Have you ever been in a natural disaster?

[Loa]

Living in the Shaky Isles, I've had more than my fair share of earthquakes!

What about you?

[Leave a Whisper]

A few earthquakes but nothing seriously bad, that is I wasn't living close to the center and caught some strong aftershocks.

Once or twice I thought we'd hafta evacuate from a fire that came pretty close. The air was smokey and you could see ash falling from the sky.

[BlackCurtains]

When I lived in Wisconsin, a tornado chased my sister and I down the road in her Camaro. The sky behind us was pitch black and the funnel came down right on the road. You're supposed to find shelter under a bridge if you can and we were speeding toward one when it dissipated. Scary as heck though. I must've been like, 13? Then there were the blizzards. But we were used to that. My last year there, it snowed so much in just a couple of days, we were literally snowed in. We couldn't open the front door because of a huge snowdrift. I actually had to climb out a window and clear it so my mom could go to work. Yes, she still had to work and I still had to go to school Just another winter in WI.

One earthquake, also in Wisconsin. It shook the house but not to the point where stuff was falling off the walls or anything.

I've been in my fair share of tropical storms and hurricanes, thanks. The worse one was tropical storm Gaston, whatever year it was... 2003? We lived in a single wide trailer with a tin roof. It was so LOUD and there were a few times I thought we were going to tip over. Also, in South Carolina, the outer bands on hurricane Katrina made it to us and they were extremely dangerous. I mean, that's how gigantic that hurricane was - we were feeling it several states away. Since I've lived in Florida, the ones that have been through haven't been so bad.

I also felt and saw the aftermath of a house explode from a gas leak and lightning hitting a telephone pole outside my window.

[pinkkittywinks]

I have experienced the odd earthquake that has been known to happen in the UK, but it is nothing compared to other places.

There has been serious flooding in my local area, I have been lucky in escaping it due to my location on a hillside.

I was once in a house when it was struck by lightning and it had no conductor but that isn't what I'd consider a huge natural disaster.

Love pkw xxx

[stjarne]

thankfully, pretty much never. no tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, floods, tsunamis- that sort. me & my family DID endure hurricane katrina back in '05 though when we lived in florida. i was only 4 at the time lol so i don't remember any of it but we were fine. we've got some old photos of all the wreckage though and i think we were really lucky

[Ponybookworm]

Nothing life-changing, but have sometimes seen it flooded enough round here for the carpark at the Co-op to need draining. However, most of the residences are unaffected, especially mine, being as it is on a slope with the sea at the bottom. In the past I've seen fields flooded & fellow students stranded on the opposite side of floods preventing them from reaching the bus to school, but again, never been personally affected

[tikibirds]

I used to live in Alaska. Alaska is part of the "ring of fire" so lots of earthquakes. The biggest was a 7.9
Same with my 2 months in Japan. Gotta say, NOT A FAN of them.
Most places I lived - hurricanes or typhoons are the biggest issue.

[Beth3346]

i has in a hurricane when i lived in Houston. It was not a super powerful one but still a pretty scary storm. we lived pretty far inland so we didn't need to evacuate or anything. but the wind and rain from hurricanes is legit loud and scary. i recommend avoiding if possible. and i love thunderstorms. but hurricanes i avoid. i moved cities to avoid hurricanes. though as least with hurricanes i can see it coming and get out of the way. i don't think i would do well in an earthquake zone. but i guess it's something people get used to.

i've also been through a few floods. when i was younger we had several where our house flooded and pretty much had to be redone inside. also not recommended. always carry flood insurance if you're a homeowner. even if you're not in a flood plain. repairing a flood damaged house is super costly.

also the drought we're in right now is probably a natural disaster. though less obvious for most people. also the ice storm we had in 2021. Texas is certainly not a dull place to live!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

yes.... tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, wildfires

[LadyAmalthea]

Nothing exactly disastrous, but I have felt an earthquake once in 2007 or 2008-ish. It woke me up in the middle of the night and I thought someone was breaking into my house because I could hear things rattling on the shelves. It felt like my house was sitting on top of a washing machine on spin cycle and it lasted a really long time, like a couple of minutes.

A flood in the summer of 2007 took out my garden-level loft apartment. I had been out with friends, and drove home through 6 inches of water, only to come home and couldn't open my door, because you had to walk down 6 or 7 steps into an alcove, and the alcove was half full of water. The water got in of course, and flooded it. My friends called me for help, because they were floating down the street in their car.

The summer of 2003 we had a microburst, which is like a tornado, but a different wind pattern. It was weird because it was right in the middle of the city. But it shut that part of the city down for days; there was no power and no one could drive through the side streets because of downed trees. My 2 cars were parked on the street, and a giant tree came down right in between them...I was lucky.

Post Merge: July 31, 2022, 08:18:09 AM

One earthquake, also in Wisconsin. It shook the house but not to the point where stuff was falling off the walls or anything.

BC, I'm curious about where you used to live in WI...I wonder if it was the same earthquake I felt when I was living in northern IL. You don't have to say for privacy reasons if you don't want to, but was it around 2008-ish?

[BlackCurtains]

One earthquake, also in Wisconsin. It shook the house but not to the point where stuff was falling off the walls or anything.

BC, I'm curious about where you used to live in WI...I wonder if it was the same earthquake I felt when I was living in northern IL. You don't have to say for privacy reasons if you don't want to, but was it around 2008-ish?

No, I left Wisconsin in 2002. It was probably in the 90s. I was a kid. My hometown is Kenosha

[cosmospanda]

I live in Alaska, where earthquakes are quite frequent. The largest I felt was an 8.1 just last summer. There was tsunami warnings and people had to evacuate the coastal town I was in at the time. Before this, in 2018, we had a 7.1 with the epicenter 10 miles from where I lived. It was worse feeling than the 8.1, because I was closer to it and the soil was different. (The 8.1 hit off Kodiak, so we didn't get the full affect in Seward, up north. But in Palmer and Wasilla, we felt the 7.1...well.) They are frequent here, like I said, since we live along the ring of fire, so most of us don't worry if it's an M 4 or below. Once it picks up above that, you should watch out for a sec, see if it'll actually progress 🤣

[Koudoawaia]

I have yes. In 2009 the area of Eastern Kentucky I was living in at the time  had a 100 year flood and it was the first flood I'd ever experienced because I grew up in Northern Kentucky and my parents' house is on top of a very high hill so we never had to worry about flooding there. I will never forget that night or the aftermath. I am so glad my husband is a night owl because I was asleep when the flooding was happening.  He came into the bedroom and woke me up and we hightailed it out of the  house and from that time forward it made us extremely nervous when it rained heavily though fortunately our old  house there is up on three blocks and water never made it  into the house. Only our  yard flooded. It did do a lot of damage to the first floor of my in laws' house next door though. That area is very flood prone. Now thankfully that area was  not touched in the flooding that devastated Eastern Kentucky this past week.

[toyjunky]

They are frequent here, like I said, since we live along the ring of fire, so most of us don't worry if it's an M 4 or below. Once it picks up above that, you should watch out for a sec, see if it'll actually progress 🤣

So true, I'm in California, and usually it's just like "Oh, an earthquake....no big deal" for the smaller ones. There is always that momentary question sometimes though of "Wait, it's still going..." or "getting a bit stronger this time... maybe I should start heading for some cover".

I have been evacuated for wildfires once or twice when I have been in the local mountains at my grandparent's cabin (about 5,000 feet elevation - about a 30-45minute drive to the bottom of the mountain) however that was more of a recommended voluntary evacuation than mandatory at the point we left as the fire was above where we were and fires will typically burn up a mountain not retreat down, but wind can shift them quickly. My aunt did have a close call though about 4 years ago, same area where the cabin was, where a fire was started along the base of the mountain and various points on the roadway up (it was arson, they did catch him) and the fire went up the mountainside and the planes dropped water/fire retardant to try and make break lines like they usually do to try and contain an area. The firefighters made a stand at the edges of the small town and were able to keep it /turn it away from the main part. Her street was fine, but the houses on the street behind her they couldn't save and half of them were burned. I went up for a visit about a month afterwards and the entire mountainside was streaked black (from the burn) or red (the retardant). It was eerie.

[cosmospanda]

They are frequent here, like I said, since we live along the ring of fire, so most of us don't worry if it's an M 4 or below. Once it picks up above that, you should watch out for a sec, see if it'll actually progress 🤣

So true, I'm in California, and usually it's just like "Oh, an earthquake....no big deal" for the smaller ones. There is always that momentary question sometimes though of "Wait, it's still going..." or "getting a bit stronger this time... maybe I should start heading for some cover".

EXACTLY!

If it lasts much more than a few seconds, usually a good idea to get out of the way. When we got a m6 last year, I stood there like a dork, waiting to see what happened. My cats ran under the bed and couch and the neighbors ran out of the building. I was scared lol but I was like, woah. 👀