Choose your natural disaster

“Since it came up on the earthquake thread, I thought I'd give this it's own thread.

Anywhere you live in the world will be subject to natural disasters. Different places get different disasters. Earthquakes. Tornados. Hurricanes. Floods. Volcanos. Blizzards. Mudslides. And so on. Where would you rather live?

Personally, I prefer living in earthquake country. Earthquakes are short and infrequent. Outside of general disaster preparation and proper building techniques, there's not much to be done. In hurricane country they get spanked several times every summer, it takes a lot longer, and they have to sit and watch it coming, or flee, board up the windows, and all that crap, and there still isn't much you can do about it. Tornados are the same way. Earthquakes are bing, bang, boom, it's over, let's start the clean-up.”

“Interesting point. Oh yea, don't forget touchy volcano country.”

“It's PRETTY DAMNED SCARY down here in Rad country, too!”

“We get tornados here sometimes. They're pretty cool.”

“I like seiches. The wind blows strongly the length of Lake Michigan or Erie for a couple of days. Result: all the water is pushed up on one side. Wind stops. Water starts sloshing back and forth like a bathtub. Can result in sudden 8 to 10 foot water level rise at the ends. Groups of people get swept away in these things every once in a while.

BTW, I survived the great Lake Erie holiday earthquake. About 4.5 on the Richter scale. Still waiting for the big one.”

“WOW! i have never heard of that RL. that is trippy.”

“Blizzards”

“YEAH!!!! A Blizzard!! Good one Pinesandbootsandhikingneedles!!”

“Blizzards in the winter,tornadoes in the summer and I'm happy.”

“Yeah, blizzards are cool unless...

So much snow piles up on the roof of the house that the roof collapses. (Happens all the time... also happened to the Hartford Civic Center a few years back.)

You get stuck in your car and you freeze to death. (Happens to people up in Canada every winter.)

You're out winter camping and get stuck out there.

You've been skiing for a week in lousy conditions and on the day you're supposed to leave a snowstorm starts but they tell you the planes are still flying so you take the bus to the airport but when you get there the airport has been shut down and then the roads are shut down so you can't go home and you can't go back to the ski resort and you wind up spending the night in some lousy fleabag motel near the airport until the storm blows over and they can plow the runways. (Happened to me.)

You're driving and you hit a patch of us and slid over the embankment... (Happened to me.)

Etc... etc... etc...

Blizzards are great if you're a kid and hoping for a snow day. I used to love listening to the radio in the morning when they got to the list of school closures and hoping and praying that my school would be on it...

... until I found out that the school board reserved five days every winter for snow days, and if they didn't use them for snow days we'd wind up getting them back in the spring anyway.

Snow in the mountains is great. Snow in the streets is a royal pain in the butt.”

“I'll take earthquakes any day. It's just the ground shaking...no big deal...”

“TORNADO! Any day and twice on Sunday. At least you have some warning. And, since they're so small (relatively) there's a pretty good chance it'll never get ya'. If it does, however, well. . . .

Was anyone around Isle Royale two summers ago with the tornados and winds and all sorts of trees and moose and rodents flying around?

I guess, since I am in Wizard Of Oz land, I pick hurricanes. I'm never scared of them around here :)”

“The worst possible disaster would be a land slide from one of the Canary Islands by Africa, the island is 2 volcanoes, one being active on not. Half of the island is just waiting to brake of and when it does scientist predict a mega sumoni (sp? Or tidal wave). This wave would stand I think 300 stories tall and demolish every thing on the east cost up to 12 miles inland. Check out the details on Discovery channels web site; the show was air over the week end. I think on Saturday. There are many details that make it happened and would make the wave so large. The show also spoke about a mega tidal wave up in Alaska at some thing bay. It was a great show but yet very scary. Think about that?? no east coast?. no WDC, no NYC, no Miami, Boston would be in havoc but would survive.”

“I'm looking for a place to live with no natural disasters. How's about Virginia? This was my first diaster. New York was a pretty sound place to live.”

“Try Arkansas. Watch out for your cousin. I mean your dad. I mean your brother. I mean, aw. . . you KNOW what I mean.”

“I'll keep Alberta thanks!! Yeah, we get blizzards once in a while, and a tornado every year or two. Oh yeah, we get forest fires in the summertime... I think I still like it better than the idea of living on a coast that could drop into the ocean at any point though! :o)”

“"patch of us" should have been "patch of ice"...”

“i have lived in my current home
for 10 years.
had one flood,one tornado and another tornado within 2 miles.
the tornado that hit had no
warning and struck at 530 in
the morning.

so one does not always have
warning for a tornado.
iwas lucky escaped with minor
damage.
if i had my pick i would take
a hurricane.you have plenty of time to get out of the way if
necessary.”

“Take care, LH, and keep us all posted on the aftermath...I;'m taking notes from you all since I live on the New Madrid fault and should be prepared...do have earthquake insurance on my home (that's a bean counter for ya!)..just had my neighbors move to a retirement community on one of the island's near Seattle...bet they're real shook up....wishing you a safe evening...”

“you've got THAT right, gojo!

RADABLASTER, the NATURAL DISASTER!!!!”

“I live on an active earthquake fault, in a volcanic caldera in an avalanche zone.
The last avalanche came through here about five years ago. It took out the neighbors barn and killed two of their horses.
The last quake was a five pointer three years ago.
The USGS is conducting a big study on our area:
Long Valley Caldera”

“sleeping too close to jerbear's tent is a natural disaster!

buuuurp. ruuumble, ruuumble.”

“Mel if I where you I would move”

“I have lived in Tornado/Hurricane weather all my life Hurricanes I can deal with Tornado's terrify me!!!!!!!! They are so Quick deadly an unpredictable!!”

“I don't know Rad. Zen Hiker has Jerbear beat. He skert the hell out of me at RRG when he started snoring!”

“I'd like to be in an earthquake some time. Ultimate experience I think would be standing on flat terrain with few trees or other obsticles blocking line of sight and watching the waves travel along the ground towards you. I have to admit, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to earthquakes - I don't know if you could actually see this.

Choice of natural disasters??? It would have to be something I could get away from or protect myself from. They are all nasty in their own nasty pointy teeth kind of way.”

“You guys are thinking in terms of solely momentary disasters. Think about something like a drought and the resulting famine. Here are some interesting factoids courtesy of the New York Public Library Book of Chronologies (check it out sometime).

968 A.D.: Drought in Africa brings low Nile in Egypt, resulting in as many as 600,000 deaths. Whoa.

1199-1202: Same. Upwards of 100,000 die.

1200-1300: Prolonged drought conditions over southwestern United States bring advanced Indian agricultural societies to an end. This is often offered as an explanation for the demise of the Anasazi Indians in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

1876-78: 5 million die from drought in India.

1876-79: Prolonged drought in northern China kills 9 to 13 million.

1928-29: China. 3 million.

1933-1939: Severe drought in the U.S. Midwestern farming region resultes in huge dust storms as winds blow dry topsoil up into thick clouds. About 60% of area's population eventually migrates to other parts of the country. Both my sets of grandparents migrated from Nebraska and Iowa to California. Grapes of Wrath, baby.

1950: 10 million died in China.

1980: U.S., Midwest, Southwest and South. 1,200 die.

Mother nature can be long and hard.

Of course, the Black Death in Europe is the all-time worst natural disaster. From 1347-51, sweeping from Erope to the Orient, 75 million people died from bubonic plague. They couldn't even see the damn thing. The Decameron is a movie worth remaking.”

“The first time I experienced an earthquake, I became rather queasy. My boss laughed at me because it was a very minor tremor that he didn't even notice until I said something. You do get used to them, though. Went through the '89 quake in the bay area.
I'll still take tornadoes. I've lived through three of them, and they are exciting!”

“I saw this and I couldn`t figure out what to say
I thought for a bit, I`d like to be blown in a way
and what a deal, I get to pick my disaster
I`ll take a slow one over one much faster
I might come up with a better answer if I had a little more time
but the truth of it is, I wrote that because the end doesn`t rhyme
if it isn`t right, then it must be way off left
just use a feather and tickle me to death”

“After Loma Prieta and the Oakland Fire, my kids asked me what kind of natural disasters Fairbanks would have when we moved. LOL I've been in earthquake, tornado, hurricane territory. I like being able to prepare, so I would prefer a hurricane. Time to batten down and skeddadle. Survive.”

“LH
The western part of Virginia is great lots of mountains " well east coast mountains anyway " to far inland to get the brunt of a Hurricane " just a lot of rain, Flooding is very uncommon unless you build your house on the riverbed " don't ask they just do, no blizzards " the most is about 32 inches at one time and it is gone in a week, Never a tornado " the mountains are way to close for that ", no large mud slides and no volcanoes. No real natural disasters to mention. Economic disasters that is another thing that is why I an a transplanted flatlander now. There just are NO jobs there anymore.

Other than that it is great

Grunt”

“The recent earthquakes in India.
Nuff said.”

“The most eerie thing about earthquakes is the noise. Increadibly loud in the city! I wonder if it is that loud in the woods? Anybody ever been hiking when an earthquake hit? That would make for a memorable trip.”

“Over the years we've had hurricanes, tornados, of course blizzards, and the Kennebec floods every April in varying degrees (the last major one was in the late 80's). We've had small earthquakes, but the most recent thing we got major ($27M)federal disaster assistance for was the ice storm in '98. That was eerie.”

“In NC we have it all! Haven't had an earthquake in quite some time and never a big one. We do have a fair share of tornados. More than our share of hurricanes. As far as choices of storms, I'll take hurricanes. Lots of warning and you can get out of harms way easily.

We sat out Hurricanes Floyd and Dennis on the coast. What a trip!”

“I used to live in Memphis.. I grew up with the threat of a major earthquake from the New Madrid fault all my life. Never happened, but for the past 27 years they kept saying one is due within the next 50. I figgure after 27 years, it should be only 25 more years left.. :-)

Tsunami's aren't tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by tides. Tsunami's aren't caused by tides.”

“I choose the.... Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!!”

“Grunt, Virginia is sounding nice. It's horse country too.

I'm not actually thinking about places to live because of the quake. I am looking for a place to live for retirement or a little before retirement.”

“Rosey - good point. When you look at it that way, the worst natural disaster of the 20th century was the 1918 flu epidemic.

But I don't think anyone would *choose* famine or epidemic as their natural distaster of choice. That's more like "choose your favorite horseman of the Apocalypse."”

“Roseymonster, I completely agree with you. Some of the scariest things are those long term society killing disasters.

I want to challenge your comment about the plague going from Europe to the east. I took a medieval history class a year or two ago. The professor said that the plague actually came from central Asia due to the Mongols. The virus is carried by rodents. The Mongol hoards thundered across the steppe and trampled the ground driving the rats (or whatever they were) to the west before them. The Mongols (and the plague) eventually reached as far as Eastern Europe and South East Asia.

Ring around the rosie
a pocket full of posies
ashes to ashes we all fall down.

Yipes!”

“Switchback...
My girlfriend and I were camping (in a tent), and sleeping (on the ground) during the 6.0 quake that hit Yosemite Valley at 9PM in '90.
It was dead quiet, since most people had gone to bed.
The first clue we had was a loud rumbling that sounded like a big truck driving through the camp ground.
Within three seconds, the ground began to shake and roll. It felt a lot like being at sea in heavy surf.
The noise was nearly deafening!
Yosemite Valley, at about 4,200 feet, stands within a narrow mountain canyon. The cliffs surrounding the place average about 6,000 feet.
All the loose rock and boulders in the world began to fall from the edges of the cliffs above the valley, and roll down into the valley.
The noise was incredible.
Boulders crashing, car alarms going off, dogs barking, women screaming...
What a trip!
The rock slides closed the main East West entrances to the Park for more than two weeks.

I've also been standing at the top of a lift at the ski area during a 5.0 quake.
The lifts sway, and the chairs shut down.
You can watch the lift tower undulate with quake waves.
It's REALLY weird!
And totally silent.
Except for the women screaming.”

“Rosey--

Get politically correct man! I was to the Southwest this past fall. It is no longer Anasazi. It is now ANCESTRAL PUEBLOAN! Get with the program. Guess the Pueblos and/or Hopi didn't like the one term for Anasazi (supposedly their relatives), which was termed "evil ones" (as opposed to "ancient ones," which I'd always heard)

I think a LOT of brochures had to get changed!!! Lots of money spent on that little "miff."

(Meanwhile the Sioux continue to be called Sioux, which means SNAKE in French. The fur traders named them. I don't think that was meant in a good way! Now if they had a big miff over that, being a currently living people, I would certainly have no problem. In fact, that's why they prefer to be called Lakota, or whichever tribe they are. But changing a name for ancient ancestors ....... sheesh!!)

All that said, I live in tornado, flood and blizzard land. Also, in the past few years we've been plagued with a NEW force -- "straight line winds." Very strong... just blowing straight across the country, causing corridors of destruction. Blew over a tree that almost hit my place.

And as people pointed out, tornados can hit with virtually no warning. Weather spotters check the skies for them in bad storms. BUT you don't know about them until they're spotted. Well, weather doppler now lets weather people predict where tornados may well be by a certain shape on the radar. (Ya can tell we're not there yet; I can't remember what the shape is! I think it's a bow??)”

“I'll take my hurricanes thank you. Andrew was a blast to sit through, seeing your neigbors trees uprooted and thrown at your house, priceless. Or the aftermath, looked like a nuke had gone off, and the military at every downd stop light with their machine guns drawn to stop the looters.

A hurricane is like a good movie or book. At first, the storm is way off the coast of Africa, slowly gaining strength and the unsuspecting people on the east coast go about their daily lives. Then the storm makes it's way west, gaining strength and we the weather men take notice, rising tension. Then the weather men start giving warrnings, and some take heed while others yawn and could care less. As the storm nears the town goes loco, the rising action. Homedepot is like a war zone, the grocery is a mad houes, and long lines at the gas stations.

Then the calm before the storm, you know that the storm is knocking at your door, your outside looking up, but it's beautiful out, sunny and just a bit breezy. Then you see the first bands sweeping towards you, and you know the beast is coming, light rain showers coming on and off, intermitent with sun.

Once it starts, you are in your house watching the tv while you can, as you see the radar showing a perfect storm barreling down on your city and the fun begins. The winds pick up and up, till the sound is like a freight train running over your roof. You are praying that yoiur roof will stay on as you see your sliding glass window start to flex in and out, time to move to a new room. Objects are hitting your house, the power goes out, and the noise grows louder, you have reached the climax of the movie.

But wait, it all a sudden stops. It is silent outside and a bit of sun is peeking through. Could this be the end of the storm? Hardly, it is the eye, the anit-climax, the lull that has caused the death of many thinking the storm was over, only to have it start up a few minutes later with the same intensity as before catching many out in the streets.

Eventually the storm dies down and moves on, the path of destruction is there to see and a new chaos sets in, people are shell-shocked. But that's another story.”

“LOL flyguy6x.

But some things to consider:
a bad earthquake kills thousands and does billions of $ in damage, whereas a bad tornado wrecks a trailer park and maybe a farm.

All things considered, though, I'd rather be in volcano country. A nice, tropical volcano country.

Besides, there's something romantic about being eaten by a volcano.”

“lizs, thanks for that info on the Indians. I just saw something similar for the Idaho Indians. They wanted the names of mountains & rivers changed because they were called, squaw mountain, squaw river etc. Squaw is actually a negative term to thier sister, mothers, and grandmothers.

I think they should be able to change these names. No one of any nationality would want to have a territory derogatorily named after their family for the rest of time.

In PA, there was a mountain that had a burnt top. They called it "nigger" mountain. The name was changed, but there was an old man that said it will always still be "nigger" mountain to me.”

“yeah, Lizzy, microbursts! We had one about three years back. What force!”

“null”