Has anyone experienced a natural disaster 1st hand?
Discussion
Doesn't compare will many tales above but I distinctly remember the 'Great Storm of 1987'.
I was 10 and alone with my entire class we were taken up to the local Secondary School for the day to get to know it as we'd be going there in September - we spent the first few hours messing about in the yard standing at increasingly stupid angles as the wind held us up until we were hurried into a 'Terrapin' a group of 'temporary' wooden school rooms that had been there since our parents were our age when it started raining.
And there we stayed for hours, we really didn't notice, a few hours without adult supervision was fantastic, but a few of the girls started moaning about the walls moving and the noise but we'd been told to stay put so that's exactly what we did - what we didn't know was the rest of the school was taking cover in main hall as widows were blown in, roof tiles flew across the yard and another one of the Terrapins was seen doing about 30mph towards the sea, at about 2pm a teacher who'd come to work in the afternoon expecting to see empty class rooms spotted us arsing about and got us to form a chain and marched us into the main hall - as we came in the rest of the staff remembered the 30 or so 10 year olds visiting that day and shat a collective brick - just about the time we were being told to sit down the Terrapin we were in was being scattered across the car park.
I was 10 and alone with my entire class we were taken up to the local Secondary School for the day to get to know it as we'd be going there in September - we spent the first few hours messing about in the yard standing at increasingly stupid angles as the wind held us up until we were hurried into a 'Terrapin' a group of 'temporary' wooden school rooms that had been there since our parents were our age when it started raining.
And there we stayed for hours, we really didn't notice, a few hours without adult supervision was fantastic, but a few of the girls started moaning about the walls moving and the noise but we'd been told to stay put so that's exactly what we did - what we didn't know was the rest of the school was taking cover in main hall as widows were blown in, roof tiles flew across the yard and another one of the Terrapins was seen doing about 30mph towards the sea, at about 2pm a teacher who'd come to work in the afternoon expecting to see empty class rooms spotted us arsing about and got us to form a chain and marched us into the main hall - as we came in the rest of the staff remembered the 30 or so 10 year olds visiting that day and shat a collective brick - just about the time we were being told to sit down the Terrapin we were in was being scattered across the car park.
I spent the day helping to rescue people in the 1998 floods in Northampton. It was sureal canoeing into peoples houses, we managed to rescue seveal people including someone who was suffering serious health issues. The water was over the top of cars in some places.
What struck me was the total lack of planning and experience of water the authorities had at the time, also the number of people who were sight seeing, wading about in the flood water and paddling about in rubber dingys like they were at the seaside! It was sleeting, the water was freezing and we had to rescue one of the sightseers who was suffering from hypophermia. People were not aware that what they were splashing about in was a nice mixture of water and raw sewage ( where are the sewers?)and that manholes had blown.
There were also a lot of selfish people who were more concerned with their own interests, like the muppet on a jet ski who charged up and down the main road, and the self important shop owner in his rangerover causing so much wake he nearly tipped a boat load of firemen in, then would not help getting people out.
Since this incident most rescue srvices now have trained and equiped water rescue specialists and the flood relife systems around Northampton have been improved.
Chris
What struck me was the total lack of planning and experience of water the authorities had at the time, also the number of people who were sight seeing, wading about in the flood water and paddling about in rubber dingys like they were at the seaside! It was sleeting, the water was freezing and we had to rescue one of the sightseers who was suffering from hypophermia. People were not aware that what they were splashing about in was a nice mixture of water and raw sewage ( where are the sewers?)and that manholes had blown.
There were also a lot of selfish people who were more concerned with their own interests, like the muppet on a jet ski who charged up and down the main road, and the self important shop owner in his rangerover causing so much wake he nearly tipped a boat load of firemen in, then would not help getting people out.
Since this incident most rescue srvices now have trained and equiped water rescue specialists and the flood relife systems around Northampton have been improved.
Chris
I was in Canada earlier this year during this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_11%E2%80%931...
It was a bit hairy, made me chuckle to think how much of the UK grinds to a halt at a few snowflakes by comparison, but here people mostly just went about their daily business. I cleared the driveway of several tons of packed ice with a hand axe. Wearing shorts.
So as natural disasters go, not that bad really.
It was a bit hairy, made me chuckle to think how much of the UK grinds to a halt at a few snowflakes by comparison, but here people mostly just went about their daily business. I cleared the driveway of several tons of packed ice with a hand axe. Wearing shorts.
So as natural disasters go, not that bad really.
Saw a small(ish) avalanche whilst skiing in the Alps a few years ago, what brought it into focus was the blokes prodding the snow looking for people potentially buried underneath. Thankfully nobody was, or not that I heard about.
A mate of mine is an ex Royal Marine, he was one of the Marines tasked to help in the search after Lockerbie, some of his mates saw & found some horrible things.
A mate of mine is an ex Royal Marine, he was one of the Marines tasked to help in the search after Lockerbie, some of his mates saw & found some horrible things.
I've experienced a 5.9 earthquake. On a rig (platform) over 100 miles out to sea. Put the s
ts right up me, I was expecting the thing to keel over into the drink.
It lasted a minute or two, with no real problems, spilt my coffee, knocked over my hobnobs and moved a few desks.
It was only the next day I noticed the buckled deck.
ts right up me, I was expecting the thing to keel over into the drink.It lasted a minute or two, with no real problems, spilt my coffee, knocked over my hobnobs and moved a few desks.
It was only the next day I noticed the buckled deck.
Been in Florida for a few hurricanes. Though really these weren't anything too drastic and something the locals would have been used to. I remember driving down the interstate whilst driving out to (I think) Clearwater and it rained so hard the road literally became a river. That night at the apartment we were staying in (beach front no less!) I remember being amazed that patio sliding doors could bow like bananas without breaking! Needless to say we got a bit wet even being inside!
The next morning the rental car had this horrible baked on crust of sand, salt and seaweed.
Was pretty exciting really. Bad weather but nothing outrageous. I think the winds were 90-100 mph in places.
The next morning the rental car had this horrible baked on crust of sand, salt and seaweed.
Was pretty exciting really. Bad weather but nothing outrageous. I think the winds were 90-100 mph in places.
Living in Hull I experienced the first two.
I remember the Tuesday of heavy rain flooding was affecting my work and we were evacuated in the early afternoon, if we hadn't have been I would have taken advantage of my flexi time and left work at 3pm. I Ended up taking a 25 mile detour to get home as the main roads were clogged up with traffic. There were a few deep puddles (around the drains) when I got closer to home but nothing much else. When I actually got to the estate the gutters were full and 1/3 of the way up the kerb. I parked the car on the drive as normal.
It took a few hours but eventually the water was high enough to make us worry. We managed to save the garage based fridge and freezer by putting them up on stacks of bricks (my Dad is a builder) and they still sit on the same stacks today (it actually puts them at a nice convenient height). Our house has a solid concrete floor (originally floor boards) so thankfully aside from a bit of movement in the slab our house was unaffected (other than a few ruined things in the garage.
For our household it was an inconvenience (moving as much upstairs as we could to save it) but for most others it was horrendous, depending on where you lived (even within a couple of hundred meters of my parents’ house, the water could be anything from 1ft to 3ft deep. In some places it was well over that depth. Thankfully we were never without power/gas, sanitation or water. I do remember charging up every single phone, rechargeable battery etc. we had in the house just in case.
People were paddling around in canoes, small boats and dinghy’s to reach relatives in neighboring estates. We walked to my grandmas on the next estate, the water so deep we had to take it very slowly a walk that usually takes 5 minutes took us close to 20. We helped her get everything we could upstairs and sorted out the mobile phone, a torch and standby candles should everything else go off.
The saddest thing for me at that point was looking out of the kitchen window the following morning watching the water lapping around the sills of my then 9 month old Focus ST, thankfully it didn't get high enough on the drive to cause any damage to either my car or my parents that was in the garage.
By Thursday our site (BAE Brough) had re-opened and we could go back to work, the water had subsided where I lived so I had no real excuse. It was a sad sight to see things that I had up until only been on TV, front gardens full of ruined furniture, the skip companies must have had a field day.
One of the grossest things I saw was a couple of local kids out playing in it like some sort of paddling pool
with their mother watching them – does she not know how nasty that water is, it certainly wasn't clear.
I know of one death due to a man getting stuck in a storm drain, the fire and rescue service couldn't get him out
The earthquake was a bit of an odd one it actually felt like a bit of a none event due to the lack of widespread damage (a few properties were noticeably damaged) and lack of deaths (thankfully), there was some damage but nothing like what was caused by the flooding. One odd thing was when the earthquake struck (during the night) I woke up before it struck and then went back to sleep (nothing in the local area had collapsed and nobody was running around screaming for help) straight after. Dunno why I would wake up before - during sure, but before - weird). Market Raisen was (or almost) the epicenter of that quake; 5.2 on the Richter scale.
These of course pale into insignificance when you compare them to the other stories on here, Hull in general seems to get away fairly lightly, though if this year’s storm surge was anything to go by that might change at some point in the future
I remember the Tuesday of heavy rain flooding was affecting my work and we were evacuated in the early afternoon, if we hadn't have been I would have taken advantage of my flexi time and left work at 3pm. I Ended up taking a 25 mile detour to get home as the main roads were clogged up with traffic. There were a few deep puddles (around the drains) when I got closer to home but nothing much else. When I actually got to the estate the gutters were full and 1/3 of the way up the kerb. I parked the car on the drive as normal.
It took a few hours but eventually the water was high enough to make us worry. We managed to save the garage based fridge and freezer by putting them up on stacks of bricks (my Dad is a builder) and they still sit on the same stacks today (it actually puts them at a nice convenient height). Our house has a solid concrete floor (originally floor boards) so thankfully aside from a bit of movement in the slab our house was unaffected (other than a few ruined things in the garage.
For our household it was an inconvenience (moving as much upstairs as we could to save it) but for most others it was horrendous, depending on where you lived (even within a couple of hundred meters of my parents’ house, the water could be anything from 1ft to 3ft deep. In some places it was well over that depth. Thankfully we were never without power/gas, sanitation or water. I do remember charging up every single phone, rechargeable battery etc. we had in the house just in case.
People were paddling around in canoes, small boats and dinghy’s to reach relatives in neighboring estates. We walked to my grandmas on the next estate, the water so deep we had to take it very slowly a walk that usually takes 5 minutes took us close to 20. We helped her get everything we could upstairs and sorted out the mobile phone, a torch and standby candles should everything else go off.
The saddest thing for me at that point was looking out of the kitchen window the following morning watching the water lapping around the sills of my then 9 month old Focus ST, thankfully it didn't get high enough on the drive to cause any damage to either my car or my parents that was in the garage.
By Thursday our site (BAE Brough) had re-opened and we could go back to work, the water had subsided where I lived so I had no real excuse. It was a sad sight to see things that I had up until only been on TV, front gardens full of ruined furniture, the skip companies must have had a field day.
One of the grossest things I saw was a couple of local kids out playing in it like some sort of paddling pool
with their mother watching them – does she not know how nasty that water is, it certainly wasn't clear.I know of one death due to a man getting stuck in a storm drain, the fire and rescue service couldn't get him out
The earthquake was a bit of an odd one it actually felt like a bit of a none event due to the lack of widespread damage (a few properties were noticeably damaged) and lack of deaths (thankfully), there was some damage but nothing like what was caused by the flooding. One odd thing was when the earthquake struck (during the night) I woke up before it struck and then went back to sleep (nothing in the local area had collapsed and nobody was running around screaming for help) straight after. Dunno why I would wake up before - during sure, but before - weird). Market Raisen was (or almost) the epicenter of that quake; 5.2 on the Richter scale.
These of course pale into insignificance when you compare them to the other stories on here, Hull in general seems to get away fairly lightly, though if this year’s storm surge was anything to go by that might change at some point in the future
Was around for the 87 hurricane that hit the south coast. due to start work at 0600 so set off at 0530, only got 100yds before fallen trees stopped me, returned home and called in. Duty Manager said I was number 50 odd so far calling in.
About 5 Florida or Caribbean hurricanes, none very big, (just missed Andrew) it was quite a regular event as I worked for an airline flying to that area at the time. Saw the aftermath of several more.
Got caught up in the Thai Tsunami. Lucky as I was staying in a small b&b behind some large hotels that took the full force. Devestation was unreal.
A small earthquake whilst in Greece, no damage.
About 5 Florida or Caribbean hurricanes, none very big, (just missed Andrew) it was quite a regular event as I worked for an airline flying to that area at the time. Saw the aftermath of several more.
Got caught up in the Thai Tsunami. Lucky as I was staying in a small b&b behind some large hotels that took the full force. Devestation was unreal.
A small earthquake whilst in Greece, no damage.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff