Experienced 110-mph winds?

[bahamaswx]

Was in eye of Floyd as he passed over Eleuthera at ~135mph.

[aumoore]

My house has sustained 110 mph winds twice (Ivan and Dennis)in less than one year. I was smart enought to leave. My neighbors who claim to be used to Hurricanes stayed for Ivan and Dennis and said Ivan was such a long event and at night that they were scared to death. Dennis produced what they described as "whitewash" where all you could see was white foaming water(rain).

The only two times I have experienced Hurricane force winds was during Opal and Georges. I lived west of Atlanta when Opal came thru and the 80mph winds felt like they were going to push the house off the foundation. Lost several trees and some fencing. I was in Dothan, Al when Georges doubled back from Lousiania and wound up in Panama City, FL. The 4 story hotel I was in did ok but I thought the windows were going to get sucked out. The flag pole outside my window swayed about 4 feet each way. That was 80mph winds. I can only imagine what 110mph or higher woudl feel like.

[6SpeedTA95]

Well I was in a borderline F3/F4 tornado as a kid. The peak winds were 230 mph but they're not sure what it was when it demolished the neighborhood.

Then lets see...I have been in several pretty major thunderstorms. In 7th grade we had a massive squal line move through the state and just about the entire metropolitan area experienced winds of at least 90mph and the area I was experienced 120 mph straightline winds. It was pretty impressive as the line I approached we were watchin the window bow out on my friends back door. The window was literally bowing with the pressure. Needless to say we didn't know the deadbolt wasn't locked and after watching for about 30 seconds the door blew open and smacked me in the head lol. At that point we closed it, dead bolted it and went into the center of the house by that time it was gettin quite noisy and we heard the tree in the back yard break.

[jes]

Frederic - strong Cat 3. I remember the eye. Yes, I would stay again, because neither the house I lived in then, nor the house I live in now sustained any major damage. I think Frederic brought down every pine tree in Mobile (exageration), but most houses remained standing. I would not stay for a Cat 4 or 5. Unfortunately, it appears the Cat 4 and 5's are becoming the norm --- not good.

[Greta]

Jeanne and Frances last year. Lived here all my life so I'm sure there are others...(Palm City, Florida)

[terstorm1012]

the strongest winds i can remember were up around 70 during a severe line of November storms in the early 90s...the fire dept. actually came around and asked our family if we wanted to evacuate because the winds were so strong.

There was also the June 1998 line of very severe storms, but I slept through that. Wind gusts to 70 (Apparently they were loud too, trees were down and windows in the neighborhood were broken.)

this was near philly, in delaware co.

Relatives survived Andrew, one in South Miami, another in Cutler Ridge/South Miami (not sure of the exact municipality), a couple more in Richmond Heights and one in Kendall. It isn't an experience they want to go through any time soon.

[shaggy]

we had wind gusts to 106mph here from fran and we were 70 miles from the eye and also 90 miles inland from where it made landfall.

Highest wind gust i have been thru was a squall line in FEB of 99' had official wind gust to 127mph at the airport at my house i was outisde watching the storms when it hit and i tried to go inside but the door wouldn't open and there was just tons of trees down.My brother was also caught outside in his car and it slid several cars at the stoplight a few feet sideways!!!

[cajungal]

Not sustained, but in gusts. The only time I got to experience true sustained hurricane winds was during Andrew. We evacuated for Katrina. And since we were on the west side for Katrina, the winds did not exceed 80 mph. During Andrew, I remember having the radio tuned to the Houma station. And they said sustained winds in Schriever were 100 mph. But, I know we had some gusts around the 110 range. I am surprized the damage was not as bad as we thought it would be. If the same situation happened today, the damage would probably be worse. Because we are 20 miles closer to the Gulf of Mexico now due to coastal erosion.

[ColdWaterConch]

Northern eyewall of Andrew, Perrine, FL.

Winds were strong enough to punch a 4x6 through a car door and steering column (great picture, though).

And no, I would NOT do that again. I liken it to playing russian roulette for 6 hours.

[Agua]

Georges, '98. I believe it officially made landfall at 109 mph, at Ocean Springs. I live 4/10 mile off the beach. There were some ungodly gusts which I'm sure well topped 110. I remember laying on my kitchen floor (trying to rest ... ha!) and looking up out my kitchen window. A 35-40 foot live oak which I had been watching swish back and forth in front of the window disappeared from view during one gust, only to pop back into view after it was over with. Terrifying night and ultimately I even went into a closet for protection for a few minutes.

[Tri-State_1925]

No...I'd say about 70-75 mph in Felix in 95 on Bermuda was the most for me. I agree with a couple of the posters above -- that was strong enough. We were sleeping in the hotel lobby with the glass windows creaking like they were about to burst...that was pretty scary. I actually tried to get outside the hotel during the worst of it to get some pictures, but I simply couldn't open the doors the wind and pressure were so strong. It's hard to imagine what it's like being in a cat 3+.

[HUC]

4 TIMES in my life:Cleo(eye) in 1964-Inez(south eyewall)in 1966_David(just north of the eyewall)1979-Hugo(south of the eyewall)1989!!!
The hardest was CLEO,witch was a strong cat 3 strengtning into a cat 4 by passing over my location!!Shorts moments,but unbelievable.....

[jax]

4 TIMES in my life:Cleo(eye) in 1964-Inez(south eyewall)in 1966_David(just north of the eyewall)1979-Hugo(south of the eyewall)1989!!!
The hardest was CLEO,witch was a strong cat 3 strengtning into a cat 4 by passing over my location!!Shorts moments,but unbelievable.....

Yikes !

[hurricanesurvivor]

Just 3 times for me
1-Hurricane Camille in 1969. Giant live oak fell on the house we were in. Not sure how we survived that one. We were 30 miles inland, nowhere near a river or body of water, and there was a foot of water on the ground the next day. Had to wade to our one surviving car- the other one was crushed under the trees. No electricity for about 7 weeks.
2-Hurricane Elena in 1985. Huge oak came down on the house across the street from us. Saw a really neat thing that I haven't seen before or since, because Elena came through during the day. The wind was blowing horizontally down the street before the eye, pushing a tons of tree limbs and junk down the street, and then after the eye it was blowing the other direction, and all that stuff was blowing right back down LOL! Electricity was only out for about 12 hours or so. Not bad.
3-Hurricane Katrina, 7 weeks ago. Trees fell all around us but none on the house- thankfully! Nearly every house in our neighborhood had a tree on it but ours. We experienced the "whitewash" effect, where you couldn't see out of the windows because the rain had turned white like you were in a washing machine. No electricity for 5 weeks. Miserably hot afterwards.

And no, after all that I feel lucky to be alive and we will NEVER stay for another one. I think my luck may be running out

[T'Bonz]

Probably not, but I'm not sure. I was in Tamarac, Fl (north of Ft Lauderdale) for Andrew, but I'm not sure what our windspeeds were.

All I know is that it was an impressive storm up here.

[natmicstef]

Hurricane Luis at 140mph. We rode it out in a hotel ballroom. Never wish to experience anything like it again but to be honest living with the aftermath for so many years was worse.

[cajungal]

My mom rode out Betsy and winds in the Houma-Thibodaux got winds of 130 miles plus. And that was 1965 and those towns were at least 20 miles further inland than what they sit today. Houma and Thibodaux were both in Betsy's huge eye which was 40 miles across. Impressive because she actually made landfall in Grand Isle. I think that is the last time Houma and Thibodaux were in the actual eyewall of a hurricane. We had a close call for Andrew his eyewall scraped Terrebonne Parish before making landfall in Morgan City. (25 miles to my west) But, I was not born for Betsy. She happened 11 years before I was born, so I did not get to experience winds of that magnitude. Everyone around my mom's age still talks about that night to this day. You just never forget something like that.

[Ixolib]

Yep - Camille, Frederick, Elena, Georges, Katrina. But only experienced surge ONCE!! That's faaaaaaar more disturbing than any wind in any hurricane I've ever experienced - including Camille!!

p.s. - If the wind was the only issue with which I'd have to deal with in future canes, of course "I'd do it again". However, if this question were posed in relation to storm surge, then the answer would be an absolute no!!

[mpic]

I don't know what the winds were with Rita where I was...in Woodville just north of Beaumont...but when those 75-100' pine tress started coming down around us literally making the ground shake, I knew better than to go out. When we evacuated Galveston County, Rita was headed the other way. I live in a mobile home, so will definitely leave again, but just not as early. Alicia was bad, but we were in a house at that time. Should have left for that one, too.

[NC George]

If downeastnc got 106 in Fran I might have gotten 110 in gusts, I live about 15 miles closer to the coast (it's usually an hour worse here, in other words, what's here in Ayden will be in Greenville in about an hour. It works the other way for snow coming from the N.) It definitely wasn't fun. Howling winds, power out, things crashing about outside. Fran was definitely the windiest of all the hurricanes that struck my house in the past 10 years, probably because we were in the right front quad the entire event. Bertha'a eye passed directly over my house, while all the others passed to the east of me. Floyd was a close second.

Funny, I don't really remember the winds in Feb 99, although I had to be here. Maybe that's the one that made a tree fall on my Isuzu truck. Now that I think about it more, I think it was, because I bought the Ford truck that got me through the Floyd flood (literally, I drove through water over my 35" tires to get home that night - to save my pets!) earlier the same year as Floyd struck.

Another 110 mph wind incident close, but not directly affecting me with wind: The tornado of 1984, a huge (1/4 mile wide) f4 that struck our area in March. One of my teachers was killed, and the closest elementary school to where I now live was destroyed (at night, no students present.)