) and in the past there have been posts whenever some not-every-day natural event has happened.

We have regulars in this forum from every sector of our country, and many, I'm sure, have lived for a time in different places in the good ole US of A.

Mother Nature seems to have a different deck that she deals out for each part of the country...earthquakes on the Left coast, tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes here on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

I'm just wondering what severe acts of nature have "reached out and touched you"?

I have some GREAT hurricane stories!

How about you folks in the Northwest...do any of you have any VOLCANO stories, i.e. Mount St Helens?

Anybody been through a blizzard , avalanche , serious mudslide, flood or flash flood?

Was anyone close to the wildfires last year?

Airborne! Steve / 82Rigger

[phuloi]

Being raised on the East Coast,I had seen my share of hurricanes.Seems like there was a pretty good string of them in the `50s.Carol comes to mind as being one of the worst we had up north.
We get our fair share of high wind storms out here in Washington,but they don`t call them hurricanes or anything.They definately blow at hurricane force,just no name for them.The worst one was some 20 years back..it took down the Hood Canal floating bridge with sustained winds of 130mph.Was up all night with my fishing boat,a 28' Columbia River bow-picker,that was moored in a little marina in Quilcene.Waves were breaking over the breakwater and it was touch and go,but we made it through.
I heard the boom and felt the rumble when St. Helens blew,but thankfully the wind was blowing in the other direction,and we hardly got any ash fallout where I live.I`ve heard some real horror stories from people who were close to the blast zone,though.

[DMZ-LT]

Typhoon. We were turning in damaged tracks in Danang when one hit. Entire buildings just went into the sky

[revwardoc]

I was stationed at Norton AFB in February '71 whenthe San Fernandoquake hit at 6:01am on the 9th. While we had several minor quakes in the previous years, this one was a beaut! It registered 6.6 on the Richter scale (not particulary high on the scale, but it covered a wide area) and killed 65 people, dropped several highway overpasses and damaged many buildings including 2 hospitals.

Then there was the Blizzard of '78 that dumped about 4 feet of snow on the Northeast and shut down everything for a week. One of my mother's co-workers was murdered during the height of that storm and they didn't find his body until May.

Then there was Hurricane Gloria in '83.

Then there was The No-Name Storm in October of '91 that inspired the movie "The Perfect Storm".

Hmm! Didja ever get the feeling someone's out to getcha!

[39mto39g]

Can't remember the year, I think early 68, I was on some hill somewhere northern 2 corps, it started to rain hard and wind started and it rained harder and wind harder, before long it was raining sideways and wind was blowing so hard I couldn't get one end of a poncho to stay in the ground, Finally gave up and layed in about 3-4 inches of muddy water and went to sleep.
They said it was a Typhoon, I didn't know what a Typhoon was.

Ron

[frisco-kid]

Having grown up in San Francisco, I've rocked 'n rolled in MANY earthquakes of various degrees. Now that I live back in the area, nothing has changed. Mother Nature still reminds us of where we live once in a while. As a school kid we not only had fire drills, but earthquake drills also. If in the classroom get under your desk; if in the hall stand in a doorway; if in the school yard stay away from the building.
When I was in 5th grade SF had a significant quake. It was in the late morning and I was in a classroom about to take a spelling test. When it hit, thanks to the drills, we all dove under our desks. It was a good thing, because some ceiling tiles came down. When we were able to get out of the building into the school yard and take roll call, it was decided we should all go home for the day. I gathered up my 2 younger sisters and we walked home, feeling a couple of after shocks. My Mom was one of the few working Moms back then, and no one was home. Wouldn't be allowed today. Oh, yeah. We never had the spelling test, and I was glad because I hadn't studied for it :re: .

On 18MAY80, a Sunday morning, Mt. St. Helens erupted. I lived in Spokane, WA, over 300mi. NE of the mountain. Kath and I, and the kids, were out shopping. We had heard that the mountain had exploded, but never thought twice about any effects from it. About 2:00PM we saw, what appeared to be, a huge thunderhead approaching, so we decided to head for home before the storm caught us. Before we made it to the house, it got so dark that the street lights came on. Also, there was what seemed like powdered snowflakes falling from the sky. Driving immediately became hazardous. The car in front of you would kick this stuff up like driving on a road of baby powder. Visibility was almost zero. We made it home at a crawl. It was ash from the volcano, and it dumped about 2" on Spokane. Towns closer to the explosion had up to 8"! Spokane/Couer d' Alene, ID area was shut down for 2 days, with only emergency vehicles and road clean-up crews allowed to move around.
As we started to get pictures of the devastation on and around the mountain, it was AMAZING. Whole forests were flatened! All of the trees knocked down like match sticks pointing in the same direction. Logging trucks, skidders, log loaders, and D-8 Cats were scattered like Tonka Toys! One of the most famous images, in WA anyway, was an aerial view of a pick-up truck blown off of the road with 2 dead kids in the back and the driver dead in the cab. The power was mind-boggling. Eventually, the ash cloud would circle the planet.
Fast forward 10yrs.. I'm working in the Seattle area for Boise Cascade [my present employer], and I'm loading an old guy's truck with some lumber. We get to talking about Mt. St. Helens, and he tells me that the guy and kids dead in the pick-up are his son and grandsons! They owned some property nearby, and were camping there for the weekend. Alot of people didn't take the Vulcanologists seriously about the mountain going to go anytime. When the mountain blew, it seems this guy threw the kids in the back of the truck and tried to out-run the deadly cloud. He didn't make it. The ash and super-heated air caught them, searing their lung and killing them almost immediately. Amazing stuff!

I lived in the Seattle-area for 2 yrs. and experienced the windstorms that Griz mentioned. I lived in a stand of 100'+ tall Ponderosa pines and white firs. I didn't have a garage and would have to move my cars about a quarter mile from the house, away from the trees. Limbs 4" to 10" in diameter would fall to the ground. Griz, did you ever see the movie footage of the Narrows Bridge collapsing in the windstorm? AWESOME!

I've lived in Eastern Wa, Western MT, and SLC, UT, so can probabaly swap snowfall and temperature stories with most of you. Also, having lived in Seattle, I've seen it rain in Biblical proportions, and have gone without seeing the sun for weeks. SLC, UT is on the fringe of high desert [about 4500' elevation], and can go for weeks with sustained 100+F temps.

Mother Nature can be quite humbling. Man plays with his mortars, RPGs, artillery rounds, atomic and neutron bombs, etc., and Mother Nature says 'Oh yeah? Watch this!", and a whole ship, bridge, mountain, neighborhood, town, or city is gone in a heartbeat. Shows us how insignificant we really are sometimes.

[Dragon Lady]

1968? I think that was when Hurricane Camile blasted Biloxi, Miss. I remember my brother picking me up to look out the little window in the door of our shelter and I saw what looked like a piece of corrugated cardboard go twisting by. After it was over I saw that "cardboard", it was a piece of siding that rammed into a building across the street.

In 1985 we watched a GREEN rain storm sweep down the C5 flightline at Dover. The whole sky turned dark green, then the tornado sirens started to blast. I headed to the basement. It never came near the base.

Last summer we had a tornado rip through our back yard...in NEW YORK State! I was at the kitchen sink when lightning struck an old maple tree and blew it to smithereens!
I'm still working on getting over that one. :-)

DL

[Keith_Hixson]

We had 6.5 inches of rain in one-hour several years ago. Washed out all the gullies in the Canyon between Ellensburg,WA and Yakima, WA. It took several weeks before the roads and railroad in the Canyon were opened. Never saw so much water come down so quickly.

We had a Hurrican Force (Winter Storm) when I was living on the West Side of the State of Washington (In the early eighties). I was suppose to sign in at the Sheriff's Dept. It was the start of my week as Chaplain for the Sheriff's Dept. I drove 15 miles in 60 - 70 mph winds. Signed in at the department. And couldn't get home because all the trees that were down. Stayed the rest of day at the Sheriff's Office Managing Phones, and radio's. Got home and the electrical had been out all day. We had a very late Thanksgiving that year (like on Friday).

Drove to 250 miles in a blizzard 20 years ago. Just to get to My In-Laws for Christmas. Snow piling up and blowing but I pushed on. Made it somehow and someway.

Keith