Talk of The Villages Florida - Disasters you have been in or near?

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March 3, 1972 an airplane crashed into a house a block from the where we lived. It was 3 miles outside of the airport. We didn't see the plane crash, but we heard it and ran to the sight, arriving well before any first responders. As soon as we saw that it was a plane crash we were afraid that it might explode. A neighbor was sure that there were people on board that were still alive and was frantically yelling for people to help. It was only about 10 - 12 minutes before police and fireman arrived, but it seemed like a lifetime. Although it was residential neighborhood, the plane took out only that one house. Sixteen people aboard the airplane were killed, including the pilot and first officer; 36 passengers were injured. A man who rented the second floor of the house also was killed.

Couple of years ago. On a nice sunny day back at the end of a canyon at Lake Powell in our beautiful sea ray boat having a little breakfast. In a couple of seconds,a wall of water came over the top about 500 above us and a hundred or so feet wide. Started to drop boulders and water directly on us. It took less than 3 minuets to completely sink our boat with everything we owned on it(car keys wallet purse etc) we barley had time to jump off and swim for our lives. We were 50 miles down lake. What an afternoon we had.

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Originally Posted by Sable99 (Post 851800)

...I was sitting in my car on the approach to the 14th Street Bridge in DC when the plane hit the bridge in the 80s. I will never forget seeing the helicopters taking the people out of the Potomac River and all of the rescue vehicles trying to get through the traffic. It's the only day I remember my boss letting us go home because of bad weather.

That was January 1982, it was the beginning to the end of Air Florida. Since I lived in Pensacola and St. Petersburg in the 1970's I use to fly a lot on that airline. The plane that crashed was headed to Tampa, they had five survivors out of about eighty and four more died on the bridge.

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Originally Posted by John_W (Post 852750)

Never heard of Air Florida. We would see all kinds of planes-- including Nevada National Guard fighter jets-- on the routes just over Rattlesnake Mt. coming in to the Reno International Airport. Never recall Air Florida though. http://youtu.be/H_ZSPRQzJSg

Our front windows faced Rattlesnake Mountain so we would see the flights coming in-and-out of the airport. Kind of fun except sometimes when the fighter jets would break the sound barrier quite close. One of the pilots lived a few doors down from us. Quite a character. He was/is an attorney too and later became a planning officer (General) at the Pentagon for the Air Force.

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Originally Posted by Taltarzac725 (Post 881713)

It was Air Florida and it went down because of de-icing issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sable99 (Post 881723)

It was Air Florida and it went down because of de-icing issues.

Air Florida Flight 90 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sad story.

My uncle was the Fire Chief in the town of Itasca in 1979. He described the horror of cleaning up after the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America...nes_Flight_191

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Originally Posted by elizabeth52 (Post 852474)

Was that the one in Buffalo? I remember seeing that crash on the news. My sister in law lived in buffalo at the time and we went to visit her and drove by the crash sight. That was very sad. I believe it turned out to be pilot error. I used to live in Queensbury!

Mount Pinatubo, Philippines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jblum315 (Post 851404)

Andrew destroyed our former home in Dade County and destroyed our sailboat in Rye NY where we were at the time.

I worked Andrew for one month. 1st wave of adjusters as soon as they would let us in. I was working a K mart parking lot near some zoo. They had not yet found all the animals that got loose.

Hurricane Andrew destroyed our sailboat in New York after destroying the home we had sold in Dade Co. Fl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725 (Post 850892)

ONE KILLED AS A NEVADA MUD SLIDE FLOODS LAKES AND DESTROYS HOMES - NYTimes.com

With the news of the tragic mudslide, I was thinking about my own experiences near one. All it really did for me was scare the hell out of the East Coast relatives who knew I had been working at the Bower's Mansion concession stand when the 5/31/1983 mudslide came down about 1/2 mile north of where I was. I also had about an hour detour to get home.

The first thing I knew something was wrong was when I looked up at the nearby telephone poles and saw how tight they had become.

Here's a good two part article about the 1983 Memorial Day mudslide by Mark McLaughlin from 2013--

http://thetahoeweekly.com/2013/05/19...-flood-part-i/

The 1983 Memorial Day Flood Part 2 of 2 | TahoeDailyTribune.com

Quote:

As he soared 2,000’ to 2,500’ above the lake, Cook recalled, “I heard a roaring sound, kind of like the sound of a jet engine really close. I thought I was going to get hit. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a bunch of rising dust.” The seasoned glider pilot, with more than 1,000 successful launches, watched a big chunk of Slide Mountain collapse into Upper Price Lake. “When it hit the lake,” he said, “it was like a huge explosion. It just blew the lake apart. It looked like a tidal wave at first and then the canyon gathered it up.”

At that moment, Cook was the only person who knew that a landslide containing 1.4 million cubic yards of rock material had just plummeted into Upper Price Lake. The force of the slide displaced 20 acre-feet of water and slush from the lake, and unleashed a torrent of mud, rock and debris into the canyon below. Concerned about people fishing, hiking or living downstream, Cook traced the Ophir Creek channel from his vantage point high in the sky as the ominous snake’s head of destruction surged toward civilization. Anyone caught in the path of this violent flash flood was doomed. “It didn’t have a chance to dissipate before it got down there,” Cook noted. “I saw trees just getting plowed down and it was gaining momentum. At this time, it was between 40 and 50 feet high, weaving down the canyon.”

I did not hear anything until after the mud crossed the road about half a mile north of Bower's Mansion.

I grew up in the Love Canal toxic waste dump area of Niagara Falls NY (but didn't know it at the time). Just thought all rain puddles and creeks had orange slime on top.

When they hear that I lived there, some of my friends say, "That explains a lot!!" (What's wrong with glowing in the dark?)

9/11 I was in Staten Island, my husband midtown, within minutes he was at ground zero.

Hurricane Camille 1969 Biloxi Miss. Totally devastated the gulf coast.

December 1979 - Terrorist attack on U.S. Navy bus in Sabana Seca PR. 2 dead 11 injured.