first hand experience to tramatic events

I just wanted to start this tread for some “real life†insights after watching a TV show on the Asia’s Tsunami in 2004 and the army experience in Iraq. They had live camera shots and guys reflecting on the situation….and damn if I was ever in that situation, I’d s.h.i.t on myself. Sometimes you don’t understand the magnitude of the situation, unless you were there. And the news censors all the details, so you don’t get a true sense of the situation.

Have you ever been in such a situation…..like an Earthquake, Tornado, 911 twin towers, War…………where you’re just like what the fcuk is that!!!!!!!!!

Tell your stories.

 

Nothing that big, but I had three hurricanes roll over my apartment in 3 weeks two seasons ago when I lived in FL. Charlie, Gene, and Francis.

Charlie was the only real decent one. It was slated to ram into Tampa, but a few hours before it was supposed to make landfall it turned, and swung toward Orlando. Tampa was all prepped for it, but Orlando wasn't. We had very little notice, and it reaped all kinds of hell. Nothing like Katrina or Andrew, but one of the stronger Cat 3's in a while.

I do remember looking out my window and seeing what I thought was lightining, but you don't really have lightning in a hurricane. They were these bright blue/green flashes that lit up the whole sky. Found out what they were when a transformer right by me blew up. They were going up at the frequency of what you'd expect for lightning strikes.

There wasn't really any power for a little over a week to most of the area, and it was 100 degree+ temps. Since there wasn't really anything to do, a lot of people who didn't have major damage volunteered, myself included. My friend got a chainsaw and went down with a group to start cutting up trees accross roads, and I ended up unloading ice from a freezer truck and handing it out to people.

Then the next one hit two days after they got power back on to my place. (although we didn't loose power again) Everyone was more prepared, and Home Deopt used our convention center (it's the biggest building I've ever seen.) to use to house hundreds and hundreds of trucks of supplies. Saw it on the news. As soon as the storm passed there were police escorted processions of miles of home depot trucks re-supplying all the stores.

 

^That's nothing! Those are just Miniature Movie Set landscaping, also just zoomed in for the realistic effect...jk

I was in the '89 earthquake in San Francisco...That was Fun, felt like a 10,000 watt sub hitting me directly in the face...*shakes*

 

My fiancee knew several people that died in the '04 tsunami (she is still living in Thailand for a few more months). I have been through a tornado and 2 earthquakes, but I wouldn't say that I was really at serious risk. The only useful piece I can add is that it suprises me how people can go into 'emergency mode' and do whatever is necessary to survive. People put up with great pain and despair, only to come through stronger in the end.... People revert back to instinct and involunatry reactions in these circumstances and that is what separates their 'thoughts' from their 'actions' allowing them to do what is necessary....

My $0.02 anyway

 

HAHA, you caught me. Fooey, I spent months setting that up in my living room. How am I gunna explain it to my landlord:roll::laugh:

 

i've been in many many hurricanes, one tornado, 3 cars when they flipped, i've been given the 'sleeper' by ricky the steamboat dragon, ive been shot at once, wrestled with a chimpanzee that was trying to pull me through the bars of his cage.
i was bit and almost died from a copperhead strike, i grabbed warren moon's butt, i was almost choked to death by 2 mn viking's defensive linesmen, i got mistaken for another guy that was cheating with a drug dealer's girlfriend and almost knifed in the stomach.
i dated my bosses girlfriend who's mother i made out with during a dutch oven.

all very traumatic experiences that have impacted my mentality immensely...

the most tramatic thing though is watching my daughters turn into mini versions of me…. Lord we are not ready…

 

traumatic.

 

I have nothing like what you guys mentioned, but I do have one experience that made me crap my pants.

Backcountry hiking in Colorado back in 94. Summertime snowstorm came out of nowhere and we had 100% white-out conditions. I cannot remember the specific mountain, but it was one of the Collegiate Peaks near Leadville (they are 14ners).

I was wearing shorts and a shirt, backpack and light alpine gear. Weather forecast didn't call or anything that day so we thought it would be the typical nice Colorado day. After a 4 hours hike we got to the top and less than a 1/2 later it was a ragging snowstorm. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face or even the ground I was standing on for what seemed to be forever. We couldn't tell what was up or down, literally paralyzed with fear because the last 200 feet of the trail to the top was only a few feet wide with massive drops on both sides.
:cliffs:

I was unfamiliar with the mountain so we had to sit still and freeze until the storm let up. We were then literally chased down the mountain by lightning. We made it about 1,000 feet down and ended up camping out under a giant boulder for a couple hours until the storm let up.

The worst part was not being able to tell if you wear still standing, falling, or what was up or down. uke:

 

I've had a few near-life experiences.

I came over a hill once (at a fair speed) on a two-lane road and met two people driving side by side. I locked up the brakes, realized those two weren't moving, got off the brakes and drove for the ditch. Went in parallelling the sobs.

I also had a high-speed spin at 85, a rear tire blow out on my motorcycle at 90 (on gravel), and an escape left moment (the right led to a 100 drop into a ravine). I also fell through the ice once in the winter.

However, every time my brain went into survival mode and I got out alive.

People that talk about getting adrenaline in stick and ball sports have no idea what real adrenaline is like. Your brain operates on a different plane...

 

i've been thru Hurricane Hugo back in '92 or '94 in Boston. It was a huge deal in the news, but from my point of view back then.....i thought it was pretty fun......and did not cause as much damage as the news reported. yeah, some trees fell but they were termite infested anyway. What i remember was that you could go outside and lean against the force of the wind and it would pick you up leaving you standing.

I saw a car flip over and up-side down going 60 mph just yards behind me. It was near downtown mpls on 35W North after the split with hwy 94. I was with a girlfriend at the time. Heard a crash from the 2 cars behind me and looked in my rearview mirror, and a car was spinning and just flipped several times. Instinctly, once I saw that.....I slammed the gas petal to get as far ahead as I could. Me and my girl at the time........we were like did that just happened.....just stunned, sat quietly for like 30 minutes, and I was driving live 40 mph on the hwy for the rest of the way. Man, we never went back, but I sure hoped those people were ok.

Also, just last year some buddies of mine say a girl fall off the parking ramp at Quest niteclub in downtown Mpls. They were life on the 3rd floor ramp or something. They said it as a white girl who was drunk with a bunch of other people, she was throwing up just over the ledge and somehow just fell over. Her friends called 911 and my buddies and their girls just left.....pretty shaken though.

Dang, some tramatic stuff...

 

Another thing was that one rain/wind storm back in Oct '05 where a grip of trees fell and power was out for almost a week in some places. I left work around 5:00, but forgot my cell phone so I went back. I work near the warehouse district in mpls. dude, i looked up at the clouds and they were just moving like real fast....color was this menacing blaze orange mixed with gray. I know something was about to go down when i got to my workplace and the trash bins were dancing around the parking lot.......you know the heavy steel bins with two plastic covers, and the cover that was flopping up and down like someone was inside. I ran in and out and it poured down, you couldn't see anything. That was the one of many times where I was SUPER GLAD to have a Subaru......with all wheel drive and fog lights are lifesavers. Cars were hydroplaning on streets going 20-30 mph. My car felt secure and stable. I storm had pre-tornado conditions all over it.

 

Mt Massive or Mt Albert.... I lived in Leadville for one winter ('92-93) of snowboarding and partying like rock stars!

 

hugo was '89

took the roof off of my house and dropped it on my neighbors.
she came back and was super excited for half an hour that she still had someplace to live.

 

Wow, small world, I was living out there at that time as well. 92-94. I worked for Keystone(d) and lived in Silverthorne. :biggrin:

Actually I believe it was Mt. Harvard. Princeton, Albert, and Massive are not so jagged at the top.

 

probably one of the most fun things was i lived in fayetteville, N.C. when hurricane fran rolled through, still a couple of hours inshore, but still not very fun to be in. fun parts were the power going out, and right before that, watching the news and hearing not to go outside, top winds in n.c. during that one were supposed to be around 150mph. still ripped a 2.5 foot diameter tree out of the ground and knocked a whole lot of big branches on the rear deck. worst part was waiting the 2 week plus period for the power companies to come through and get everything working again. that, and many fun fun military experiences, as in having a 80 year old bosnian hand us a bag with about 4 pounds of explosive and 5 hand grenades in the same bag...*******...

 

i work in the medical field, one of the first calls i went on was a call for a head on crash on a rural two lane road, upon arrival found the one driver (the one wearing the seat belt) had a severe broken leg, and the other person not so fortunate, did cpr for about a half hour with no avail, pt not wearing seat belt and broke the stearing wheel off.

the first one is always the hardest