Have you ever 'experienced' a natural disaster?

[Lovely2CU]

..like flood, tornado. volcano eruption, hurricane, earthquake, or landslide, to name a few.

We have experienced a couple of earthquakes, both happened at night. Also two hurricanes in England, one of which was major and caused widespread damage, and one on Florida.

[emily1982]

I've experienced 2 earthquakes in England, the first i screamed the place down as England really isn't the earthquake captial of the world and i didn't know what it was.

[Sonya]

I chose yes because we had an ice storm that knocked out power and cancelled schools for a week. I don't remember how many died. Even now the sound of chainsaws makes me nervous. I realize this is small potatoes comared to some but it was a big deal for us and the area.

[Cheshire Figment]

I have been in several Hurricanes, a forest fire and a minor earthquake.

However, I also worked for the American Red Cross National Headquarters for 13 years and as such work (in the field) on a large number of natural and other disasters.

[diznygirl]

Did earthquakes in California and hurricanes in Florida. (BTW - I like earthquakes better). We have gotten pretty good at being prepared and riding things out. We've found that's more necessary with hurricanes.

The biggest earthquake was the Northridge in 1994. I remember sleeping with the lights on for awhile after that. Don't know why - the earthquake just knocks our the power, but it helped us fall asleep at least.

[KAMKIM]

Buffalo NY, October 14th 2006 - we got 5 ft of snow overnight, which normally for Buffalo is no big deal but the leaves were still on all the trees, know what happens when snow piles up on branches also holding the weight of leaves? They break! They all break! We had full sized trees blocking our driveways (just missed our car but our neighbor wasn't as lucky) no power for 7 days (again we were the lucky ones some went an entire month), no school for almost 2 wks - gas stations weren't accepting anything other than cash because they had no power (the ones that still had gas anyways) Home Depot and Walmart looked like black Friday only worse - people were warned they may not have power for weeks so water was no where to be found, batteries, flashlights...you name it...gone. It was horrible. We had just gone grocery shopping (big grocery shopping) and by the third day had to throw all that food out, so now not only did we have no food in the house, we had no cash and no way to get our money out of the banks that were also down because they had no power.

I learned from this - always have flashlights, water, batteries and cash!

[lillygator]

hurricanes!

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Yep, 2 floods. Got 14 feet of water the first time (5 months pregnant with DD at the time) and then about 11 feet the next time. Lots of fun.

I'm heavily insured and will battle with the insurance company before signing off on the claims. What a friggin nightmare. Let's just say that I love my RV. Second flood we pulled out just before the water hit the house. Stayed in the Wal-Mart parking lot for a week. Not the best place but it was safe and the people were great. We moved it back to the property as soon as the ground was dry enough. I really hate big storms and wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[Jennasis]

When i lived on Long Island, we had hurricanes yearly. the worst in my memory was Hurricane Gloria back in the late 80's.

[NY Disney fan]

Early one morning I was sleeping (maybe 2 or 3 A.M.) and I dreamt that I heard two rocks slamming together. I kept hearing the noise in my sleep (KLACK, KLACK). Like someone was banging two stones in my ears. When I woke up that morning it was all over the news that we had an earthquake! I'll never forget that Klack-Klack sound.

[Golf4food]

A tornado, multiple hurricanes/tropical storms, and a flood.

[pilesoflaundry]

Minor hurricanes. No damage to our house but the storms came in and knocked out power a few times. Thankfully we haven't had anything worse.

[luvsJack]

Hurricane's Camille and Katrina are the biggies with a few other hurricanes in between.

[maroo]

Katrina - 2 hours north of the coast and still had no power for 2 weeks. Our street was blocked by a large mess of trees and powerlines for 6 days. But when all of my friends were out of gasoline, I was running carpool since I had a full tank of gas and had not been able to drive for days!

I always have a full tank of gas and cash on hand for hurricanes from now on!


Ice Storms - many when I lived in AR, one in MS


Tornados - only 2 that have caused any damage...but one that almost made me wet my pants! April 4, 2008 the roof darn near got torn off the building I was in. Don't ever want to experience that fear again.

I would think this number would be close to 100% if you include everyone's whole lifetime...but I wonder how many have experienced one this year?

[mjkacmom]

We've had hurricanes and blizzards here in NJ, and our town was hit by a micro-burst (50+ MPH winds coming straight down) which cause tremendous damage to trees, homes, and property (we only lost 1/2 an oak tree, which then needed to come down).