I live in FL and I used to live in SC a few years ago. Of course I have gone through it many times.

I been through a few since moving to FL when I was 11. None bad though so I wouldn't say unfortunately.

it actually wasn't a hurricane, it was a typhoon. those feel worse cause you're getting the brunt of the storm on a whee leetle island. we were little so we all thought it was fun times. haha

I grew up in the Caribbean, and so went through a few a year. There you just have to sit it out, but as kids we thought it was great fun. Power would then be out for months! We used to always think statesiders were so funny when they would complain about a few days of no power.

when i was little my family and i wer going on vacation and we wer driving to the hotel and a hurricane was following us. we got into the hotel and the doors flew off.

Katrina. It was no fun.

I should clarify - we didn't actually think people were wrong. Hurricanes seem to do more damage here in the states b/c people aren't used to them and don't build accordingly. Plus, no power wasn't so bad in the islands b/c we didn't have air conditioning and we were used to it going out as a matter of course. (I don't want anyone to think I am downplaying the trauma of a big storm.)

Yeah,.. I'm in Texas - we have another one coming this weekend.. Joy.

..I guess none of us are actually answer the other questions.

I make sure we have plenty of water, extra ice, sometimes I fill the tub up.. (And take baths before it hits) Make sure we have some canned goods (which I HAAATE, I prefer fresh veggies). Flash lights, batteries. Battery operated radio/black-and-white tv to keep us entertained. Games to play.

If I think it's going to be REALLY bad we head out to my mother's so we will all be together. (She lives alone, 30mins from me ..there are three routes I can take there.)

I used to live in new orleans, so I've been through a few. If they weren't too serious, we'd usually have a hurricane party.

Just one! Hurricane Gloria, 1985. It didn't seem as big as they thought it would be but a tree fell through our neighbor's roof.

I just experienced my first while in Guatemala. We had no idea it was a hurricane so we went zip lining. It was actually a lot of fun - and a very small hurricane.

I haven't personally, but my mother lives in Long Beach, MS and I am sooo nervous for her! She's only a block from the beach and this is her first hurricane!
We've been through countless tornadoes and they don't freak me out at all anymore, but a hurricane sure does!

I am a Florida girl from birth, so I have been through 6 or 7 in my lifetime. Our house is built to withstand a low-end CAT5, so we just stay at home. You get very used to it, prep-wise. The hurricane is coming, so you get gas for cars/generators, plenty of water/non-perishables, flashlights and batteries, and stick it out. We have boards cut to the size of each of our windows and labeled that stay in the garage until the next hurricane. We also photograph the inside and outside of the house for insurance purposes and move all of our cars away from the trees.

You get used to them, but when it's 95 degrees in August, in 90% humidity, no power is a big deal! It's sweltering. Now I live in Cali and traded hurricanes for earthquakes

Sarabel, you were zip-lining during a hurricane?

Wow, I'm surprised to me in the minority by never having been through a hurricane. Although I was in PA when Hurricane Ivan - by that point it was Tropical Storm Ivan - hit us. We had a 500 year flood, I think it's called; a really bad one, anyway. The Lehigh and Delaware rivers flooded the whole downtown of Easton. But I slept through the actual storm!

My bf was in Jamaica during Ivan, and was injured pretty seriously. Scary times.

I live in Ca, so I've only experienced floods and earthquakes...

Yes, when I lived in the "hurricane capital of the world" Florida. The aftermath were "good times" in the house, but my youngest son was absolutly terrified.

I lived in Miami for 3.5 years. I was seeking shelter from Francis the first week I got there. Katrina damaged my apartment enough that I had to move by time Wilma hit us. I spent a lot of time on campus during both of those events to take care of critters in the labs while power was out. It is weird not being there anymore. The National Hurricane Center is on my old campus, I volunteered with the Red Cross to deal with communities following hurricanes, and I find myself still keeping track of the storms. The big benefit of living there for such a short time period is that my disaster preparedness is still top notch and I owe my hurricane paranoia for that.

Nope, I thankfully don't live aaaaaaaaanywhere near hurricane alley. I did live in tornado alley though. Lived through hundreds of tornadoes, no hurricanes. I'm scared of hurricanes actually. I wouldn't know whether to go up to escape the water or down to avoid the winds!

I live in California so thankfully no hurricanes for me!

Yeah back home in AU there were a couple when I was a kid. Once at our new house when i was 8/9 years old a porta potty flew down the street from the wind and smashed into someones house LOL we thought it was funny. And some tiles came off the roof of our patio (outside) and some poor lady drove around to tell us the roof came off our house. We had to politely thank her and advise it wasnt the house - it was just the patio LOL

I have been through 6 but the most notable were camille and katrina. camille made katrina look like a spring breeze.

I went through 4 hurricanes in 2004, and my area was really affected by Fay. Pretty much everyone's house flooded and we are all still trying to put everything back together.

I'm another Floridian (born and raised) and the only really bad ones I've dealt with were the four in 2004. Thankfully, we were in an apartment at the time with relatively few windows so we didn't do much preparation beyond buying some necessities. (Flashlights, batteries, candles, gallon jugs of water, ready-to-eat stuff.) We didn't have power for about two weeks, most of that due to a transformer that was blown. The rest of the city was wrecked.

Sadly, my hometown of Fort Myers was hit pretty hard. A lot of the nearby islands were flattened, blue tarps were on virtually every roof, a lot of places were flooded, and, of course, a lot of the woody areas caused damage to nearby neighborhoods.

My in-laws, who live near us, have the boards for windows sitting in their garage, as well as a generator and tons of canned and bottled drinks and foods.

Be in Florida for 28 of my 32 years
So I've been through to many to count or remember names

Yes a couple, the only name i can remember though is Hurricane Bob

No, but I watched one on the Real World. haha.

Living in the Philippines means I experience several hurricanes in a year, unfortunately. I'm pretty used to it, but I hate it, especially when it gets scary.

Hugo in Myrtle Beach (but I was only 9 so all I rembmer is hiding under a table while my parents and grandparents boarded up the windows).

Also practically drove through a tornado a couple years ago in MD. There's nothing like cowering in your car watching it cross the road in front of you! I actually wished I had a camera!

I was in Gloria and we lost power for weeks.
We were well away from any water so stayed put but I don't think riding out a major hurricane is a good idea, especially if you have pets.
Tha major thing is water, water water. Filling bathtubs & sinks so you can flush the toilets, and having plenty of jugs to drink. Also packing the extra space in the freezer with bags of ice will help food last longer- you can put some in the fridge if the power stays off and you can also melt it for drinking.

I'm in New Orleans now(and was for Katrina) and as Gustav potentially approaches the Lousiana coast, it's all that anyone can talk about. Everyone is out preparing. Most of us have both an evacuation plan and a "ride-it-out" plan. Post-Katrina preparation is certainly much different than the steps we took before that day and the days after that ruined so many lives. Everyone takes approaching storms much more seriously than before. Of course, the flood that came after the storm was what caused the lion's shares of the damage. We're all praying that the levees hold this time around.

I was staying at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware when Hurricane Dennis made its way up the coast. Our curtains spent the night plastered to the ceiling, and when we woke up, the waves were crashing INTO the exterior wall of our hotel. Time to go!!

From New Orleans and have lived here forever. It's home. I'm evacuating Saturday morning and spending the time up till then working and then packing up the office and then my apartment.

Besides the clothing, water, flashlight, canned goods, radio etc necessities, the general rule here is: pack like you are never coming back. Take what means the very most to you (pictures, your or your kid's artwork, your wedding or prom dress, scrapbooks, anything special that can't be replaced) and what you need for insurance and living purposes (policies, birth certificate, mortgage or rent paperwork, resume, social security card etc).

Take what you can't live without or what you would need to start living elsewhere and kiss the rest goodbye.

Oh and if you have a pet take it with you! Or me and the rest of the world will hate you.

I have never been through a real hurricane but the remnants of one since I live in the northeast. Just that is horrible so I couldn't imagine going through a real one.

I went through many hurricanes.

OHKATE
A hurricane can go through tiny islands, just ask the caribbean..lol

The difference between a typhoon and a hurricane is one is in the Pacific and the other is in the Atlantic. Same kind of storm though.

I live on the shore in New Jersey, and we tend to not get hurricanes head on. However, there are a few times we get some nasty remains of tropical storms. I think the last one we had, that concerned the area a lot was Floyd a couple of years ago. I think about 6 years ago?
Other than that, we haven't had anything major hit us thank goodness ^_^

So. Fla. is like hurricane central. We get em all, pretty much.

i am also from florida miami in-fact and i dont know if you all remember Hurricane Andrew in 1992 that DESTROYED miami i was only 9 but i remember hiding in the bathroom with my mom dad 2 cousins and 4 fam friends ready to tie ourselves to concert pillars in my house because we thought it was going to fall its was one scary storm luck nothing happened just 2 broken windows and we lost all of our trees roof tiles after that i have been through a countless number or hurricanes even one that followed me to washington DC when i was in school there and one earthquake but the scaryes i must say was when i got stuck in a hurricane a few years ago on a boat in the middle of the ocean between miami and the bahamas