BRIT Reacts to the WORST HURRICANES in AMERICAN HISTORY..

[@MoreAdamCouser]

Twitch streams - www.twitch.tv/adamcouser

[@cazsoccerrox]

I was in Binghamton, NY for Hurricane Irene. It did $2 billion in damage to two counties alone. I was also in Florida for Hurricane Ian. My wife was driving the SUV to open a shelter, and while she was driving, she couldn’t go over 50 mph because the front of the car started lifting off of the ground.

[@jack80028]

I'm from nc and we have hurricanes like every year but the worse I have ever witnessed is hurricane Katrina

[@CaerlaverockJaguar]

You should watch Reed Timmer intercepting a tornado.

[@nialcc]

Now you know why Insurance companies have stopped written polices for Florida.

[@CaerlaverockJaguar]

@@nialcc and it’s sad because Florida is a great place to raise a family, thanks in part to our wonderful Governor Ron DeSantis.

[@gdhaney136]

In the US, you have choices. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and blizzards. I've been through every single one, more than once, and I've come to the personal conclusion that hurricanes scare me the least. So, I live in St. Pete FL. You couldn't pay me to live in Tornado Alley, spend winters in the Northern US, or live anywhere in California again.

[@EggZausted1]

You can add Derechos to that too. We just had one a couple of weeks ago that started near Austin and continued to the east coast of Florida. It's winds topped 100mph with sustained winds of 60+ the entire path. It was nuts.

[@19airaz]

Ehhh I’d say blizzards scare me the least, as someone who’s spent the past two winters up north but grew up in south east Texas. From least to most scary I’d probably say, blizzards, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires and tornados are neck and neck.

[@kimberlyhicks3644]

Volcanic eruptions happen here as well. Mt. Kilauea, in Hawaii, is erupting right at this moment.

[@jeffb6786]

Sorry, but I'll take the blizzards and snowstorms over all the rest. Third generation Colorado native and I love the snow. At least my house doesn't get swept away from one of our storms.

[@gdhaney136]

@@jeffb6786 Totally understand. They seem to cause the least amount of damage and aren't exactly 'scary'. My brother has lived in Colorado on and off his whole life, and loves snowboarding. Some people are born to love the cold. I'm fairly certain I was born a reptile because I'd die without heat and sun. I also get depressed with grey skies, although, I'm sure Colorado is much different than the east coast winters.

[@peterphilly4148]

One of the saddest stories associated with the Galveston hurricane involved the orphanage. The 10 nuns running it were forced to take the 93 children, ages 2 to 13, up to the second floor of the girls' dormitory as the city flooded. All of the windows had been broken out by the wind. They attempted to rescue people as they floated by. The water kept rising. To try and keep the children together, they cut up clothesline and tied it around the wrist of each of the children and then to the nuns' waist. They heard the boys' dormitory collapse. Eventually, the orphanage was completely destroyed and much of it washed out to sea. During the recovery, they would find the body of a nun in the debris and as they pulled on the lines tied to her waste, they would find the body of a drowned child. 90 of the 93 children and all of the nuns died. 3 boys were found together in a tree floating on the water, the only survivors.

[@hookedonreactions7649]

Have you read “Isaac’s Storm” by Eric Larson? I highly recommend it though you might find it a little dry at first.

[@v-vettavetta]

That’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard

[@ShaquilleOatmeal842]

That’s… so horrible. 😞❤️

[@charlesbryson7443]

While I was in the military, we went to New Orleans after Katrina. doing humanitarian work, search and rescue, etc. The stories we heard and things we saw, made us want to be overseas again. The things the people had to suffer from other people was terrible. I will never go back to that city.

[@nanner3200]

Thank you for doing what you could!

[@Annonymous0283745]

Post-Katrina New Orleans is a depressing reflection of New Orleans that was.

[@edithroberts8959]

That was just flood water. Mississippi caught the brunt of that storm and was ignored because New Orleans got flooded.

[@hannabertrand4460]

I live in the Lake Charles area and all these people from NOLA evacuated to our area and 3 weeks later, we got hit with a category 4 hurricane (Rita) so they had to evacuate again. There were no hotel rooms left in Arkansas. We slept in a church one night then drove to Tennessee and stayed for a few weeks.

[@garya7893]

We had military people remove the school gym roof from our front yard in Algiers after Katrina Thank you and your friends I was lucky to receive very little damage

[@lynnwood84]

Life-long Floridian here, and I can tell you the biggest advantage we have over other natural disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes, etc) is the warning. Nowadays you have ample time to evacuate from these storms (if you have the means to do so). Down here in Florida our houses and our infrastructure is built to withstand most lower grade storms (Cat 1, Cat 2) with minimal damage. We usually don't start to worry until it gets to Category 3+. Once they get to that strength we don't mess around, we GTFO. Property can be replaced, homes can be rebuilt, but you can't bring back the dead.

[@xoxxobob61]

Spoken like a TRUE Floridian! CAT 3 + and I'm GONE! 😁😓

[@iamtequilalc]

My family who live in Florida now say if they hear Waffle House is closed, they're out. The Waffle House Index is legendary and apparently true.

[@HaroldBluetooth-uz1zz]

@@xoxxobob61That’s not a true Floridian. I’m from FL and my family has generally never left for any hurricane. The people who leave are generally people not from here and are more wealthy.

[@xoxxobob61]

@@HaroldBluetooth-uz1zz I went thru Hurricane ANDREW in 1992. I'm leaving if it's a CAT 3+ cause I'm not a spring chicken anymore!

[@HaroldBluetooth-uz1zz]

@@xoxxobob61 If you are older I can understand. However my grandparents are getting close to 80 now and I don’t think they ever left for a storm.

[@ssaraa24]

I’m from Jersey and I’ll never forget Sandy. We were out of power for about a week and then immediately lost it again when a nor’easter hit and dropped a bunch of snow. We had neighbors over every day because we had a generator and could run the heat for a while each day. You don’t normally associate hurricanes with cold temperatures but getting hit with the snow while still reeling from Sandy was the worst part of the whole thing.

[@tiamarrow6366]

I’m from Long Island and I still see some remnants of Sandy to this day in my town. Idk where you’re located in Jersey but the town I live in on Long Island…..when you get to the south shore, you can still see a few homes that are either still gone or are still being rebuilt due to Sandy.

[@michellegardenier2174]

Agreed

[@TheJerseyNinja]

Yep. Thankfully we had a generator but we used it only to run our fridge and freezer and 2 space heaters when we needed them. Strangest storm trajectory I’ve ever seen and it’s honestly insane how MASSIVE the hurricane was

[@kimberlyannekeegan2707]

yup! i was in 5th grade and we were out of school for over a month because the roof of our school literally blew off

[@vivienneclarke2421]

I was flying home from Australia during Sandy. Lots of canceled flights and it took me 3 days to get home. When I got here it was a mess,no electricity for almost 2 weeks. Sadly 2 teenagers in my little agricultural town lost there lives when their car was swept away. My oldest daughter went to high school with them💔

[@AMBULLful]

Texan here! I’ve been through MANY hurricanes, some in Houston. You board up your windows, keep filtered water and non-perishable food in your house (especially if you don’t have natural gas stoves and ovens), sandbag the base of the doors, and hold on. The highways in Houston are set up to contraflow as needed and are marked with a hurricane symbol to indicate that during a hurricane the road way direction will be reversed to minimize traffic during evacuation. Houston was built on a swamp so the big issue is flooding.

[@hollypinkley]

except when Rita hit after Katrina. I lived in Porter & I59 was a parking lot by 3:30 in the afternoon as EVERYONE wanted to leave city & it was a super SNAFU /cluster f&%& looked like a ghetto/project by the next morning with trash, abandoned cars & pets dumped/abandoned!!! Stores/restaurants looted afterhours & yuck a mess. I retired from Continental Airlines soon afterward & moved to the Ozark Mts!!!! Houston has NO place for water to go as it is just a huge concrete parking lot!!!

[@charlayned]

A bit about the 1900 Galveston storm (historian here, live 15 miles away). After the town was decimated by that storm, the city decided to put in a sea wall to hold back the water. As a barrier island, it was flat and there was nothing to stop the gulf water from just coming over the entire island in a storm. So, they had the Army Corps of Engineers built a seawall. The first part was 3 miles long, 17 ft high from waterline to top. As it was being built, Ft. Crocket (where the San Louis resort is now) paid for another 2 miles long, from 8th street to 53 in total. It's been extended since then another couple miles as the city has grown. BUT that wasn't the biggest thing they did (as if it was small, which it wasn't), it was the raising of the city itself. Most structures were damaged or destroyed, but those that did remain needed to be higher than the island so they put jack screws and wound them with donkeys VERY carefully, to raise each building between 5 ft and 15 ft into the air. Then they pumped dredged sand under them to raise the building, and gently settled the building back down. St. Patricks Catholic church was done this way and it's a big stone structure. It was amazing what they could do in 1900-1915. A couple of good videos here on KZbin about it, the History Guy did a good one kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHbPgniJlKmbZrMsi=nh8c8WY-VGaxbKHj and there's a 15 minute silent with photographs of the grade raising kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3rWqXV8psSYnK8si=X54FyAMIQrECtL6V . Both are well worth the watch.

[@paigeharrison3909]

Still rated as the worst natural disaster in the US.

[@sakurakittynoir1400]

You said you live near Galveston. Have you ever seen Sister Katherine before a hurricane???

[@jimreilly917]

😮

[@charlayned]

@@sakurakittynoir1400 No, I haven't. I have heard of her, though. The closest I came to being in Galveston during a storm was a small tropical storm that we were moving a friend during (that was fun....not). But I haven't been to the island just before a storm.

[@SimplyCece24]

Don’t forget because of the Seawall now galveston flood much easier and the water will be at a standstill at certain points

[@angiev1840]

I grew up and still live in south Louisiana. Hurricanes are a part of life. I hate them but tornadoes actually scare me more. We don't get them often but there's no warning and we have nowhere to go. We don't have basements. With hurricanes, you have a warning and you can evacuate.

[@hagen1305]

Exactly how I feel. I’m from New Orleans and went through Katrina. It was terrible, we didn’t come home Texas until October, but I’ll take hurricanes any day over a tornado

[@choomxi]

Right. We grow up with hurricanes teasing us from the gulf. Tornados come out of nowhere. Thats a crazy thought to me. You could be having your coffee and next thing you know your house is leveled and you're praying to survive.

[@feoltmanns7624]

Tornadoes scare me more than anything else. They can drop anywhere without warning. You have to stay weather aware and get to your safe spot until the danger is gone.

[@John-fk3rv]

I live in South Carolina, and when I was 16 yrs old, Hurricane Hugo passed directly over our house. I remember so clearly when the eye passed over us; it was a total stop of wind and rain, and then it started up all over again, but the wind was blowing the opposite way. We had no power for 2 weeks. People were charging $20 for a bag of ice.

[@highwayhobo1981]

We lived outside Summerville during Hugo. That was the largest storm of my life ( non snow )

[@Harperartist]

I worked in Piedmont for Duke Power during Hugo. Went to work and then went to Charlotte that weekend. Hugo came up the Santee Cooper River and gained strength as it came in land.

[@ChrisStephens-jz3tc]

1928 Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white gloves. That Galveston hurricane happened in 1900. That one still photo with the lady was from a later picture. Very observation!!!!!

[@_spell_x_bound_]

My father was a truck driver in Florida during Andrew. He survived because he wasn't in the flood area and got a bunch of other truck drivers to tightly park their 18-wheelers side by side with his and they rocked with each other during the storm, but no major damage because there wasn't much wind getting between them. Afterward, he couldn't pick up the load he was supposed to because it was basically washed away, and then was commandeered by the government to take water to the affected areas.

[@reauxnbears]

I’ll never forget Andrew. I was not 7 years old but that one has stuck with me.

[@myhappyplace7861]

@@_spell_x_bound_ want I’m Andrew. But now did she do a number on Florida. Glad your dad made it

[@somecallmetim2112]

Central Florida resident here. Yes, we worry about it. Every year. Hurricane season runs from June-November. I have lived through several hurricanes, and we won't evacuate for anything less than a Cat 4. If it's a particularly strong Cat 3 and is heading directly our way, we'll make a judgement call. My house is made of concrete block and has storm straps on the rafters per Florida construction code (these are just two aspects of the code; a LOT more goes into home construction here). My house (we built it new in 2002) came with aluminum hurricane shutters stacked in the garage. These get bolted into the concrete over windows and doors to protect them from debris during storms. Older homes that don't have storm shutters have to cut plywood sheets to cover their windows. We occasionally lose power for hours or days at a time in the event of a close or direct storm hit. My parents live closer to the coast, about 25 miles away, and they lost power for 12 days once. Thankfully, the most damage they sustained was the complete and utter destruction of the pool's screen enclosure ($25,000 to replace! They chose not to, and just built fences for code compliance). Understand that years can go by without a significant storm hit, maybe some tropical storms or depressions that never reach hurricane status, but nothing major. Sometimes, however, we can get a string of storms that hit in a row, and that gets pretty dicey. As you can see in the video, it only takes one, and the vast majority of the damage comes from water. If the wind rips off your roof, it exposes everything in your house to the rain. Then there's the flood waters and storm surge that destroys everything on the ground level. We've been lucky here for 22 years. I've had friends lose their entire homes (in New Orleans from Katrina, in Miami from Andrew, notably). You can see entire stands of trees, acres and acres near my house, that are permanently leaning at 10-15 degree angles from hurricane winds. I can only hope we continue to be lucky.

[@EggZausted1]

Hurricane season starts June 1st and ends Nov 30th. I have been through many of them living in Houston most of my life, but one of the worst was Harvey bc it sat over us for days and we nearly floated away from all the rain. Also had no power after the storm for over 2 weeks so we headed to my grandparents house in Austin for about a week and a half so we could get out of the heat.

[@caroleschaefer7218]

I’m also in Houston, over the years we have seen many hurricanes. Houston is only about an hour from the coast.

[@reanimated]

I remember Alicia in what, like '86, we didn't have power for three days. Our little maple sapling in the back yard got pulled out of the ground. During a lull in the storm my dad ran out to stick it back in, and damned if that tree didn't grow to be 20 feet tall. I also remember whatever hurricane hit us about '88 where during the eye, my parents tossed us out to go run around for half an hour. Biking around the neighborhood I remember branches strewn all over the streets. But the strongest memory is that creepy stillness with no wind or anything. Another fun time was taking like 8 hours to get from Houston to Dallas when Rita was on the way...because it was just the year after Katrina and everyone was spooked. I do believe that was the only time my relatives down on the coast (think Lake Jackson, Brazoria, Freeport) ever cleared out.

[@EggZausted1]

@@reanimated my parents and grandparents always talk about Alicia, but I don't remember bc I was a toddler. But it sounds like it was a crazy storm.

[@Chuckclc]

As bad as Harvey and Ike were, TS Allison will never be forgotten. So much rain.

[@mariaghiglieri78]

My dad was living in Houston during Allison. I went to his office a few years later and saw a gorgeous shot of the Houston Skyline with a stunning lake in front of it. I asked him where the lake was. He said it was the aftermath of Allison and it was actually Hwy 59. I should have realized what I was getting into when I moved here too. Made it through Ike and Harvey and lost power after Harvey for 10 days. It basically is a rite of passage for new Houstonians.

[@kendallneason3645]

Hurricane Hugo was terrifying. But most people agree that Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Texas was unbelievable and many guys I knew drove down afterwards to help the people. It changed New Orleans and I’m so glad I got to see that old city in their jazz festival. The city has survived but looks so different. The documentary done by Spike Lee about Katrina made me sob uncontrollably. It was so devastating and heartbreaking -1800 deaths in modern times and much of that because poor people had no transportation out.

[@BarbaraShirley452]

A couple of years ago Hurricane Ian tore the roofs off the houses on both sides of our house in Punta Gorda, Florida. The water followed by mold damage in one of the houses was so bad they had to strip the walls down to the studs and rebuild. That, along with the new roof and partial new siding meant they almost had a new house. Of course, the insurance company fought them the entire way. They lived in an RV next to the house for over a year while the work was being done.

[@OneWomanAndTwoAcres]

I had just sold my house about 2 weeks before the hurricane hit Punta Gorda. Never been so glad to have sold a house. We visited friends to help dig them out. It was devistating to see.

[@heatherphilpot7680]

I'm in Fort Myers. In 30 years here Ian was, by far, the worst I have ever seen hit here. Fort Myers Beach was literally flattened, and Sanibel had major flooding, and he carved new inlets through the island.

[@OneWomanAndTwoAcres]

@@heatherphilpot7680 Can you believe that was 30 years ago!?

[@LucasgamerX_YT]

@@OneWomanAndTwoAcreswell the storm Ian itself was a year almost 2 now since their 30 years living there. Ian was definitely something, worst I ever been through myself.

[@cindychaney8515]

I’m still repairing. Just replaced windows last week. Just need new flooring

[@undeadOtter]

I was in Biloxi Mississippi when Katrina hit, the next morning it looked like a bomb went off... But all anytime talked about was new Orleans, Mississippi had a ton of damage but it was mostly ignored for new Orleans because of crappy maintenance, where we were hit with storm surge, wind and more

[@angiev1840]

Exactly. The MS gulf coast was obliterated but all you saw on TV was new Orleans. There were places in MS where all that was left was the foundations of homes because storm surge washed everything away.

[@m.r.2848]

Yeah, they really downplayed the damage to MS. We drove through there on a road trip and almost ran out of gas because every time we exited to get it, we found flattened ruins. I told my husband it looked like there had been a clash of the titans. Like a god had taken the time to come down and personally stomp on everything. We thought it would be fine as long as we didn’t drive through New Orleans thanks to the news coverage.

[@undeadOtter]

@@m.r.2848 I lived there for almost 20 years but that point, the next day I couldn't recognize anything. All the things I knew were just gone. All the beautiful historical homes along the beach, almost the entirety of Bay St. Louis was leveled. But every station, every broadcast every resource was directed to New Orleans instead. Then what FEMA help was given was so screwed up. A guy in front of me bragged he got a big check and didn't even lose shingles, whereas I lost everything and didn't get a dime because it was all in my ex bosses name and he screwed me

[@m.r.2848]

@@undeadOtter Wow, with all that tragedy, there were still evil people who'd take advantage. Hopefully, you were able to come back from that. From what I saw, it must've been absolutely devastating.

[@undeadOtter]

@@m.r.2848 it was definitely a long time ago and life has changed a whole lot. Things are most definitely better, now I'm just saving to move out of Oklahoma before I lose another home

[@Xsteelx94]

I saw a ton of rain with Sandy, but the worst experience I ever had in eastern Pennsylvania was Hurricane Irene. My family home’s sump pump battery failed, and the water was flooding our basement, so we spent the entire night in two hour shifts using any small containers to scoop the water into the basement sink. My father installed a water-activated sump pump afterward. We’ve had mega-soaker storms since, and the pump has never failed, highly recommend such a thing

[@finnyjoy2309]

I lived through hurricane Harvey in 2017 in Texas. In 24 hours, the town I was at was so flooded you couldn’t get out of it, power and water had to be shut off, and we had to wait 4 days before the water levels were low enough for my car could drive to Houston and fly back. On a funny note, the roads and ground was flooded so high, people got out of their homes by kayak or motorboat 😂

[@ArleneAdkinsZell]

In Home Free's video for God Blessed Texas, they had a lot of footage from Nederland, in the midst of the devastation and heroism, there was the guy going on beer runs for people pulling a kiddie pool, it is such a lovely tribute.

[@annekim2634]

@@ArleneAdkinsZell That's cool. The bass Tim is from Nederland so it makes sense.

[@annekim2634]

I remember hearing they were running rescue boats up and down Deats road. It was surreal.

[@myhappyplace7861]

Hurricane Camille when I was a baby - about a year old. Then Katrina in 2005. We lost an entire fishing camp in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and our home in Louisiana had severe damage from wind and trees. Mostly due to tornadoes as we were on that side of her. The saddest thing to. Me was the complete lack of media coverage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast devastation and relative lack of assistance from the government. They quietly pulled themselves back up by their bootstraps and are trying to rebuild their historic towns all these years later. And they’re doing it.

[@TechTimeWithEric]

I was a firefighter in New Jersey during both Irene and Sandy and was working during those storms. I was actually outside during the worst parts of both storms, but I am far enough inland that it was just mostly heavy rain and winds. I’ve also been to New Orleans twice with an organization called Samaritans Purse. You would be amazed how much of the city hasn’t been touched as far as cleanup goes even 19 years later

[@angiev1840]

It's a lack of money and will plus a lot of people who left never came back. There was no way to save many of those houses. New Orleans city govt is probably the most corrupt in our state so funds are not allocated the way they should and as is typical, people get screwed by their insurance companies and can't rebuild.

[@TechTimeWithEric]

@@angiev1840 it’s literally insane. I’m not even sure if Samaritan’s Purse still goes down there. It’s like what happened with Flint Michigan’s water situation. People don’t want to admit that their own government lied and stole their money. If I said what I really think YT might ban me, so I’ll just say there’s a lot of people in local government that should be arrested

[@DaveMustang74]

We rode Katrina out in Gulfport, Mississippi, back in 05. We were pounded hard for hours in the eye wall. The actual coastline was transformed forever. Many historic buildings that survived Camille in 1969 were gone. Even today, the beach areas have a lot of empty land. Mother nature doesn't play. What i remember the best was the heat afterward. That's pretty much peak summertime. It was a lot of...fun.

[@DaveMustang74]

@user-wh5ir4fo4r the survival stories after major hurricanes (or any catastrophe, really) can be amazing.

[@GameOfGubbs]

As a Florida resident, the worst Hurricane I have personally lived through was Ian back in 2022, being inland you don't see much damage but this one cut straight across the state and still had plenty of power miles inland, this one actually surpassed Irma in damages by nearly double the cost. I had usually never seen flooding in the area around me but we had streets and areas out of commission for days bordering on weeks because there was nowhere for water to drain quickly. Where the eye of the hurricane impacted the coast I remember seeing videos of alligators and I believe even sharks or dolphins swimming down flooded streets.

[@kshaek]

What about Michael that was a Cat 5 in 18?

[@GameOfGubbs]

@@kshaek I don't live on the panhandle so I wasn't really hit by it at all, also it ended up costing about a quarter of Ian's damages.

[@kshaek]

@@GameOfGubbs true, that's what was reported.....but it's cool. Only a Cat 5 Hurricane no one in talks about..... Again, a lot of people are still in litigation with destroyed homes living out of trailers...

[@1perfectpitch]

I'm a fellow Floridian and the 1st hurricane I remember was Donna September 10, 1960. 6 days before my 10th birthday. This video must have been made before Ian.

[@jenwhite8173]

Whatever year that we had Charlie, Frances, and Gene was pretty gnarly.

[@briandurio6479]

As a Louisiana native I can assure you that Hurricane season is one of the most nerve-wracking times of the year. Depending on the category you can either ride it out in your house and be without power for s few days or weeks .... Or evacuate. Maybe you have a home maybe you don't when you return. A lot of places for the stronger storms have police and stuff go around collecting names and addresses of people staying that way they can ease your identify your body because they are pretty sure you wont make it

[@jayar7436]

I am from Charleston and was in elementary school when Hurricane Hugo hit. It was an incredibly devastating storm. Our electricity was off for weeks; we barely had clean water. So much was destroyed. Everyone who lived through that time can tell you how crazy life was immediately after Hugo. You can still see remnants of the damage from the hurricane.

[@highwayhobo1981]

I was in the Summerville/ Whitesville area. We took shelter in the elementary school, but much of that roof got ripped off

[@jayar7436]

@@highwayhobo1981My mother worked for the Sheriff’s Office and volunteered to help man the emergency phones (911), so we (my siblings and I) were able to shelter with her at the central operating center (or whatever it was called). My middle school’s gym was a shelter, but ended up getting flooded when the roof started to leak, so the people were forced to run into the main building during the storm.

[@samanthaleo2590]

Hugo was a monster. My mom lived in Florida during it and had moved two years later to New York to adopt me, and we were back in Florida in 92 when Andrew was well on its way there. We made it out with a day to spare. Two monstrous hurricanes so close to each other was nuts.

[@Noonespecial-qp4sl]

Its a long coast. You pack your pets, kids and valuable stuff and get the help out of dodge. Then you have to pray you have a house to go back to.

[@Icemirror319]

The Great Storm of 1900 is the basis for many of the ghost stories of Galveston. Not surprising given how many lost their lives. An especially heartbreaking one is the loss of an orphanage near the shore. The Sisters tied themselves and the kids together with a rope around their waists so that no one would be swept away if the flood waters came in. In the end, it was probably the reason all of them drowned. We know about them because of three survivors that climbed onto the roof and got stuck in a tree when the structure collapsed. When the bodies were found on the beach after the storm, they unburied them, the rope, and every other child still tied to them who wasn't initially visible under the sand. The site of the former orphanage was marked on Sept. 8, 1994 with a Texas Historical Marker.

[@annfrost3323]

The Galveston hurricane of 1900 killed estimates of 6,000 to 12,000 and destroyed 3,600+ buildings. Particularly interesting is that after the hurricane, the city built a seawall and raised the elevation of 500 city blocks between 5 to 17 feet. Engineers physically lifted more than 2,000 structures, fences, streetcar tracks, utilities and water pipes using jacks and stilts and millions of cubic yards of sand. Some of the buildings are still standing such as a church on 35th street, which was raised 5 feet using 700 jacks.

[@cindytyner]

Lived in North Carolina when Hugo hit! My windows blew out. All the flag poles around us were bent over and all the smaller trees were bent over even after the hurricane was long gone. They didn't break just bent over at a 90 degree angle. They eventually straightened themselves over time. Some big tree fell on cars and powerlines. 5 days no power and stores cleared of everything non-perishable. Couldn't buy gas, batteries, charcoal, propane , candles, matches etc. When the bread truck arrived after the hurricane, the bread never made it in the store. They sold it to the crowd off the back of the truck.

[@Sassysouthernlady]

Hugo was terrifying. Two weeks no power. Trees on the top of our house. It took months to get it fixed. Definitely want homeowners insurance here.

[@Bptornado]

That was definitely the worst storm I’ve ever been through

[@tyreedillard]

I've been directly in 3, Hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey, and a shit load of tropical storms and major floods. As a Red Cross volunteer I've worked 10 major Disasters including Hurricanes Katrina, and Wilma.

[@slyguythreeonetwonine3172]

Yep, in 1901, Galveston was kind getting ready to be set up and pushed as "The NY City" of the South, complete with it's own "Manhattan Island". And then the hurricane quite literally erased the entire city from the map. There are still a few buildings there that were there and survived the storm. It's absolutely insane. The response was even more insane. In response, they built a sea wall, and raised the entire island I forget how many feet, to defend against it happening again. It was essentially a little sandbar out in the bay at first. Not anymore.

[@heatherhitchens3212]

I live in North Carolina and yes we have usually a few big hurricanes each year. We actually have a generator because even if your house doesn’t take damage you will definitely lose power (sometimes for up to a week). My Aunt is EMT and now has PTSD from recent hurricanes and pulling dead bodies out of homes.

[@skittles7306]

Yeah. Prayers for your auntie. 💖💖💖

[@HappyInTheHome405]

Being from Houston, Texas, I've weathered my fair share of hurricanes. We usually stay home and just wait it out. Even with Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, my grandparents and aunt came over to stay with my family since we were the only ones with a second story home. My family has only evacuated once, for Hurricane Rita. I think it was 2005 (I was 10 so dates/years weren't significant to me then). I vaguely remember helping my grandma carefully pack up her collection of Precious Moments figurines and then feeling like we were on a road trip for the rest of the time. No damage was done that I can recall. Hurricane Ike, however, did damage to our home in 2008. My grandparents kept us overnight, and we "camped out" in the narrow hallway of their house while my parents stayed in our home. The next day, I remember picking up roof shingles so I could feel useful. There was water in the walls of our home, the ceiling fell through in three places, and all the upstairs carpet had to be ripped up. Most recently, we had an early hurricane in July, which, by the time it made landfall, had dropped to a level of a tropical storm. My husband and I just went to sleep early, charged up our phones, and it passed over us as a windy rainstorm that felled a few trees. As for your question about if hurricanes happen yearly, the answer is mostly, yes. We know how to prepare, we rarely evacuate, and we help our neighbors when needed. I would rather have hurricanes than tornadoes anyway, which I am deathly afraid of. Also, you asked about insurance. Yes, in states such as Texas and Florida, we have flood insurance for events like hurricanes.

[@mrgclough]

For Galveston 1900, 8,000 is the minimum dead. It's somewhere between 8,000 and 12,000. Galveston was and is a low barrier island. At the time, the city was barely above sea level. Storm surges had nothing to slow them. Some people survived to tell of being swept out to sea and back in multiple times. Soldiers who arrived to keep order after the storm summary executed anyone caught looting. Took them down the neatest alley and killed them. There were many deaths from roof tiles being blown at high speed. After that, tiles were banned. After the storm a massive concrete and granite seawall was built, and the entire built up part of the city was raised several feet, houses, utilities and streets, by jacking them up and pumping mud in from pump barges in the Gulf. I grew up there, and I lived five blocks from the Gulf, actually a good place to be, behind the seawall and relatively high ground. I went through a number of major hurricanes, including Carla that had three tornadoes embedded within it.

[@moas_page]

I’m from Louisiana and have heard all the stories from my older family about Katrina and Rita and everything that happened, my little small town was pretty much flooded and damaged. Hurricane Laura and Delta hit Louisiana a few years ago and damaged my home, and tree fell through my aunts house completely destroying everything they owned, and I know lots of other people who had damage. My grandpa didn’t evacuate and stayed in a brick home with some neighbors and he said when it was coming through the whole house was shaking and it sounded like a train whistle just constantly blaring outside bc of the wind. Me and some family evacuated and stayed in hotel for a while before coming back but when we came back we had no power for weeks and lived in one room ran by a generator until we had power again and could start fixing the damage. Thats my personal experience with hurricanes so far as someone who lives on the coast.

[@annekim2634]

Hey, I live on the Texas coast about 20 miles from Galveston, toward Houston. My biggest storm was Hurricane Harvey (was that 2017?), where we got about 50 inches of rain that week. The neighborhood was an island, couldn't get to the store for food, took a week for the water to go down to where the roads were passable. Spent the next few weekends helping friends muck out their homes ... I hate to say it but I love a big storm. The raw ferocity is so beautiful.

[@charlayned]

Hey neighbor! I think we live close, off Blackhawk and 528. Harvey was horrible, to be sure. The neighborhood here got 52 inches of rain. Our house sits high enough we only got water halfway up the driveway but our roof had the shingles fluttered and we got rain inside the living room. We're both older, I'm disabled, so we had to ask for help on Neighborhood. We figured no one would come out until the water receded but this guy showed up to our door, carpet knife in hand, and cut out the wet carpet and put it outside the garage on the drive. We asked him why he came out in the rain and he said he was just sitting in his house, watching water rise and he was bored so he came to help. We fixed the roof and we have tile in the living room now. My son wasn't available to help us, he spent the 4 days of the storm in a boat as a firefighter, pulling people out of homes. At one point we had an airboat (yay Cajun Navy!) in our front yard loading neighbors who were flooded. A smaller boat was tied to the light post at the corner of our drive. We're watching out our glass front door and this guy comes up in a rain slicker and helmet and just opens our door and comes in, asking if we're okay. It wasn't until he opened his mouth that I realized it was my son, who was scruffy looking, haggard, and tired. He was helping with the load and just wanted to check on us. That whole hurricane was just so hard, it was the second I had been in. I grew up in the panhandle with the mile wide tornadoes.

[@annekim2634]

@@charlayned Hey neighbor! I'm off 518 and Bay Area, we are so close. I was over off Blackhawk the first weekend of cleanup, helping some friends muck out. Couldn't get up & down the streets 'cause the whole neighborhood had all their peeps over! Awesome to meet you!

[@shag139]

Yeah the issue with Harvey wasn’t so much the winds or surge, but the fact that is just sat there and didn’t move. It just dumped feet of rain over the same area.

[@cerka27]

I was living in northwest Houston when Harvey hit. Our entire neighborhood was flooded for 4 days. We couldn’t leave the house.

[@dlmullins9054]

I remember Hurricane Camille when i was a young man. Even though i lived in Manassas, Virginia at the time it still was bad. Many streets were flooded and it was still a strong hurricane, A tornado split my house in two and a huge tree came within inches of killing me and my wife. Thank God the tree helped hold the house down and i ended up with two smaller houses! 😁I was also hit by a F4 Tornado back in 1982. Ripped my house into two pieces. Fortunately for us, a large tree was pulled from it's roots and thrown into my home splitting it but it also held my house down so the Tornado didn't take it with my family inside into the next county. I couldn't sleep for ten years after if it was raining or the wind was blowing. It scared me that bad. I still pay attention to the weather warnings.

[@Pactra01]

I am originally from Homestead, Florida. Hurricane Andrew flattened the entire town in August of 1992. To this day, the lot my house was on is still empty. There's a street, and you can see on google street view where the driveway was, but no houses yet on that block. It was so flattened, you could see the ocean where it used to be blocked bu buildings.

[@xoxxobob61]

I went through ANDREW as well living in West Kendall but stayed further North. Going back to Southern Miami-Dade County looked like a Nuclear bomb had gone off because everything was almost completely leveled. I literally drove 3 blocks past my house before I realized I had passed my street!

[@ellie8461]

God, I remember Hurricane Sandy. I was pretty young, but I remember hunkering down with my mom while buckets and buckets of rain poured down outside. There was thunder so intense it shook the whole house. I can’t remember if we lost power (probably did), but the aftermath was wild. So many trees had been completely uprooted, roads had varying levels of standing water for like a few days, with some even being closed off all together. Houses were either destroyed or the roofs were torn off. Considering my state is on the edge of Lake Erie., it barely does any justice just how powerful these storms really are.

[@BrLoc]

Americans are more than willing to gamble on a hurricane to live by the beach. We all 100% understand the risks.

[@skittles7306]

You know the damage doesn't always affect just beach land, right? It often, at least in the case of what I've experienced, comes several hundreds of miles inland.

[@april8293]

I live in Ft. Myers about 3 miles from the water and hurricane Ian was absolutely devastating. I was in a 3rd floor apartment and watched the world come apart. The wind at 115mph sustained and gusts of 140mph stripped roofs from homes, uprooted trees, torn down power poles and completely destroyed most mobile homes. The rain was torrential at 20+ inches. If the wind and rain did not get you the 10 to 15 foot storm surge took what was left. I watched a storm surge come in and completly flood the 1st floor apartments. All you could see was water, debris, and the damaged roofs of homes. Ft. Myers beach, Sanabel, and Pine Island were leveled. 2 years later we are still recovering and just entered a new forcasted to be a very busy hurricane season. I have since moved into a strong home and have a generator to run essentials. 3 weeks without power sucks. Rationing food and water sucks but I have a home to live in and I feel extremely blessed.

[@johnmcgowan3559]

My family was in Mississippi when Hurricane Camille hit. We were in a shelter and all I remember is my parents telling at me to get away from the windows because I kept wanting to watch the storm.

[@inthedarkanonymous5625]

Hurricane Agnes, 1972, was my closest association with hurricanes. I was working on campus and it was a wild ride. The river was overflowing, sand bags were bubbling (meaning, as I understood it, the bulwarks were about to fail.) I was told afterward that this hurricane severely diminished the number of upright pianos, because so many people kept them in the basement - and all the basements flooded. That one took 128 lives.

[@markmurphy558]

I have lived in almost every part of the USA, and have found that we are most frightened by the dangers we have never experienced. When I lived in LA as a child, I thought earthquake tremors were cool as hell. When summering in Long Island, we had a hurricane party and went outside to experience the storm. Tornados occasionally made it up to New York State but never caused me any grief. Humans have an unbelievable ability to adapt to Mother Nature.

[@willcool713]

Growing up in Houston I went through half a dozen massive hurricane and rain events. The water table is so high nobody can have a basement and most homes can't support a second floor. So the city floods easily. Our house was the only one on the street which never flooded, except for an inch or so in the front of the garage. When the danger was over, the scouts would get out the canoes and pick up the whole troop by boat, and we would spread out going door to door to help people, handing out water and helping where we could. After the rain stopped the snakes and gators would come up out of the bayous. So you had to be really careful in the water, because there could be animals, or electric lines, or broken glass, who knows? I helped one family off of their roof and we took them to the school that was set up for a shelter, but that's the most help I can remember doing. There was just so much, and so little anyone could do. The first hurricane I went through I was little. We spent half a day and a whole night with mattresses pulled over us in the two bathtubs. Me my dad and three dogs in one, my mother, my little brother, two cats and two parakeets in the other. In the morning the windows were all smashed and water had blown around. The back fence was gone, and the fig tree and our black walnut tree had fallen over. No flooding that time.

[@reanimated]

My grandparents' old house down south was at the corner of two massive bayous. After the last big hurricane, that mid-century house finally caved in...or rather out. The brick wall from the back of the living room caved out to the back yard. The new residents had also told my uncle basically the insurance companies started refusing to insure that neighborhood unless everyone lifted their house 10 feet. Sure enough last year we drove through there and the changes were made. It was trippy. For some reason though, the old fam's house hasn't been modified in that way, not sure how they got around that.

[@KingstonAddict]

Born and raised Houstonian here. Been through many hurricanes through the years! Just had Hurricane Beryl come through last month. No power for 4 days. It was something else. Worst I’ve been through was Hurricane Harvey though.

[@yukikitsune7366]

My mom was 3 years old when Hurricane Camille hit where she lived. She has told me stories about what she remembers. The most vivid memory being that she recalled her family putting towels at the bottom of the doors to try and minimize the water seepage and running back and forth between bringing dry(ish) towels to soak up the water and taking soaked towels to the bathroom to wring out in the sink and toilet. She very specifically informed me that the bathtub had been filled with clean water that was to be used for drinking since it was more likely that the plumbing would fail and they would be without drinking water otherwise.

[@Xtinakattv]

I was in Florida through Irma. I was born, raised and have always lived on the coast where hurricane season is a thing and its crazy realizing how casual that makes you towards hurricanes vs people who arent used to them. Like they are still scary but make no mistake, we prepare and we party lol

[@VWHybrid]

Yep. Been through quite a few hurricanes. Last decent-sized one to hit me was Dorian a few years back. Two years ago I brought in two feral kittens from my back porch during and immediately after a hurricane; I still have one of them, and she’s the sweetest little shy cat. The other went to a friend of mine, and she’s a spitfire, haha. I’m so glad they chose my porch as refuge from the storm; they would have had a hard time surviving out there.

[@reannon8643]

I was in SouthEast Louisiana during Katrina just north of New Orleans. I've never heard a storm sound like Katrina did. Not before or since, it has given me such PTSD that I evacuate for category 2s now. One moment the water was at our ankles and within minutes it was up to our chests and I am only 5'4"! My husband stayed for hurricane Ida in 2018 and he swore he will never stay again after the sounds of trees falling and believing he was next.

[@lynnaekenzington]

"How do you recover" - rip out everything that's water damaged on the building itself, and for a lot of cases throw out everything the water touched because its sewage. For hardwood, plastic, excet you can salvage your belongings and scrub the heck out of them with strong cleaners, but anything fabric or paper is utterly wrecked.

[@texanrob]

Adam I live on the coast of Texas next to the Gulf of Mexico, the warmest ocean waters on the planet. I have been in Hurricane IKE and Hanna, Ike in Galveston Texas, our house was Five feet above the ground and six feet above the street. We had 1.5 feet of water on the first floor. It was terrifying. Hurricanes are no joke! Love your channel!

[@theevilem]

Hurricanes do happen every year. I have experienced many but the scariest was Irma in 2017. We lost our house and it was the first time I rode in a search and rescue boat when they were looking for people after the storm

[@lovelygg13]

Heyooo! Former Floridian here (now South Carolinian)! I just discovered your channel last night but still pretty cool and fun to see your reactions to all the hurricane info and such. My first storm was Hurricane Charley at age 8, and sadly we ended up getting our share of it at night, kinda sparking my phobia of storms/thunder/lightning. So far I had been through 11 total hurricanes/tropical storms, all of which we always stayed at our home (tho we always had the promise that if we were going to take a direct hit from a storm, we would evacuate a day or so prior). Fun fact, my mom's side of the family took that direct hit from Hugo back in the day :P

[@Kat-tr2ig]

9:21 My aunt lives in North Port, Florida, and her home was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian. Even though she had insurance, the company refused to pay for anything, stating that because there was so much destruction they couldn't afford to pay all of their clients. And that was that. So even if you do have insurance, it doesn't matter. It's been 2 years now and my aunt is still rebuilding her home, by herself.

[@jimj.3086]

Ft Lauderdale here, I live on the beach and have been through many hurricanes/tropical storms including Andrew in 1992. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 completely devastated the beaches, sidewalks and roads along the beach and recovery efforts involved a new 40 ft. submerged seawall , roads, sidewalks and replacement sand...yes, sand was trucked in.Hurricane Irma in 2017 was the last one that I stayed in my home for rather than evacuating, it spawned a lot of tornadoes and from that point on I'm out until it's over.

[@emmawilde152]

I watched a program on rehabbing old homes in Galveston. One of the houses had been built from the wood of destroyed homes.

[@deekim8164]

As a Floridian, I've been through many hurricanes. It's like a week long storm with serious wind, and if you're unlucky and live on the coast, you get to experience the storm surge. in 2005, we lived in Tampa when Charley hit south of us. That year there was a cluster of hurricanes which hit one after the other, my house was fine, but we were without power for about four weeks. We slept on the porch for a couple of weeks. Charley actually dug a channel through the northern end of Sanibel Island when it struck. Back in '15 Hermine passed over us, and a tornado was spawned from it, which we all got to see the tops of three large slash pines be plucked off. During Ian, while we were having our hurricane party, my neighbor and I watched his tool shed get flattened by oak the wind blew over. You lose power, you experience flooding, you occasional chase off looters with the neighbors, and if you're lucky you can eat all of the food and beer in the fridge before it goes bad due to power outages (thus the reason we Floridians throw hurricane parties).

[@ClaireRedfieldKennedy-ld2lx]

12:33 Hurricane Andrew is an amazing story you should research. Some palm trees survived which where twisted like bread sticks and these palm trees became collectors item sold and replanted in other parts of the country. The death toll was low due to proper evacuations. The main problem was hundred of thousands of people left for weeks without power, water, or food and the relief effort was a major success story.

[@greghoyt4061]

I’m from New Hampshire, and I remember Hurricane Bob from August ‘91. I was only 2, but it was an intense enough experience where I can remember brief moments even today. Trees were being completely uprooted and tossed around the neighborhood like sticks, and this massive gale came in and every tree in the forest went parallel with the ground and you could see all the way to the next town over. I have yet to witness anything else so powerful.

[@mandarinlearner]

I was in Maine for Hurticane Bob

[@annepinkerton6280]

Camille was in 1969. I was 16 in 1969 and had met a guy I liked but he was from Biloxi. Me and my buddies had FITS wanting to go help but nobody took us serious! I think the boat they used for a gift shop after Camille is still there on the north side of Hwy 90. She keeps taking a licking and keep on ticking!

[@eetaman]

I live in mid FL and I remember multiple hurricanes hitting us in 2004. You had Hurricane Charley, Frances, Jeanne, etc. and I remember my mom putting up metal shutters to help my family stay safe. We were fortunate enough to not have any serious property damage, just power outage for days. However, when we were allowed to leave the house after Charley hit, I saw a big oak tree in the middle of the street just a few blocks down. My brother joked that aliens must be trying to separate Florida from the U.S. with all these storms 😂. When we decided to go out and drive around to see the damages, we saw broken branches everywhere, more uprooted trees, billboards and business signs tore up, street lights torn off or not working, roof damage from homes, and some mobile homes moved or torn apart. It was crazy. Also I should probably mention that a lot of Floridians like to have hurricane parties during the storm lol

[@RebeccaMidyette]

I lived in Columbia, SC when Hurricane Hugo hit (not on the coast) It was terrifying. The pressure change in the house made it feel like it was breathing. Luckily our house was safe and we only lost some trees. Had no power for over a week and as a result, all of my neighbors got together and grilled out food from steaks to hot dogs because they were going to go bad otherwise. We were able to stand in line to get a bag of ice for our coolers to keep some things cool. Ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Thankfully no one I knew had catastrophic damage.

[@kateg7298]

Our house in Galveston was moved something like 16 blocks and they shored it up 17 feet. There are also marks painted on the walls where Ike put Galveston 8 feet under in 2008. In 2017 we were right under Hurricane Harvey where it stalled for days. Luckily, they had put in 10' storm drains and we have Archimedes screws pulling water. We lost a lot of trees but no damage to our houses. We did have to wait a few days to get power back and the roads to clear.

[@JiggyMagpie]

I went through hurricane Hugo in North Carolina, when I was a kid. We went without power for weeks. We lived about a half mile off the main road and had to use chainsaws to cut our way out. We had to bathe in the swimming pool and dip water out of the pool to flush the toilets. Businesses started price gouging. I remember the authorities saying they were going to prosecute businesses doing that, but they never did.

[@smartangel10]

There are hurricanes every year and, yes, we prep a lot. Right now we are getting prepped for this year's hurricane season by making sure our generators are in working order, getting bottled water packs, making sure we have enough non-perishable food to last a couple of weeks, and fill gas cans for generators and cars (if we need to evacuate). We also get go bags ready when a big one is on it's way so we can grab everything we need quickly if we evacuate.

[@katyas-mom]

I'm in PA . We get a few hurricanes a year, but NJ catches the brunt of the storms. Some hurricanes move back out to sea before coming back to land. PA is protected by the mountain range to our west and we're in a valley, so we miss a lot. Katrina was bad because the hurricane spawned some baby tornadoes (unofficially). New Orleans then took advantage to gentrify the city and displace a lot of residents.

[@sakurakittynoir1400]

Born & raised North Carolinian here. I've lived here my whole life & I can honestly say that, for us, hurricanes are just a normal part of life here. Some of my earliest memories involve constantly checking the weather & seeking shelter at my grandparents house. For me personally, Florence was the worst. I was displaced for exactly 1 year, from the day of evacuation to the day I moved into a new apartment, because my old one was flooded.

[@Qwertky]

Native Floridian here: I'm lucky enough to live inland near Orlando, but even we have a process. Stock up on water. Move anything that could fly from the yard. Board up windows if it's bad. We have a gas-powered generator if we need it. We were without power for like a week after Irma, and our fence got destroyed, but we were lucky.

[@RobertJohnson-q8t]

I live in New Jersey and I remember Sandy. Seeing the Seaside boardwalk completely destroyed with the roller coaster sitting in the ocean up close in person was surreal

[@rodney-m7g]

I live by the beach on a small island just off the south shore of Long island , New York . We were hit hard by Sandy. WE had a 17 foot high storm surge here and it hit at dead high tide . Our entire island was under water , the high point on our island is maybe 10 feet above sea level . We and most of our neighbors did not evacuate because we watched the reports of the storm weakening as it approached , but the height of the storm surge wasn't known until it hit land .A rather interesting couple of months followed as the clean-up and restoration went on . Buildings and homes were still being repaired or completely torn down and rebuilt 4 years later .My home suffered about $150,000 of damage and insurance only covered $30,000 of it .There was so much damage in a wide area from New Jersey , Staten Island , Brooklyn , Queens , Manhattan , and the whole south shore of Long Island that it was extremely difficult to get any repair help . I had electricians whom I had called immediately after the storm first calling me back 4 and 5 months later . Fortunately we knew a contractor and because I was able to front him the money without waiting for months to collect insurance ours was repaired within 2 months .I have been in 3 hurricanes , 2 in New York and 1 in Virginia as well as seeing a near miss by a tornado in Alabama but Sandy was by far the most damaging .

[@michaelhall8587]

In 2004, I lived in South Georgia right on the border of Florida when Hurricane Francis and Jeanne seemed to hit Florida and skirt up the coast to Georgia in what seemed to be within 2-3 weeks apart. While they had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, their impact was still pretty severe in Georgia. As a kid I remember going outside and leaning against the wind as if it were a wall. lol Something I'm not too proud of in hindsight 😂

[@BarbaraGlore]

I live in Georgia, USA, but my best friend lives in Florida and has her whole life. They have been through the Florida hurricanes and told me the horror stories about it. They believe it is worth the risk of hurricanes to live in a tropical state. My sister also lives in Florida and when they have to evacuate, she comes home to Georgia. LOL Love your reaction videos❣️

[@chaostia66t25]

Being in sandy was genuinely scary, I was just like around 10 but loosing power and see entire trees be uprooted was crazy. Sandy honestly traumatized NJ as we have so many different hurricane warnings everywhere.

[@f0bxluver717]

I was in New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy and I will never forget it. It was so surreal sitting at my bedroom window watching the sky flash blue because of transformers bursting. I luckily never lost power and didn't have any major damage but had friends that had no power or gas for 2 weeks.

[@judeless77]

I lived on Long Island when hurricane Gloria graced us. Where I lived wasn’t largely impacted though our power was out and using water from the faucet was not encouraged for three days. On the second day I went out for bottles of water and bread but there was a boat through the grocery store. I was able to find supplies being generously donated to those in need by kind people, regardless if their house no longer had a roof or half it was missing.

[@susiereber]

I was in Pennsylvania during Hurricane Sandy. Lost power for a few days. One thing I can't forget is hearing what I thought was a train coming my way, but it was the wind. I could hear it coming before it ever reached any trees around me, they were still when I first heard it.

[@OneAndOnlyBingus]

I've been in Hurricane Harvey. The lake near where I lived overflowed and a small tsunami came down our road at 4 in the morning. Pretty scary

[@madpolitico]

I live in the top end of Florida (Jacksonville), where hurricanes have a tendency to swing around us rather than hit directly, but will still skirt close enough that we'll get some of the winds and a lot of the rain. Usually it feels like a bad summer afternoon storm for a prolonged period. Some trees get knocked down and/or are stripped, power goes out in areas, there's a bit of flooding, usually not too bad and the worst case scenario is losing power and having to wait a couple days or so for it to be turned back on in your area (though I now live in an area that's got a higher priority due to medical facilities, so it's hours at worst). Preparations tend to be keeping lights on hand, batteries, some food you can eat without having to heat it, and if you live in a house, maybe a generator. Also setting up shutters over windows for some folks. The worst situation we've seen here in recent years was a few years ago when a hurricane kind of skirted around us, but it dumped a lot of water in the river. With some very specific circumstances in place, it led to the river overflowing badly, right in the heart of downtown, submerging the area for a couple days. Since our office at the time was right by the river, we couldn't go in to work for those two or three days as the roads around the building were under water. Unfortunately, even with insurance, some small businesses along the roads in the surrounding area couldn't recover (the doors indeed don't keep the water out entirely), and it was weird seeing a lot of empty shops for a long time after. Made me kind of glad I never thought to move into that area. (Mainly because the homes are more expensive. But I'm even more glad now as the company I work for moved their offices across town to a less expensive building.) It's pretty much just a thing we've gotten used to, and will often joke about because that's about all you can do. Of course, one local guy takes it a bit further. I can't remember the guy's name, but there's a famous clip of him having gone a bit up the coast (I think to North Carolina?) to stand in the street facing down a storm shirtless in shorts while holding an American flag with Slayer playing in the background. That kind of embodies a Floridian's attitude to hurricanes in general. We respect them, but we're not going to live our lives in fear of them. As for why you'd have cities and homes close to the shore... well, that's where the shipping tends to come in, so cities build up along the coast, and people congregate to cities.

[@morbid_angel4869]

Louisiana resident and been in the middle of numerous hurricanes. Last one I experienced was Hurricane Laura in 2020 and the damage to my hometown was astounding. The city still hasn't recovered and there's still leveled bulidings and damage that hasn't been fixed. Ive had trees fall in my room from the storms and my grandparents ended up with 7 in their house during Laura. So hurricanes are no joke. They leave behind so much devastation and it's terrifying to experience and heartbreaking to see the aftermath.

[@AshleyHunt-m2m]

I’m from southeast Louisiana. 30 minutes north of New Orleans. Katrina was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. So many homes were completely submerged in water, and so much life lost. Driving by the homes afterwards you could see the markings in bright colors outside the homes marking where they had been searched and how many bodies were found there. So many people trapped on their roofs with nowhere to go. Civilians getting into their boats to rescue their neighbors. So much destruction and grief. Our home had a hole in the side of it and some water damage. I’ll never forget driving to our house to figure out the condition it was in afterwards and just praying we would have something left. It was terrifying.

[@samanthalen5630]

I’m from Pensacola, Fl which is in the gulf coast right next to Alabama. When I was in 3rd grade hurricane Ivan hit us as a category 3. Our living room wall almost completely blew down, a few inches of water inside half the house, my bedroom ceiling caved in, pretty much every road in my whole city was covered by trees and stuff washed out of peoples houses(furniture, cars, boats, clothes, literally everything). We didn’t have power for close to a month and I was out of school for 2 months. There were tons of boats stuck up in the trees, full roads washed away, bridges collapsed, and stuff everywhere. Hurricane Katrina was right after Ivan and was supposed to hit Pensacola but it moved over to New Orleans, It was a crazy time. In 2020 hurricane sally hit us as a category 2, damage wasn’t near as bad as Ivan but we didn’t have power for a week or two. It’s a risk you take living in Florida

[@brandomideas]

In 2004, Hurricane Juan hit us. That was the first hurricane ever to hit nova Scotia. 13 years we rebuilt, and some parks are forever altered because then wind flattened entire large parks of trees. Since then we've had two more in the past . Both higher strength then Juan. The most recent knocked out my power for 3 days. I bought a bunch of power cells for everything in preparation. Right around the time all my power cells died the power came back on. Hurricanes in the USA are much worse then anything we've seen since Juan. I can't imagine rebuilding every year.

[@thedude559]

I'm also in Nova Scotia and Hurricane Fiona (Sept. 2022) hit us square on. We had no power for 3 days in our area, but some parts of town were without for 4 or 5 days. Many of our neighbors had pieces of their houses blow off and shingles ripped off the roof. We lucked out and just had some siding pop lose, but still connected so it was easy to put back in place. Our shingles lifted a bit, but the roof stayed intact. We redid the roof the following summer. We did lose our fridge when the power came back on. The surge blew the motor. It was an older fridge so we just bought a new one. Overall, we were lucky compared to many.

[@jewellproductions1]

In the video when he was talking about Louisiana, he mentioned hurricane Laura. I live in the Lake Charles area and I was 15 when the storm hit in 2020 and I’ll never forget it. In the early Thursday morning of August 27th 2020 at 1 AM, Laura made landfall in Cameron parish (30 miles to my south) with 150 mph sustained winds and a storm surge approaching 20 feet. Costal towns such as Holly Beach which I had visited just 2 weeks prior were wiped out even after they rebuilt their homes even stronger after getting flattened by Hurricane Rita in 2005. As Laura moved further inland, the storm hit Lake Charles directly and caused massive damage. Plenty of storm chasers captured video of the capital one tower, a large glass office building, being shredded by the winds. The building was the icon of downtown. When I think about downtown, I think of that building. And I’ve seen videos of hurricanes and tornadoes ripping through towns but when you watch one rip through yours… It has a strange feeling that you can’t really describe. But the only thing you could think of was “that’s home, that’s where I live and grew up.” I had evacuated and arrived back home 11 hours after Laura made landfall. Everything looked like a war zone. I saw a mobile home flipped upside down on its roof, brick walls torn down like it was nothing, and roofs ripped off of buildings. But when I first stepped outside, I’ll lever forget the overwhelming smell of freshly cut pinewood that punched my in the face. It was extremely strong due to all of the trees snapped in half like twigs. A local state park lost 80% of their trees. We had no warm food, no cold water, no air conditioning, and running water in near 100°F heat with the sun beating down on you. The only thing we could do was try to comprehend everything that had happened and mindlessly pick up pieces of tree limbs and shingles in out yard as we dodged power lines. Laura killed 32 people in Louisiana if memory serves me correct. 15 of which were in my Parish. Most of the deaths were caused by heat strokes or carbon monoxide poisoning due to people putting their generators in their garage out of fear of them being looted. 100 miles inland a tree fell on a house and tragically took the life of a 14 year old girl. She was the first confirmed fatality from Laura. But despite being hit yet again 6 weeks later by another Hurricane named Delta, we have cleaned up the mess and are now doing our best to recover. I’m 19 now but the memories from that time are fresh in my mind, especially as this hurricane season begins. I pray no one has to live through an event like that ever again.

[@taye8429]

I was pretty young when Hurricane Sandy hit but I do remember a tree going through our garage roof and it caused quite a bit of damage. We had to leave and find somewhere else to stay until it was over. Our neighbor had a large tree fall onto their house and unfortunately there was one fatality.

[@_world.of.tyler_251]

I lived in North Carolina for a few years, the worst one I’ve been through that caused damage was when Florence hit it. It was only a cat 1 but the amount of rainfall we had and surge caused flooding which ended up damaging a good bit of houses in my area

[@Conner_Welch]

My family and I had been living in central Mississippi for a little over half a year when Katrina hit. I went to college in Hattiesburg, MS, a couple of hours from the Gulf Coast, and met many people, who were from New Orleans to Pascagoula, who had lost houses, had to relocate, and were without power for months. We housed people in our church. Katrina left a huge impact.

[@lynnaekenzington]

"What are you supposed to do." - Sand bag, board up, evacuate with food, clothes, etc to out of state hotel (shelters will be full and pressed for staff/supplies, and still at risk of flooding and power related casualties). If you get stuck at home/ride it out have enough food/water and power supplies to last several weeks without power, including a crank weather radio to listen for if you need to quickly take the hurricane roads to evacuate. (We have done this and the hotels one year. Chilled in North Carolina and made sure we were outside the areas where it would burden anyone there.

[@Beans-1111]

During Hurricane Carol in 1954 was the worst to ever hit Massachusetts. A chimney fell.on my grandmother. I lived through a lot of hurricanes. It is scary but when the trees fall it sounds very strange to hear the crackle noise before they fall.

[@JIMBEARRI]

Sorry, but you're wrong. The New England Hurricane of 1938 did NOT have a name. Hurricane Carol wasn't until 16 years later in 1954.

[@Catdragin1]

I used to live in Galveston and went through the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. We evacuated to Dallas, so I wasn't on the island when it happened, but I was back on the island a week later. The other significant hurricane I went through was Hurricane Harvey. I evacuated Galveston to stay at friends in Dickinson, TX. That unfortunate decision left us surrounded by flood water and unable to leave for a week. We were lucky in that particular subdivision because all around us people's houses flooded. And to add to the information about the 1900 Storm in Galveston, if you look at some of the mausoleums in the Broadway cemetery, you'll see evidence of the grade raising of the island. Instead of full buildings, you'll see just the roofs above ground. They didn't want to disturb the dead by raising their tombs.

[@Frostcicle13]

I grew up hearing tales about the Nelson County mudslides that resulted from Hurricane Camille. Utterly horrifying. One of my dad's best friends was a principal in one of the Nelson County public schools in the late 70's. And they used to talk about the panic attacks the kids in school used to have when thunderstorms came through. Whole families (multiple generations) were lost in the mudslides. There was rumored to be tractor trailer (really big lorry) that was driving through Nelson County at the time the mudslides hit. It and its driver have never been found. There was a book written about the Nelson County tragedy and it's heartbreaking to read. But if you want to read accounts from survivors, it's the best source.

[@valdris86]

I was living in Cape Coral during Hurricane Irma. My family evacuated all the way to Mobil AL because it seemed like the hurricane followed us as we went up the west coast and through Tallahassee. I left Florida a few years before Ian but two of the houses I helped build/rebuild were on Matlacha... not sure they exist anymore after seeing the pictures. My sister's house partially collapsed too, while they were inside. They were fine, but the pictures were crazy

[@twilightwolfqueen409]

Grew up in Maryland and lived thru Hurricane Isabelle. Agnes was referenced a lot during recaps, but Isabelle caused many waterfront homes to flood due to it pushing water up the Chesapeake and rivers during high tide. Luckily since moving to South Carolina, I haven't experienced anything like Hugo but have experienced my share of scares since these storms frequently produce tornadoes in my area. Rule of thumb when it comes to hurricane season, if Jim Cantore (nationally known weatherman) is visiting you need to be ready for a crazy storm.

[@ravous246]

This is why i live in arizona. At worst we will get a bunch of rain that floods a few streets and thats about it. A big ass dust storm that looks worse than it actually is. And thats it.

[@bonnielemenager4030]

When I was a kid, Hurricane Agnes slammed into the state of Virginia. As it was June, many didn't take it very seriously. The wind blew so hard and the rain came down in sheets. My mom and I watched as the rainwater was pushed back up the steep hill on our street. Our storm door rattled and the bottom part of the door shattered. It was wild. Years later, Hurricane Isabel tore through our neighborhood and toppled two giant cedar trees in the backyard. There was also four feet of water in the street and at least two in my front yard. Crazy.

[@libitinawolf6240]

There are still a few houses around that survived the Galveston hurricane. You can tell because they just look old as hell. I know I read somewhere that the orphanage on the island was like knocked down by the storm surge. With all the kids and staff inside. Lots of people died during that storm. I live in Galveston right know and am constantly terrified that the one way off this island is gonna get knocked down during a storm.

[@boki1693]

When Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island where I live, it knocked the power out in my area for 2 weeks. The problem with Sandy was not so much the wind but it hit during high tide so the storm surge drove the water up and into the streets. I live very close to the south shore and literally one block south of me until the water, a distance of about 2 miles, every house was flooded and had to be abandoned. Long Beach long Island was basically evacuated because it's right on the water. My daughter and I were walking around the courtyard where we lived and the water was up to my thighs. All the first floor apartments were flooded and had to be completely renovated. I lived on the second floor so I was ok. But a garden apartment complex down the street and a marina across the street from me had to be bulldozed. Both of the sites were turned into luxury apartments not many of us here could afford. LOL.

[@BekahCook]

I was living in Mississippi during Katrina. We had a few trees blow down, but no other structural damage. The worst part was being without power for a month. My grandmother was the only one who had a gas stove, so our whole family (about 30 people then) would congregate at her house to eat warm meals

[@Tarzan91303]

I was 7 years old when hurricane Beulah struck the southern tip of Texas. We fled to a Red Cross shelter in San Antonio. When we came back our home was destroyed. But our Aunt’s home survived mostly intact and we stayed there until we found a one bedroom apartment (for 4 of us). There were hardly any places left.

[@dylanross5510]

Being from Houston, this is a way of life. I have gone through 2 major ones - Hurricane Ike in 2008, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Both devastating for different reasons. Ike for wind (120 mile per hour wind gusts outside my front door), and Harvey for major flooding all over Houston and surrounding areas. Yep, we still live here. Again, it's just a way of life. Best part of a Hurricane (if there is one) is that you have plenty of notice before it hits so you can at least prepare to the best of your ability. Crazy stuff though.