[pest]

Originally Posted by Noctis

I've lived in southeast Virginia and in South Carolina all my life. I've seen a whole lot of hurricanes. Truth be told, they aren't that bad - at all. Just stay inside, and you'll be fine. I slept through Hugo, the worst hurricane seen by our generation. Nothing to freak out over, just sit back and enjoy the show. Take pictures if you can, it's a pretty awesome sight.

I've been through a couple of small ones myself - Camille, Kate - probably a dozen tropical storms - and I have seen what some big ones have done shortly after they hit - Opal, Andrew.

Opal was devasting along the beach. Entire hotels washed away or half buried in sand, roads gone, houses in all states of destruction. But nothing too bad inland. I saw what andrew did in south florida and in louisiana. Entire neighborhoods destroyed 30 miles inland. Roofs gone everywhere you look and nothing left where the tornados touched down. Flew over portions of louisiana where there were more trees on the ground than there were standing.

Category 1 and 2 storms are annoying and damned inconvenient. Kate, a cat 1 storm, left us without power for a full week. Category 3 storms are starting to get pretty dangerous, and with cat 4 and 5 storms you want to be in the next state. Or farther.