re: Worst hurricane you've experienced?

First year I lived in my house in SJP we had Gustav. That sucked.
We left town for Ida, which was even worse.

Neither compare to the tornado we had in ‘16. But that was a quick slam.

Betsy. Was my first and a tree limb went through the roof of our house. I have been through all the others in Baton Rouge. Andrew was nasty, Gustav too.

We talking highest intensity or the biggest effect?

Andrew or Gustav is likely either.


Andrew was the first one to hit BR in years at that point so there was a lot more it could damage than of other storms had blown in before and taken out weak trees and so forth. Was out of power for around a week with that one but it didn’t feel horrible because it was a little cool. Katrina felt far worse in a shorter time period because the heat was on and you couldn’t get relief.

Going back to school after Andrew sucked because spoiled little fricks were like “We couldn’t go do anything fun!” Bitch, I was without power until about a day or so before school.

Gustav was a lot of the same and did a huge amount of damage in and around me, including uprooting a lot of water oaks because the ground was too saturated. When the wind picked up, the tree went over with the root system going with it.

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The angle a hurricane comes in at makes all the difference, especially on the western side.

Gustav in Pierre Part must’ve been downright scary.

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Ida was actually coming straight up Gonzales' arse, but it wobbled to the east at the very last minute, sparing us from a direct hit, but fricking Livingston in the process.

Gustav in Pierre Part was, like another poster said, the only time I've felt tFear from a weather event. The sustained winds were one thing, but when the gusts would come through, it felt like the house was being ripped from the foundation.

Laura
Rita
Delta

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I remember the house breathing/flexing for hours.

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Worked Hurricane Laura recovery and ended up in a bunch of different attics all across LC. Just about every home had some indication of structural flexing. I had never really thought about that phenomenon, but it was definitely there.

I've walked hundreds of attics, so it's second-nature to reach out and grab the 2x4 brace boards when passing through. I just about bought the farm a few times in LC--grabbing a brace board only to find it wrenched free and dangling from the storm.

Andrew was the worst for me. Had to sit inside and watch while it blew down one of our barns. Wasn't a damn thing we could do but watch. Ida was bad with most of her wind at night. We could hear the sound of trees snapping and tin flapping around midnight. Turned out she blew off a portion of a barn's roof (and toppled countless trees). But, I was wiped out from storm prep and slightly to mostly intoxicated, so eventually I just went to bed. Slept soundly until daybreak.

Betsy
Laura

Hugo

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Gustav-Baton Rouge

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Same here. It was like an old school 15-round fight and instead of knocking me out early, Gustav just kept jabbing and piling up the points round after round after round. Thought that hurricane would never fricking end.

Ivan. I have been through quite a few direct and I direct hits with hurricanes, (Frederick, Erin, Opal, Danny, Georges, and more recently Sally).
None of these compare to Ivan. Damage you usually see on the coast went 30 miles inland. The power plant was damaged, and electrical infrastructure was basically destroyed unless it was underground. Power got back up for us in about 2 weeks, some didn’t have it for months.
I-10 was destroyed to the east, impassable for days to the west. Hwy 29 north was impassable for days. HWY 90 was down for bridge repair. HWY 98 was destroyed at the Baybridge.

Entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Entire condos were destroyed.

Here is a link to some pics.
Ivan pics