My very first Hurricane experience was Alicia in 1983

[MrScorpio]

I was in Austin. My second month at my first duty station. Obviously, we didn't get hit as bad as Houston, but we got our share.

Ike makes Alicia look like a spring shower.

Hope that that the folks down there make it through this.

[indepat]

1. Seven days after the purchase of our first home, Betsy struck taking a small tree and a few dozen

shingles. We were lucky. Three houses we had rented earlier were under water during Katrina, but our first home (in Metairie) also escaped Katrina's wrath without serious damage. :D

[Spacemom]

2. I rode out Alicia in Houston

I was 12 years old and spending the night with a friend. By the time it was obvious that I should probably get home, it was too late, I had to stay there. We stayed up watching "The Exorcist" and listening to the wind howl down the chimney. One of the freakiest nights of my life.

[Mariana]

3. Frederic on Sep 12, 1979

My dad worked for the phone company, so we spent the night at the switching office in Mobile on Old Shell Road. The building had a generator that powered strong outside lights so we could see what was happening outside. We got lucky, downtown Mobile was expected to flood IIRC, but it didn't. Our house had only minor damage, and we were prepared enough that we made out fine during the time after with no power or clean water.

We'll only get TS winds from this one where I am.

[VeggieTart]

4. David in 1979

Just missed where I was living in Orlando, Florida. I was 11 at the time.

Now that I live in Washington, hurricane experience is pretty rare, but we got some ugliness with Isabel and Hanna.

[bermudat]

5. Alicia was my first hurricane.

I was living in Houston at the time. The morning of the hurricane, I was naively preparing to go to

work when the newscaster said for everyone to stay off the roads. My home never lost electricity or

water pressure. However, for the following week or two I had friends coming over to shower or just

sleep with air conditioning since electricity was out for up to 3 weeks in some areas.