Mother Nature's Vaguaries or Catastrophes I've Lived Through

[bdahunter]

We've been doing a lot of talking lately about the wierd weather occuring in North America this winter but Mother Nature has many tricks up her sleave, here are a few that I've experienced:

In 1982 I was on the Greyhound Bus heading back to campus at the U of Guelph and the sky was dark and stormy. Rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was rocking the bus as we pulled up in front of the Life Sciences Building. The bus driver opened the door quickly to let myself and my girlfriend out into the tempest and we made a mad dash for the building with a small umbrella as our only shield against the elements. We were drenched before we made it to the main doors as the wind was driving the huge rain pellets at us from all angles. Just as I grabbed for the doors the umbrella shot out of my hand with a loud pop and was gone over the roof of the building. I pulled on the doorpull with all my might to get out of the fury of the storm but it wouldn't budge, suddenly the pelting rain turned to foam all around us and we couldn't breath, we were suffocating in a watery foam. Just as suddenly the foam was gone and the door pulled free from the frame and we were in the dry safety of the Life Sciences Building. We wandered through the hallways dripping wet and wondering at what had just happened to us, until we got to the U.C. Building. The U.C. was abuzz with talk of a tornado touching down on campus so we took the elevator to the top floor and looked out of the windows with the other students. To the west was the Veterinary College and there were sheep scattered in the fencing and the trees (a tragic mess), to the East lay the Arboretum (a rare tree repository) the section with the rare pine trees was flattened in a pinwheel pattern on the ground. The twister had touched down 300 yds before the point that we had exited the bus and 400 yds beyond us, it was a near perfect miss. My girlfriend and I couldn't fathom our incredibly good/bad luck.





1989 I moved from Ontario to Calgary, Alberta and on a trip through the Rockies I heard a strange hissing sound, I looked up to see a wall of snow hurtling down the mountainside in front of me. I pulled into an avalanche shed as the sky around me turned white with fine snow and the avalanche shot out over the Trans-Canada Hwy..





1994 I was sound asleep in my bed, alone, when my dog 'Bear' woke me by pacing around the bedroom and growling in distress. I thought that someone was trying to break in to the house because of my dog's behavior. As I was clearing the cobwebs from my eyes and groping for the axehandle I kept beside the bed, I noticed that the alarm clock was walking itself across the night table. My knees were suddenly rubbery and I had a hard time keeping my balance, after a minute of clinging to the headboard, all returned to mormal and eventually 'Bear' calmed down and returned to a fitful sleep, as did I. It had been a 4.1 earthquake.
2001 and my Princess and I took a trip to Costa Rica and visited a lodge overlooking Mount Arenal, an active volcano. After negotiating a good deal on a cabina, we had a wonderful dinner and then settled in for the night. Around 3 a.m. we were both awoken by loud thunder and got out of bed to enjoy the light show created by the storm. We went to the large windows but it wasn't raining, instead we saw a bright red river flowing down the side of Mount Arenal. We watched it for over an hour, in awe of the forces of nature and then we returned to our slumber; having witnessed a truly rare and spectacular event.





2002 found me working away on the computer at our home on the shores of Lake Couchiching with a summer thunderstorm passing over our home. Princess Susan loves thunderstorms as do I so she was in the doorway leading onto the deck with our two bouviers "Bear' and 'Bree' watching the show. I wasn't particularly worried about the storm as they are a common occurance and I have a good UPS for my computer. Lightning and thunder were crackling all around us and I was in the process of shutting down the computer when there was an ungodly 'CRACK' and the screen went dead. My body stiffened unnaturally and I heard Susan scream and the dogs begin to yelp. When I finally got to my feet and came downstairs, I found Susan leaning against the wall with the dogs cowering around her, Susan's hair was stuck out on end mine probably would have but I was wearing my summer haircut (bald); we had been hit by lightning. The old elm tree in ou sideyard was smoking and the metal plumbing vent on the roof was scorched, the computer hard drive was fused and the information unretrieveable. The UPS company never paid up.





2003 found me in the West Indies with Hurricane Fabian approaching on a direct course for the island of Mustique, there was no place to go so we battened down the hatches and hoped for the best. At the last moment, Fabian hung a right and trashed Jamaica, then Cuba and finally it bullseyed Bermuda and having enjoyed that so much it turned around and hit Bermuda again (CAT 4). My crew were thrilled at our good luck in having been spared from Fabian's wrath and I commented to the guys that there would be a lot of work to be done next year in Bermuda.
2004 found me in, you guessed it, Bermuda and all was well until Hurricane Florence hit in 2006 (only a CAT 2) which rocked our socks but left us unharmed, with only minor damage.





2007 I was on my way home from a half days work on a Saturday when I ran into a traffic jam a kilometre long (unheard of here), a passing motorist said that there was a tsunami coming and the Village of Somerset was being evacuated. My wife and I live in Somerset so I tried to call her but the cell phone network was overwhelmed. There was no way into Somerset but eventually the police lifted the roadblock and traffic continued. I found my wife and 'Bree' safe at home; it had been a false report by the drunken chef at our favorite restaurant who saw large seas (they were 45 feet) against an unusually low cloud formation and he had imagined a tsunami. The chef made the front page of the local paper but it was all forgotten in a fortnight. I wonder what 2008 will bring us, something interesting no doubt.





Tornado, Avalanche, Earthquake, Volcanic Eruption, Lightning Strike and Hurricanes; there was a minor flood, numerous blizzards and a forest fire mixed in there as well but I didn't want to bore you with the trivial items. Canadians are said to love the weather but this is ridiculous!


Cheers All,

BDA

[Buster]

Man BDA, you have been through a little bit of nature for sure...You have been lucky on all counts...Hope 2008 is a slow year for you....Buster...

[anne]

Wow Bda that sure is something,glad you survived.........love the pics.

[MinelabMan]

Humans can do alot of things, but we'll never be able to tame nature.....glad you survived!

[bdahunter]

Sometimes I think that Mother Nature has it in for me but she always seems to stay her hand at the last moment. Lucky and unlucky at the same time I guess. I'm not keen on experiencing a real tsunami, it would take a lot of luck to save my tail from one of those.
One of the Sri Lankan guys who worked for me on the last job was in Bermuda because all of his family except for an Aunt died in the tsunami that hit Sri Lanka a few years ago. He spent 2 days clinging to a palm tree until the waters receded, when they did, everything he'd known until that point in his life was gone. Just a bit of rubble where his town had been and a handful of survivors like himself, most like himself decided to see the world as there was no reason to stay and mainly just a lot of painful memories.
Mother Nature can be a very cruel mistress.

Cheers,

BDA