Have you ever been in a natural disaster?

[ols386]

Worst thing I've ever been through was the Blizzard of 1978, way back when I lived in Indiana. We lived in an apartment at the time (2nd level), and were snowed in for about 3 days, I think. Luckily we had plenty of food and water, and didn't lose power. So that's mild compared to what many folks have been through.

 

[lynypixie]

I was in the "black triangle" of the '98 ice storm. I'm lucky, I just lost power for 9 days. My best friend lost power for 6 weeks!

(link in french, but has a few pictures)
http://alaingazon.ca/Meteo/verglas.html

 

[kellyg403]

Hurricanes Bertha and Fran. No electricity for 17 days. Ugh. It was so hot and muggy and the bugs were horrendous. We lost a portion of the roof.

Hurricane Floyd. We didn't experience the flooding most did. Our city was like an Island. All the roads in and out were flooded. I think about 4 days or so. Floyd spawned several tornados that did quite a bit of damage. One came through our backyard and took the back porch (the poles were set in concrete) the fence and shed. Straight through the backyard. There was no grass where the path was.

We have been lucky and we have also learned a lot of lessons. We take all hurricanes seriously. There were so many that lost everything.

Kelly

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Snow Storms in NY, and a minor hurricane in NY (Gloria), that is about all I can remember in NY, unless you count a minor earthquake that was in NY (no damage done in most places, but felt in a large area). A few minor hurricanes in FL (lived here since 1991) as well as major hurricanes where I have had major damage to my home. 2 storms were power was lost for weeks (Charley & Wilma)

 

[DVC-Don]

Yep. Northeast blizzard of 1978, Hurricane Charlie, Hurricane Donna (early 60's), Worcester, Massachusetts tornado of 1953.

 

[mnrose]

I was in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco. Killed some 63 people. It was pretty bad, and we didn't work for almost a week. Took about 7-8 weeks for traffic to get back to somewhat normal (the Bay Bridge was down), and years for things to really get fixed. Until the Bay Bridge was repaired, traffic was HORRENDOUS, and that's saying something, because traffic is normally pretty bad in that area. I took ferry transportation for that time period, and got on a ferry that left my home community at 5:30 in the morning. The others were too full to get on, and you couldn't find anyplace to park to catch the ferry if you took a later one.

My personal residence was fine, but there were quite a large number completely destroyed.

The one thing I learned from that experience is that the media focuses on the destruction, and not the things that are still (relatively) fine. While 63 people died, about 5.8 million survived. Not to minimize the deaths, because they were awful.

The other truly fortunate thing is that so few people were on the freeway that collapsed because people had left work early to get home for the World Series (San Francisco and Oakland were playing that year....and all Bay Area series). Had it been a "normal" afternoon at 5:07, that stretch of freeway would have been bumper to bumper across 3-4 lanes of traffic....would have been many, many more deaths. I personally had been on that stretch of freeway many times and sat in that traffic. I, along with the media, were certain hundreds would be dead there alone. Quirk of fate that it wasn't the case.

 

[christineann]

I remember that earthquake occurred not long after the hurricane in 1989. Another reason we felt so lucky - with a hurricane, you have some advance warning and time to make some kind of plans. The scenes from the earthquake were absolutely horrifying.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

Blizzard in Buffalo 1977.

A few local floods.

The biggest things that happened to us were when we lived in Guam
two earth quakes 7.2 each.

A typhoon a super typhon and a tropical storm.

 

[mommasita]

I was in the "black triangle" of the '98 ice storm. I'm lucky, I just lost power for 9 days. My best friend lost power for 6 weeks!

(link in french, but has a few pictures)
http://alaingazon.ca/Meteo/verglas.html

Here too..

 

[Gorechick]

I'm originally from New Haven, CT and have been through my share of blizzards, ice storms, nor'easters, tropical storms, and hurricanes. A few of note-Blizzard of '78. ice storm of '84, Hurricane Gloria '85, Hurricane Bertha
'96 and we arrived at WDW for Hurricane Charley in '04. We were one of the last flights in before they closed MCO.

 

[momof1princess]

DH and i had been married about 9 months when the blizzard of '93 struck northern alabama. (it rarely snows here, and, when it does, it's never more than 2-3 inches. the blizzard was up to DH's waist!) we had no power, water or phone for a week. luckily, we had a fireplace, so we could heat the living room and sleep in there. we hung a sheet over the doorway from the living room to the kitchen, to keep the heat in. it wasn't too bad-we slept on the floor in front of the fire, listened to a battery-operated radio and i read books out loud. we put cans of food on top of the fireplace insert to heat them, and those were our meals.

now, the tornado that tore through alabama in april of 2011...oh my. our home wasn't hit, but many nearby were, and the devastation is still clearly visible, over 1 1/2 years later. we drove to tuscaloosa about 5 weeks after the storm for an awards ceremony at the univ. of alabama, and when i saw the destruction there, i just broke down and cried. it was unfathomable. i pray i NEVER see anything like it ever again.

 

[ilovejack02]

Andrew , no power for weeks, no water and town on curfew for at least a month. I moved back home with parents till life returned to normal in New Iberia. Katrina ( I live an hour outside of Nola though , so no power , but house ok . ) worked the shelter for a month after , Rita , Gustav.. no power ten days , we left and went to WDW , tropical storm Lee , houses on street flooded, but not ours , had to do with storm drains clogged up. Issac last month, lost fence but did ok.

 

[indimom]

Blizzard of 78. I was six and just thought it was pretty/fun at the time. I had no idea of the problems it caused. I think we got about 20 inches here, but the wind kept the roads blocked for days. It would just blow back shut.

One close call with a tornado. It "bounced" right over the house, hitting homes on one side and woods on the other, but no damage to our home. Only dad was home at the time, hunkered down in the basement with our two outdoor dogs which were scared to death (one never did recover from the experience). Dad said his ears were popping so badly, he was sure it was going to take the house and/or bust his eardrums.

We had an amazing snowfall in 2004, 30 inches in a day. The town had to use backhoes and dump trucks, in additional to our usual plows. There was so much snow they couldn't just push it aside. It was the most snow I've ever seen, I could barely move through it.
One side of our house is a snow emergency lane so the plows and trucks made it through there the first day. But, the neighbors all had to dig out the entire side street to free the cars we had parked there. Some streets were blocked for a week or more. My kids were 7 and 4 and tried to play in the snow, but it was so deep they simply couldn't move in it.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I'm not sure how to answer that.

I mean, we were hit my Sandy. My house was undamaged, but I was out of power for 124 hours, my kids were out of school 4 days, my office was closed 2 days, downed trees, etc.

This was after the Halloween snow storm of 2011, that also left us without power for 127 hours.

What was left of Hurricane Ivan caused massive flooding and closed several businesses, but again, we personally had no damage.

 

[zigzagzerr]

1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (The often call it the San Francisco earthquake but the location was actually near Santa Cruz ca. where I lived). I worked downtown at the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting company and had just come through the warehouse and stepped out the back door into a parking lot for a smoke. The building next to us was unre-enforced masonry (bricks with no support) and it peeled of and crushed much of our building. I watched this happen. The woman I had just spoken to 30 seconds before was killed and one other employee upstairs died as well. Two other employees were injured.

I was there too! I remember feeling a little freaked out about the fact that I had spent that morning at Bookshop Santa Cruz browsing in the basement, and just a few hours later, everything was destroyed.

 

[FireDancer]

I lived in Florida in 2004. I'll take the winter snow over the chance of hurricanes every day.

 

[99blackz]

Out of 173 tornadoes on April 27 2011 (new one day record), 55 hit my home state of Alabama. Four hit the two counties that i work in (F5,F4,F2,F1). One killed in Jackson Co and 32 killed in Dekalb Co. Also had family (unharmed) in Tuscaloosa, which was hit by an F5. Although my home was not severely affected by any of the storms I knew many that were. A year and a half later and we are still rebuilding. Needless to say that it is a day that we will not soon forget.

 

[Myothername]

Several hurricanes, Camille and Katrina being the worst. I was 7 during Camille but remember we had no water or electricity for 2 weeks. Of course we thought it was fun playing in all the downed trees. Katrina, not so fun. I thought I was prepared but know better now. I start collecting food around April and keep at least 2 weeks worth and lots of lots of water during hurricane season.

 

[daannzzz]

I was there too! I remember feeling a little freaked out about the fact that I had spent that morning at Bookshop Santa Cruz browsing in the basement, and just a few hours later, everything was destroyed.

I always wondered how that basement did in thew quake. I did not hear that it collapsed but I bet it was scary down there.