Well Wishes and Prayers Being Sent for Anyone in the Path of Matthew

I hope that everyone in the path is able to move away, evacuate as recommended. While I've never been in a hurricane before, I have driven through part of a tornado which ended up uprooting two trees on either side of our driveway at a place we rented twenty years ago. We were without power for a week there, but it was summer so not so bad. Years later in the home we now live in a thunderstorm took out our power, or maybe it was a snowstorm, during the winter months. We were without heat or electric for a weeks time then too. We shipped our girls out to stay the nights with friends a few miles away while we kept the fire stoked at night.

@MarshaMusselman This is why we need to be smarter about building to where we live. A simple house can be constructed pretty easily, but it doesn't mean that it will stand the test of time. If you have to build a new house, wouldn't it be better to just get it right the first time around? In tornado country houses should be mostly underground to resist the winds and the destructive force of the tornadoes. Garages and storage would be mostly underground as well. Taller buildings would have to be built to withstand the forces that might try to rip them apart. In hurricane areas, you can't build underground because of the storm surge, so homes would have to be like concrete and steel barracks. Strong and able to stand up to the winds and the elements slamming against them. Generators and other equipment would be included so that if grid power is lost (which would be best in underground lines) power would be able to run for necessities. It's good that you were able to stay warm during that winter. It would be nice if we could build to a point where that is less necessary as time goes by.

That was tough...heating dinner on candles and staying inside the blankets...to that extent, matthew spared.

What kinda preparation would be sufficient for nature's fury..

@vandana7 At least shutters on the windows so that objects cannot come inside your house.

@Hatley, Sure is a scary time for people in that part of the U.S.

@MarshaMusselman aint that the truth? 'r puttin' others'n danger to rescue ya coz ya chose to stay 'hind... i hope all remained safe, but fear many didn't :(

That's what I'm hoping too. Someone from here mentioned that they were going to wait a see before deciding what to do and that hasn't always worked out for others that came before, so I hope that wasn't what they did decide in the end. Even if some people don't have a place to go, it's better to get further away than to wish you'd left when it's too late.

Thanks for the update, Jeff. I've been working and haven't checked the reports on this as yet. Did it sound like the majority of the people did leave their homes, or maybe the flooding was the worst of it without lives being lost too?