[andthentherewere3]

Anybody reading this thread and unfamiliar with the south, or of "tornado alley", must be thinking the end there is imminent at any moment. Trust me, the odds of having your house blown away there are still pretty low. Millions of residents spend their whole lives there without dying or having their house blow away. My family in tornado alley manages to live their life daily without fear of impending doom. As I said earlier, I lived through tornadoes in Oklahoma,so I'm not just guessing what it's like. All that said, I do agree that there are more tornadoes there than here in Connecticut, though. (not sure about the south, but I would be surprised if it were more dangerous than tornado alley)

In the nearly 30 years of living in Fairfield County, most of the homes I've been in had basements. However, not all did. Some just had crawl spaces; not enough room to take refuge in during a tornado. And some homes are split into apartments, with the basement being locked to tenants, or occupied by tenants. In the event of a tornado, you don't have time to run from house to house, knocking on doors, looking for a basement. You don't get much warning about a tornado here, just a warning on the weather channel. No sirens. And not everyone lives close together to their neighbors here, many people are on an acre more of property. And of course often people are not even at home, especially during the day when many people are working. Also, when we are in our basement, we cannot hear the doorbell, so some poor soul desperate to get in would be stuck outside to face the elements.

As wanderintonc explained, you should look for an interior closet or bathroom with no windows if you have no basement. (actually, if you are in a basement you run the risk of having the house fall on top of you...) If you have time, you can drag a mattress into the bathroom, climb into the tub, and pull the mattress over you. Of course, few people have the time to do that. I must admit whenever we do get a tornado warning here in Ct. I do not run and get a mattress. LOL

And while the snow here can get bothersome after a month of it, I don't find snowstorms to be a threat. They are rather exciting, actually. (but then again, as I said in an earlier post I find natural disasters thrilling) It's just the clean-up that gets to me. We got another 3-4" of snow again yesterday, so I have to get back out to shovel the driveway and walks again.

You just have to take the good with the bad, there are various risks living just about anywhere. And what scares one person won't scare another.

[Golden1]

I hate CT because most of our houses have basements! I'm moving to Lousiana in the morning. A possum lives under my shed so I can just imagine what would live under the house there

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Golden1

I hate CT because most of our houses have basements! I'm moving to Lousiana in the morning. A possum lives under my shed so I can just imagine what would live under the house there

You can find or build a house in CT without a basement you know...

[JViello]

Originally Posted by wavehunter007

You’d be quite surprised at some of the things you’d find in rural eastern Connecticut.

Not much in this state surprises me anymore.

I hear what you are saying though...I suppose it also depends on what one would call a "proper basement" as many historic homes have basements of only 4-5 foot depth. Is that now considered a crawl space?

Originally Posted by wavehunter007

As far as hurricanes…you are wrong there. I only used the coast of Georgia to make a point that weather hazards are not just a “north/south ratio. Long Island and Connecticut…have a shorter return period for hurricanes (winds or 74 –mph)…and major hurricanes (winds over 111-mpg)…. than Georgia and many other states (Virginia, parts of the Florida West Coast, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New England). As far as “25 minor hurricanes in Georgia…. Georgia has only been directly hit twice (2-times) by a hurricane since 1950. Connecticut/Long Island has been hit 7 times in the last 50 years. You are also right, that places like Charlotte have been deluged with rain and flooding often....but the fact remians that the worst urban hurricane flooding to this day....occured in the 1955 hurricanes that weakened and passed over Connecticut and dropped 1 to 2 feet or rain.

I agree on the point of not being a North/South thing for sure. Believe me, I'm fully aware that we stick out in the Atlantic like a thumb. In fact I just came back from Old Lyme and did some work on a cottage right on the beach and was looking around at all the new contruction/remodels and thought to myself what even a 8 foot storm surge would do to half these places. lol Nevermind if the surg comes in from the East...it will IMO crest as it gets squeezed into the sound.

You pointed out Georgia was only directly hit twice. That was kind of my point. What consitutes a "hit". The center of circulation has to be within the state boundaries? If Hilton Head SC got slammed, I'm pretty sure the folks in Savannah would be running scared too. In fact the data I have shows within 60 miles of Savannah, they had a hurricane effect of some sort 38 times in the last 137 years!

As for the flood of 55 - I grew up in Waterbury and know it well. Even have a book on the shelf behind me chronicleing the event. It wasn't pretty, and mroe a result of ignorance regarding public watershed areas. It wouldn't happen today even with the same rainfall amounts.

I hear what you are saying though.

Originally Posted by wavehunter007

Again, I get your point…my only issue is people think the Northeast is like the Pacific Northwest or Colorado... that it's “severe weather free”…which is just scientificlly untrue.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by njohnson

The biggest turn offs with places like Raleigh and many places in the South is how they build their homes. They pretty much clear hundreds of acres of land, parcel them into tiny .17 acre lots for the most part and build tract homes everywhere.

Trust me, it goes waaaay beyond that as well. Build quality is horrible. As an example, most homes use a particle board material for trimwork instead of clear pine or poplar. You know that sawdust crap they build cheap furniture out of? A lot of folks in my field down there report terrible stories of getting it wet, having it swell and then having to replace it.

That's just a small example. The other is, that SF generally includes the garage. Put an HVAC duct in the garage and it's "livable SF". AND they do not have basement for storage which also cuts into your livable space and building on a slab makes the construction costs a lot less if you compare apples to apples.

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

You can find or build a house in CT without a basement you know...

And have very cold feet in the Winter.

[Yankeerose00]

My only point was people from the north wanting to move south need to realize that they are merely trading snow and cold for other types of weather. Nobody rides for free. I guarantee you that the majority of people from the north moving south don't even consider the weather. All they think is "ahh no more snow and winter" They don't stop to think about the higher frequency of tornadoes, hurricanes and even just thunderstorms in general. I lived in NJ for 18 years and never in my life did I see the powerful thunderstorms and the torrential downpour of rain like I did in Tampa. And you get these storms every freakin' day from Memeorial day to Labor day! When it rains, the rain is so hard you can't see a foot in front of you. You won't hear this from people moving down south though. It's the pink elephant in the room. It goes back to what I was saying about the south having too much pride. God forbid you complain about something in Florida you'll be met with "Hey it's the price we pay to live in paradise"Flroida is the lightning capital of the US and only 2nd in the world (Rwonda is number one). This is something that they brag about. No lie! Most people moving to FL have no idea of this. Getting hit by lighting is a real threat in the summer esp since Florida is so flat and has many open areas. It's loaded w/ golfcourses and you would frequently hear of golfers getting hit by lightning. On another board (I think Virginia) people were talking about how nobody in Florida ever complained about traffic. It's weird, almost stepford. Like you can't say anything bad about this wonderful place you live.I guess my long rambling point is what I've seen as the big difference between the north and the south. It's perfectly fine to complain about the north and the horrible weather. But move down south and you won't hear people talking about such things. So much so that when things happen like storms, lighting, tornadoes, many transplants are taken by surprise. It's just always a good thing to look at all sides of the cube and make sure you aren't leaping out of the frying pan into the fire. If the OP of this post does move to Florida, I hope they do their reasearch and see if it really is the best move for them. Not just compare the winters.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by Yankeerose00

Flroida is the lightning capital of the US and only 2nd in the world (Rwonda is number one). This is something that they brag about. No lie! Most people moving to FL have no idea of this. Getting hit by lighting is a real threat in the summer esp since Florida is so flat and has many open areas.

Oh you have no idea...okay maybe you do.

I wasn't there 6 months before my house got hit. I was sitting on the sofa watching TV eating a bowl of cereal and *BLAM* all the outlets popped, the TV went off and I was covered in milk and cereal.

About a year later, a storm passed and the rain stopped so I came out from the hallway of an apartment complex where I took shelter...I was walking towards my car and all of a sudden the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood up and *KAPOW* the oak tree about 15 feet from me got hit and split right down the trunk. It all happened so fast there was literally no time to react at all even if I wanted too. It was right there seeing how fast it happened and totally without warning I lost all confidence in being around anything lightening. I honestly can't remember for sure, but swear think I soiled my shorts. I'm lucky I have a strong heart or I would have died from a heart attack.

I used to love thunderstorms on a warm Summer evening. After living in Florida and dealing with those monsoons, when thunder rumbles close now by I get an anxiety attack and head for indoors or the car. It sucks.

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by aroundthecorner059

I have not yet seen one house in CT that does not have a basement.

I have, but then I'm in real estate. The highest concentration that I've observed are ranches in Plainville, Meriden, Wallingford, and Middletown.

I once considered purchasing a Colonial in Prospect that was built on a slab. The odd thing was the steep incline immediately behind it. All I could imagine was snow melting and flooding the first floor.

[Yankeerose00]

I used to love thunderstorms on a warm Summer evening. After living in Florida and dealing with those monsoons, when thunder rumbles close now by I get an anxiety attack and head for indoors or the car.

That is soooo scary that you saw lightning that close! I used to tolerate storms but after living in Florida, I now hate them. The threat of lightning aside, I couldn't stand feeling the house rumbling, the lights flickering, losing cable, losing electricity during storms and it's 95 degrees outside, and then the steamy, even thicker air after the storm outside. And this was every single day in the rainy season. I did not enjoy one fourth or July in all my years there because you could guarantee rain at some point. People will say, "oh but it only rains for 15 minutes" Yeah, sometimes it's 15 minutes sometimes a half hour, but every time it would rain long enough to make everything wet and nasty and make the air even more humid.
When I worked at the University, there were many days that the 2pm storms came at 5pm and I had a long parking lot to cross to get to my car. How many times right in the middle of the parking lot it would suddenly start pouring and I would soaked by the time I made it to my car. That's the difference with Florida storms. It's like the jungle. One minute the sun is out, the next it's dumping buckets.
But again, if a person likes this sort of thing they will love Florida. I was always the odd duck because I hated it and everyone around me would be like "oh I loooove storms" Typical Florida, no matter what is going on, the people there just love it. Don't you dare even comment on the heat, humidity, storms, lightning, etc or you'll be met with "Well at least we don't have cold and snow!"
Oh I'm so glad I'm out of that hellhole.

[njohnson]

A lightning bolt hit the transformer across the street from us one time and another time hit the house next door, they had this big metal rod sticking up off their house (yeah smart). Man that was bright and loud!!

[JViello]

Originally Posted by njohnson

A lightning bolt hit the transformer across the street from us one time and another time hit the house next door, they had this big metal rod sticking up off their house (yeah smart). Man that was bright and loud!!

Imagine that about 15 feet from your face. Not good. Scarred for life.

The smoldering tree and ants freaking out and crawling everywhere like the world was ending was kind of funny though.