Back in 1985, the month of September, A Hurricane was traversing through the Atlantic and predicted to recurve and move up the Eastern Seaboard. Early thoughts were this would be another Hurricane curving around the Azores High. With the high making a quick shift to the east and another high pressure anchored NE of New England it soon became apearant that a Hurricane would strike and the latest track brought the eye over my hometown of Milford. (which it ended up doing, with landfall in Milford CT.)
Well, If any of you know me, I am a big fan of weather. especially bad weather. A Cat 1 hurricane poised to make landfall, I was not about to sit at home and miss the action going on at the shoreline. A few of my friends loaded up in my 1980 Chrysler Newport (a boat on wheels) LOL and headed for Gulf Beach in Milford, a 10 minute drive from where I lived at the time. When we arrived, the wind and waves were already quite high. We stayed there as long as we could, by early afternoon the crashing waves and storm surge was filling up the parking lot and surrounding roads. I guestimate the winds were blowing between 50-80 MPH. As we left, we said we left at the perfect time. The eye had moved over us and the sun briefly came out. What a view, with the sun out and black low clouds surrounding it. On the way back to home we realized the return trip woulden't be that easy. Trees, tree branches, powerlines and debris was littered evrywhere.
One mile from my home, I was manuevering around fallen powerlines and thought I was clear. As I began to accelerate i realized the car was not wanting to move forward. I glanced into the rear view mirror and found out wires wrapped around my axle and was trying to pull down the power pole. A man came out of his house and said he called 9-11 and NOT to try to get out of the car as he had power and the line was probably live. When the Fire Dep't arrived, they determined the wire was dead and they cut us free, and told us to go home.
Well, we did just that... I was quite impressed with the force in a Cat1 Hurricane, I coulden't imagine the force of a Cat3 or higher, But if one was coming, I would not venture out for too long. ROFL
