Dude… all I can say is that if two massive trees fall down right outside your house in the middle of a bunch of high wind and lightning and thunder and hail and torrential rain and are anything less than terrified, you are a hell of a lot braver than I am.
Like 80±mile-an-hour winds that knock down trees across the neighborhood, take out power for over a day, destroy homes and cars, etc.?
How is that not an extreme condition? Do you think it happens around here once a week? Did you even see the photos? How often are you in such situations?
Stuff is built differently in places where hurricanes are common. Building standards are more strict, especially after Andrew, and adverse weather is a consideration when things are built (for instance, chain link fences are incredibly common rather than wood fences). Same with the landscaping - branches break, trees completely falling is rare because generally sturdier trees with deeper roots are chosen, and are planted well away from the house. A lot of power lines are buried - it’s more resilient to bad weather (even the afternoon thunderstorms in Florida can occasionally be just as nasty as the thunderstorms that caused so much damage at your place) and long term it’s cheaper than replacing the power lines every summer. And you kinda get used to being without power for a few hours (or even a few days to a week) after really bad hurricanes or thunderstorms. I’ve done homework by kerosene lamp more than once as a kid, and I’m in my 30s. My family played a lot of board games during the long power outages. Eventually my family, and a lot of others, invested in a generator, they’re fairly common now. My dad had a chainsaw and mostly dealt with the fallen trees himself.
But I’ve never learned how to tow a car out out the ditch, but many of my friends here in Minnesota do know how - different places require different skill sets. Learning how to deal with a furnace and radiator has been interesting.
Also, in hindsight, a direct eyewall hit or worse of a category 3+ hurricane is so pants shittingly terrifying that nobody sane continues living there after experiencing one.
Video at the bottom of the page shows the effects of different categories of hurricane. Might help you understand how someone who has experienced cat 3/4/5 hurricanes wouldn’t consider cat 1s terrifying anymore.
Well yes. You have hurricanes of different intensity. Some are just a little more than a bad storm.
Category 1 hurricane speed is 74-95 mph according to my search.
I just lived through a relatively short, non-hurricane thunderstorm with winds measured a little above 80 mph.
Here’s where I wrote about what it did at my home alone.
https://lemmy.world/post/17079709?scrollToComments=true
Believe me, it was terrifying.
There’s terrifying (or should I say scared) and then there’s terrifying.
Right, unless it comes from the Italics region of Fonts it’s just sparkling terror.
Dude… all I can say is that if two massive trees fall down right outside your house in the middle of a bunch of high wind and lightning and thunder and hail and torrential rain and are anything less than terrified, you are a hell of a lot braver than I am.
Like that xkcd someone else replied with, what you’re used to is less scary. Person you’re replying to is prob used to harsher hurricanes.
I think most people would reserve the word terrifying for extreme conditions.
Like 80±mile-an-hour winds that knock down trees across the neighborhood, take out power for over a day, destroy homes and cars, etc.?
How is that not an extreme condition? Do you think it happens around here once a week? Did you even see the photos? How often are you in such situations?
Stuff is built differently in places where hurricanes are common. Building standards are more strict, especially after Andrew, and adverse weather is a consideration when things are built (for instance, chain link fences are incredibly common rather than wood fences). Same with the landscaping - branches break, trees completely falling is rare because generally sturdier trees with deeper roots are chosen, and are planted well away from the house. A lot of power lines are buried - it’s more resilient to bad weather (even the afternoon thunderstorms in Florida can occasionally be just as nasty as the thunderstorms that caused so much damage at your place) and long term it’s cheaper than replacing the power lines every summer. And you kinda get used to being without power for a few hours (or even a few days to a week) after really bad hurricanes or thunderstorms. I’ve done homework by kerosene lamp more than once as a kid, and I’m in my 30s. My family played a lot of board games during the long power outages. Eventually my family, and a lot of others, invested in a generator, they’re fairly common now. My dad had a chainsaw and mostly dealt with the fallen trees himself.
But I’ve never learned how to tow a car out out the ditch, but many of my friends here in Minnesota do know how - different places require different skill sets. Learning how to deal with a furnace and radiator has been interesting.
Also, in hindsight, a direct eyewall hit or worse of a category 3+ hurricane is so pants shittingly terrifying that nobody sane continues living there after experiencing one.
The most extremely extreme xetreme conditions, if you need.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php
Video at the bottom of the page shows the effects of different categories of hurricane. Might help you understand how someone who has experienced cat 3/4/5 hurricanes wouldn’t consider cat 1s terrifying anymore.
The wind is not even the worst part of a hurricane, the rain and raised water level can be way more damaging than the wind alone.