Many friends and family member spent their weekend preparing for Hurricane Sandy. Here in the Midwest, we experienced a cool down, but we don’t expect any severe weather. A tsunami warning was issued in Hawaii, and there was an earthquake in Canada, too.
Which got me to thinking – what’s the worst weather you’ve experienced? I’ll never forget the tornado that tore through my part of town, while I was teaching preschool. We hung out in the hallway, heads down, away from the glass for a long time that afternoon. Thankfully, it passed the school, and my house, and only did exterior damage to a couple of big box stores (no injuries).
How about you? What weather do you remember? What’s it like out your window right now?
7 replies on “Open Thread Monday Night Flashback: Stormy Weather”
We don’t get much in the way of catastrophes around here, thankfully, but giant snowstorms that bring all traffic to a standstill are a fairly common nuisance – at least once or twice each winter. The most recent one was this Friday: not even that much snow, but because it’s this early, hardly anyone had switched to their winter tyres, hence the traffic went to hell all over.
Still waiting for the damn stuff to melt.
When living in Fl as a kid, there were a couple hurricane threats that were scary. And of course, those crazy Midwest storms this summer! I was in the car during that and my dad got hit by a flying barn door on the way home from work, and then a tree almost fell on his car. And then the power was out in 104 degree weather for 4 days. Which was the worst part. And THUNDERSNOW(tm) two years ago. I got to watch that from my nice, safe Chicago apartment so it wasn’t scary so much as cozy.
I (re-)discovered this and am going to try to use it for NaNo. Fill it out right now and see if I can use it to steer myself through the month.
Exposition: we are introduced to the protagonist and/or main characters
Inciting Incident: something happens that kicks off the conflict, the whole point of the story
Plot Point 1: because of the inciting incident, character sets off to do something/correct the problem, etc
Midpoint: here in film you might see a montage, but it’s a place where either plot point 1 is resolved or there is a transition in the characters way of thinking
Plot Point 2: often an even bigger issue arises, or a twist that changes or accelerates the conflict
Climax: final showdown or decisions needed to be made
Resolution.: everything comes to an end, the conflict is settled in one way or another
I have been through one or two huge storms out in the west and several large snowstorms in N.Mi. But I think my scariest was an ice storm in Oklahoma. We were traveling up to see my great grandmother and a huge semitruck came at us sideways…needless to say we should not have been on the road.
I’ve lived through some pretty bad storms. Hurricane Gustav was bad. Then there was a tornado that took out a couple of homes near my parents that was pretty scary. But the one thing I will never forget is how I felt when I saw my hometown under water. It was awful.
On a happier note, is anyone watching ‘The Walking Dead?’ I’m really diggin’ this season so far.
I grew up in Central Texas, so I’ve seen my share of nasty thunderstorms. When I was in 5th grade we had a storm system that flooded part of my elementary school and washed out a bridge near my house; there were 7 tornadoes in the area too, though none wound up being terribly close to me. All the other parents in the neighborhood came to pick up their kids, and my sister was in afternoon kindergarten so my mom kept her home, but left me to do duck and cover while everyone else played outside in the rain. Maybe not the worst weather, but the one I’m most bitter about.
We got flooded during Lee last year, but the storms that caused tornadoes in NYC two years ago may have been the scariest. I was home alone with a toddler, and my husband was on the subway and had no idea that the weather had turned so nasty. I was torn between wanting to hang out on the balcony to watch the wicked clouds, getting the kiddo her dinner, and wondering if I should go hide in the basement even though I knew the storm was tracking a couple miles away. Then the giant downburst hit and scared the crap out of me. My neighborhood was torn up pretty badly; the tree below my window came down across the road and whole swathes of trees were down in Flushing Meadows Park across the street. It was a mess.
I’ve lived through a whole heap of natural disasters/catastrophes in my less-than-thirty years. And just about every kind as well. Tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, forest fires, hurricanes, blizzards- not volcano or tsunami though, which means I should stay away from Hawaii and Indonesia if I want to keep that trend going.
But I’ve always faired them really well. Part luck, part preparedness, part awesome coping skills when things do go wrong. I think the scariest one was the uncharacteristic tornadoes when I was a kid. My mom worked for Red Cross Disaster Relief Services and I went with her to help out the areas hardest hit. During the tornadoes I don’t think I thought much of it (just hanging out in the basement with Dad and my brother playing games!), but it was in the aftermath that I realized just how bad it could have been.