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Getting to Know You - January 10


Ann

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Having grown up in the south (Tennessee) and then relocating to Florida, I have to say that I missed out on a lot of cold weather, snow and ice that many of you have experienced. However...in 2004, I met two monsters head on....Francis and Jeanne. Living through those two hurricanes was certainly no picnic. The aftermath was worse than the storms themselves. 13 days of no air conditioning in 90 plus degree weather is really an experience! Let's hear a big hooray for generators!!!

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A tornado that went through here a few years ago was just a little toooo close...but really the worst was a snow storm. We were on our way back to PA. and barely made it off the expressway to get a hotel room. We had two dogs and a cat with us (one of the dogs was a Newfoundland--try sneaking that into a hotel :lol: ). John's sister was behind us and had to be taken off by snowmobile with all the other travelers that got stuck. First time that I ever saw the expressway completely closed due to snow.

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I have a three-way tie. I lived in Louisville, KY in April 1973 when a tornado ripped through there. Some of my friends lived less than 1/2 mile from houses that were totally destroyed.

In 1993 we got over a foot of snow (very unusual for East TN). I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and we were without power/heat for 3 days. We slept on the floor next to the fireplace. We had to "borrow" wood from our neighbors that were gone in order to keep the fire going.

Knoxville actually had a 24 below reading one Feb. morning. I was afraid my car was going to breakdown. We aren't prepared for that frigid cold weather.

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Boy you hit my nightmare, bad weather. I have to say the worst was Huricane Andrew in Louisiana. Living there for 32 years I saw many days of bad weather usually lightening that hit so close it scared the P$#@ out of me(my grandmother was killed by lightening in Arkansas) and on numerous occasions we saw some storms that dropped 5 inches of rain in an hour. Thinking back on those things our last two weeks of rain here in California seem like nothing :!:

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The first winter we were back here in Minnesota. Randy was a California boy and that winter we had sub zero temps for WEEKS. It was so cold and he was such a trooper in dealing with it. He learned really fast that block heaters could be life savers....:)

We have had a few winters since that we wanted to move south but we never did. We stayed here and became true Minnesotan's to the core. You just dress for it...

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LOTS of 'em, all are extremes:

August 1980 - stepping of a pressurized/air-conditioned plane to the tarmac of 95 degrees, almost 100% humidity, a welcome to Panama.

Feb 11, 1983 - 22.8 inches of snow in Maryland.

October 6, 1995 - 6.4 earthquake, 30 miles from epicenter - hadn't even been in Alaska for a week and received the "welcome" shake...

Leading to winter temperatures in Alaska, January/February getting as low as -50 (that's 50 BELOW 0, air temperature) with a windchill of -80. If you ever want to experience the true definition of cold, try Fairbanks, Alaska in late January...

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90 below wind chill day in MN. When the governor calls school for the entire state because it's too cold, it;s just too dern cold!

I grew up in OK, so I LOVE thunderstorms. A few tornados have gotten too close for comfort, but I made it through. One hail storm in my car was pretty freaky. There was so much hail that it was sweeping some of the cars off the road, like a lava flow! NO visibility...that'll wake you up!

:) Kelly

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Driving to Vermont to visit my Grandmother who was going downhill rapidly. It was a complete white out and we had no heat in the van so we couldnt pull off the road and had to continue forward. My Brother was driving and his wife and I were in the seat behind scared to death! You could barly see what was a foot in front of you. The trip took us 5 hours when we should have been there in 2.

God was with us!

God Bless you,

Jane

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Driving from Arizona to Oregon we

hit a sand storm at night.

It was so powerful it shattered the

windshield of the car. The visibility

was close to zero, it was very dark

and we were driving on a cliff with

no place to pull over

I was sure we were going to die and

I had my first baby in the car who was

only 2 months old.

very scary

Kathy

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This is long of course... :shock:

About 8 years ago, I was driving alone from NY to Arkansas in a 17 foot Ryder truck, and towing my car behind when I ran into a blizzard in the mountains on the Virginia/Tennessee border. The snow was so bad you couldn't see a foot in front of you and the 3 lane highway quickly became one little path. The truck had no snow tires and I had to slow to a crawl-I was sliding all over-there was absolutely no traction. I was so scared, I remember wanting to just curl up in a little ball until someone fixed everything for me but I knew it was just me...

In the middle of this nightmare, the windshield wiper came apart and the window quickly covered with snow which now doubled my nightmare. I pulled as far to the right as I could, onto what I hoped was the shoulder. Of course there was nothing in the truck to fix the windshield wiper. I got out of the truck and ended up laying on the hood, tying the wiper blade with frozen fingers to the wiper with my bra strap. It actually worked pretty well.

I pulled off the next exit and got the last room in the hotel- that night on the news people were sleeping in cars and hotel lobbies. Oh, and on the way up the hotel driveway, which was a hill, my truck, filled of course, with all my belongings, started sliding down to the road below while in drive. Everyone tried to help me get the truck up the hill but no matter who tried, the truck kept inching toward the road below. Finally some guy in a pickup towed me and the kindness of strangers once again prevailed.

Once I got in the room, it was kind of nice being snowed in- especially since the last thing in the world i wanted to do was get back in that truck...

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