There are a couple of memories I have of Hurricane Floyd's aftermath in this entry. Any stories of storms you'd like to share?

-- Becky (becky-says@diaryland.com), September 18, 2000

Answers

Out here in cow country, no power means no water, so we keep jugs and jugs of water available at all times (okay, husband does the keeping, but I tell him how wonderful he is to have taken on that responsibility). We were 3-1/2 days without power from Fran and while we were well prepared, it did get old. The biggest thing I learned? Put your small bucket of wash water on the front steps to get warm during the day because it's amazing how COLD it can feel when you finally get to use it after the sun goes down and you've mostly stopped sweating. Unlike right now, we were also lucky in that we didn't have much meat in the freezer, so between the grill and the camp stove we didn't lose much food.

Hurricane chicken: Bake chicken on the grill. To be sure chicken is completely done in the middle (without burning on the outside), remove from grill when you think it's about done, put it in the large, deep corning ware dish with the lid on, and put it on the picnic table in the sun to finish. Best chicken I ever cooked.

-- Wendy Kimbel (spam@beckysays.com), September 18, 2000.

Mention of the water on the porch reminds me that I learned during that time to heat some coffee water by leaving it in my car. We apartment dwellers are woefully short on camp stoves or grills, but I did learn after the fact that one of those jumbo candles will work quite well to heat stuff. So I now have a box of bad weather supplies, which includes the candle and several empty jugs ready to be filled with drinking water at first mention of an approaching hurricane. I didn't mention that in the midst of Fran we had a problem with the municipal water supply being possibly contaminated when a pump failed---so we were told to boil any water before use, until such time as the state labs could test the water. Mercifully, I had for some reason put aside a couple of gallons of water, so I was okay till I could get to the grocery store and buy some.

And my other Fran-induced helpful hint: baby wipes. When you're not able to take a bath, these will do wonders.

-- Becky (spam@beckysays.com), September 18, 2000.

I probably wrote about this at one time or the other in the journal -- if you've read it before, please forgive me. But talking about water reminded me again. We were without electric and water for 7 or 8 days. We had several gallons of water for drinking but were really trying to conserve it. So we were using just a little bit for absolutely necessary bathing. And it was HOT! So hot and no air conditioning, no fans, nothing. Several days after the hurricane passed, it started to rain again. It got dark and it was still raining. So the boys and I took turns (separately, of course) stripping and going out on the deck in the rain with a towel and a bar of soap. The boys were shocked that I would do that, but I DID NOT CARE! It was dark, nobody could see a thing and boy did that natural "shower" feel wonderful! They have teased me about stripping on the deck ever since though! It wasn't all bad. For once, we had absolutely nothing else to do so we were sort of forced to sit and talk and talk and talk. I think the kids actually sort of enjoyed it. After the danger had passed, of course.

Sandy

-- Sandy (sansmith@mindspring.com), September 18, 2000.

Well, way up here in Canada we don't worry about hurricanes, but in 1998 we had an ice storm that shut down just about everything in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. We were lucky, living in the city. We'd have power for a day and then it would be off for two. We cooked on a little burner with those cans of sterno you use to keep chafing dishes warm. Parts of the city weren't so lucky and people living outside the city had a pretty rough time. Power lines were down everywhere. Poles snapped off and fell in a domino effect. The local radio station was on the air for those of us who had batteries, and they were amazing in keeping people's spirits up and rounding up batteries and candles and accommodation, etc. My husband and I are ham radio operators and our club was just about the only communication available for a good part of the time. He had just gotten out of the hospital after surgery and so he manned the radio from our house while others gathered at the local civic centre. My son lived out in the country and he was without power, heat, or water for 23 days. This was in January at subzero temperatures. It was amazing the people who offered help and how people rallied together. We had four other people staying with us and actually had a good time together. I work in a nursing home and we were lucky that our power was only cut for brief periods. I spent a lot of hours improvising lighting and making sure there was heat. Volunteers came from all over even from the southern U.S. to help get power lines back up and worked day and night. All this was, on the whole, a positive experience in many ways. Sorry this seems so disjointed, but it's just fragments of memories from that time.

-- Wilma (coffeenews@ingleside.on.ca), September 18, 2000.

During the time we lived in the Tampa, Florida area one hurricane came up the west coast and did a horizontal loop the loop in the Gulf right off shore from the Tampa, St. Pete area. It didn't hit us, but there was enough wind, water, signs blowing down, rattling and falling palm fronds and light debris flying through the air to convince us that a hurricane was not our piece of cake and gave thanks that it didn't come ashore. Once when driving toward St. Pete on the Tampa Bay side I saw a water spout out in the bay and was able to believe what I had read about the destructive force present in them.

In 1960 when we left Florida, we got out of the area just ahead of a hurricane which came ashore and cut a path in the neighborhood we had just left. Donna I think it was.

Through the years I have realized and thanked heaven that we did not have to go through the horror and destruction of one. What was the biggie ? Andrew ?

How could we be so fortunate as to miss a tornado through the Denver area, we were on our way home from Santa Barbara and heard about it on the radio. When we arrived home we found our house was alright but the tornado had touched down just north of our house a ways and churned up the parkway, ripping out trees and damaging a few houses. It rose up and missed anything south along Monaco Boulevard but came to earth in southwest Denver and did more damage.

The forces of nature are awesome beyond belief.

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webtv.net), September 19, 2000.