Living in Chicago my whole life makes me feel like I have lived in a bubble protected by mother natures big spankings.Sure we get smacked on the hand with the wind and the long cold snow filled winters but I have never had to bear down and make through any tornados,hurricanes,floods,mudslides,wildfires,earthquakes or Cloverfield monsters.

 

What are your experiences?

 

Did you think it was your last day on earth?

I was working at a radio station as a tornado passed within a half mile of the station.

 

I was working at a radio station as a funnel cloud passed over our studios without touching down.

 

I have been stuck at work in New Jersey overnight on three separate occasions due to snow storms and Nor'Easters.

I was out here in Colorado during the huge blizzards a few years ago during Christmas...was actually supposed to fly home (I still consider Chicago my home) the day the first one hit. Wound up having to drive instead b/c i wouldn't have been able to get a flight in until Xmas night. Have never seen so many semi's drivin and stuck on the medians/side of the highway. The one I remember the most was a Fed Ex semi that was flipped which boxes spewed all over the place...I really wanted to stop (COME ON I believe all Fed Ex shipments are insured so its not really stealing right?) Throughout the 3-4 weeks there was so much snow that I remember people's front doors almost being covered. Plus...they don't use salt out here b/c of "enviromental reasons" that was probably the worst. I mean when I was livin in Kalamazoo Michigan we got that much snow every winter, they were just better prepared to handle it. Never live there...never

Edited September 12, 200817 yr by DABearSoX

I've been within a couple miles of a tornado on a few occasions now. The latest was this summer while camping in Indiana. Nothing like laying in a tent during a torrential downpour with wind so strong that the top of the tent was pushed down far enough to touch my chest. That was cool.

Edited September 12, 200817 yr by Jenksismybitch

Hurricane Dolly

2 nights in Michigan City, Indiana

 

You do realize FlaSoxxJim will have ten pages and that was just 3 months.

Tornados and lightening in ILL. Blizzards in Utah and Colorado. Slept right through an earthquake in San Diego last year.

Gurnee got flooded in 1986 when I was in 1st grade. That is about it.

Earthquakes: one in Memphis woke me up a few years back. Not a big one - no damage or anything.

 

Tornadoes: Saw one, about a mile from me, in Boulder, CO of all places. Going away from us, luckily, because we were outside with minimal shelter available. I've been hiding in an interior room from tornadoes a couple times in Iowa, and once with the recent storm in Chicago where the building shook.

 

Blizzards: I've lived in the Chicago area from 1972-1991, 1998-2001 and 2004 to present. So, all the big blizzards of those periods, including the ridiclous winter of '78. Also was in Denver when the one that killed 50 people came through in, I think, 1998.

 

Floods: Helped sandbag the Skunk River in Ames in the 1993 century flood.

 

Hurricane Alicia 1983 and the Cubs playoff runs

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Alicia

March 12, 1998 - Ice storm in Chicago. This was made worse by the incorrect predictions of "just a couple inches of snow." It ended up being about 12 and a ton of ice and blowing. We had ten 40' 24in wide utility poles near us get snapped. Our power was out for 3 days. I left at about 4am in a drizzling rain and got to my last stop at noon (4 hours late). I lost count at 75 the number of vehicles in the ditches. I was stuck out on a milk route I drove at a farm near Manteno, IL until the next morning.

 

Then there was the 24 inches of snow in 99 or 2000 on Jan 1 or 2. I was also out on a farm route. The wind was blowing so hard I had to stop and get out to see if I was still on the road. I think the last of that snow finally melted sometime in August that year.

The F2 storm that just passed by here (NW Indiana) not too long ago. Trees were literally pulled out of their roots. The streets were covered with branches and all kinds of tree sap. Not to mention that we didn't have electricity for four days and we constantly had to add gallons of gasoline to a disturbing generator.

The 2007 Chicago White Sox.

Tornadoes: Saw one, about a mile from me, in Boulder, CO of all places.

 

Wow, that is strange...south towards Denver in the flatter area or more towards the flat irons? The 3 years I was livng there there was def weird weather....Huge hail storm on the day Jean Benet's Mom died..it was rather strange and have never been through anything like it...and of course the normal 70-80 degree day in the dead of winter.

The F2 storm that just passed by here (NW Indiana) not too long ago. Trees were literally pulled out of their roots. The streets were covered with branches and all kinds of tree sap. Not to mention that we didn't have electricity for four days and we constantly had to add gallons of gasoline to a disturbing generator.

 

I forgot about those. We had 100mph straight line winds for two years in a row on the exact same date. Just tore MC apart...

That earthquake last May, but that wasn't too bad.

Our house was struck by lightning once and I was a room over from where it hit.

 

We also survived the winter of '77-78. Snow was up to our roof. We were almost trapped inside.

 

Oh. I forgot. My car was "totaled" by hail stones the size of golf balls this summer.

Blizzards: I've lived in the Chicago area from 1972-1991, 1998-2001 and 2004 to present. So, all the big blizzards of those periods, including the ridiclous winter of '78. Also was in Denver when the one that killed 50 people came through in, I think, 1998.

Also in 1967 we had a blizzard. in 78' it kept coming and coming all winter, but in 67' it all came at once. A guy across the street from me had a heart attack that day, and the ambulance couldn't get down the street, so they carried him on a stretcher all the way down the block in a ton of snow to the ambulance on the main highway. Incredibly.............he made it through OK.

The 1993 Iowa Flood (very bad)

The 1999 Iowa Flood (kind of bad)

The 2004 Iowa Flood (not too bad)

The 2008 Iowa Flood (VERY BAD)

 

I have been around many funnel clouds, but they never amounted to anything more. I have never seen a tornado, but I would like to sometime. In May of 2008 I was chasing tornadoes, one landed in Parkersburg when I was 30 minutes away. E60 is going to do a story next Tuesday about Parkersburg and the NFL players from there. It should be a good story. Their football team is probably already up 30 and the game hasn't started, they are just that dominant.

 

In the 1999 flood, the bike trail by my house was flooded out, but a friend and I decided to ride on it anyways with 3 feet of water in some spots. It was a pretty stupid thing to do and I almost lost it biking over the creek with a strong current, that was the nearest death experience I've had.

The flood that hit Aurora in 1996.

 

Had to live through some horrible, lumbering, slow, plodding, lifeless, uninteresting matches and promos.

Made it through, but MAAAAAAN, there were times I wondered if I would.....

 

Had to live through some horrible, lumbering, slow, plodding, lifeless, uninteresting matches and promos.

Made it through, but MAAAAAAN, there were times I wondered if I would.....

Shoulda known you would of gone there.

Here in Pontiac last year our town flooded big time. We were declared a natural disaster area, as a matter of fact. We had hundreds of people forced from their homes in town of 10000, and many more still feel the financial effects of the flood still, nearly a year later.

Also in 1967 we had a blizzard. in 78' it kept coming and coming all winter, but in 67' it all came at once. A guy across the street from me had a heart attack that day, and the ambulance couldn't get down the street, so they carried him on a stretcher all the way down the block in a ton of snow to the ambulance on the main highway. Incredibly.............he made it through OK.

 

I remember that '67 blizzard well. John Coleman (Channel 7 weatherman) started out by predicting snow flurries. I was 9 years old at the time. Personally, I had a blast!!!!

Our house was struck by lightning once and I was a room over from where it hit.

 

So thats why you stay up all night long every night.....dodgeing lightning bolts.