Have you ever 'experienced' a natural disaster?

[ZephyrHawk]

Tornados, on a fairly regular basis. No direct hits, but I've had them pass within a few hundred yards of my home. And ice storms are so regular here I can't imagine classifying them as a disaster. An annual annoyance, perhaps. The best you can hope for is that they're soooo bad you can get out of driving to work for one day (which is pretty rare). Otherwise, it's driving on the ice covered freeways as usual.

 

[Pakey]

I experienced 2 hurricanes while living in Mississippi, flooding in Mississippi, multiple tornados while living in Missouri, a blizzard while living in Minnesota and a couple of earthquakes here in California.

 

[Explodo]

In 2006, We lost our house and every material possession we owned to a tornado. WE were insured...but it was one of the most helpless horrible experiences I have ever had to endure. The Wife was 2 months pregnant....our daughter was 2. It was also September...and we live in Minnesota, essentially we were homeless right before winter in one of the coldest states in the country. It took 18 months to recover

When it hit, we just made it to the basement stairs when the house came apart. It was beyond scary...and humbling. One of the daughters playmates died(they lived directly across the street).

What is it you really want to know about disasters?

 

[Rora]

I live in FL= Hurricanes.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Yep, I've been in four earthquakes and only one was in California and living in Florida, of course I've been in hurricanes. I was also in a tornado out west but I only learned the next day that it was a tornado. I was actually outside in it but thought it was a bad thunderstorm (it was dark because it was around 9 PM, so it's not like I could see the funnel cloud either.)

 

[Arielle22]

During Hurricane Gloria I was vacation on an island in a lake in Maine. The small ferry (think a big flat surface with a motor) was not running so we were stuck on the island.

There was another hurricane I remember where you couldn't open any doors because they were getting ripped off (a car).

I was 12 during the Blizzard of 1978. We missed 3 weeks of school. I can still remember the huge snowbanks, 2 stories tall. My parents had a summer cottage where my house now stands. When we came to check on it (weeks later) it was standing but houses a couple of blocks away were lifted from their foundations and moved (some moved a block or more).

Even now, every winter the streets near my home flood so badly that people are rescued from their homes by small boats. We are lucky that the flood plain ends in our neighbors back yard. The weather is harsh but we sustain no lasting damage.

 

[AmazingGrace]

We were in Biloxi/Ocean Springs for katrina.

 

[asta]

I experienced a major tornado while on the 22nd floor of an office building. The windows were ripling so much that they looked like water and the whole building was noticeable swaying. The building intercom kept telling us to stay on our floors, that we were safer there. No one was hurt in our building but I don't know if I would trust them again. I think that they should have evacuated us to the basement.

 

[laurie31]

Our house was hit by a tornado when I was 6. My little brother was 3. It was April 3, 1974 - the superoutbreak.

We were in the den with Mom, watching TV. Dad was at choir practice at church (it was a Wednesday night). Suddenly Mom yelled at us to run for the basement. I was half asleep and didn't know what she had heard, but I ran because of the tone of her voice (she sounded terrified) and she grabbed my brother. We got downstairs and huddled into the corner that was completely underground with Mom protecting us with her body. Glass went everywhere and a tree fell on our roof. It was so loud. Mom thought the whole roof was being torn off and was praying to Jesus to save us. I had never heard Mom pray out loud like that (only the blessing, or a Sunday School prayer, not literally shouting out to God).

We had over 20 trees down in our yard. Dad finally made it home, but he couldn't drive all the way to the house because of trees down in the road. I was worried about our dog, as she hadn't come downstairs with us, but she was okay.

We were so much more fortunate that others; my best friend's house was totally gone. And of course, we were most fortunate in that we were all okay. There were 36 injuries and 1 death in our small city. It was an F4 tornado.


Back in April 1998, I wasn't personally in the tornado, but an F5 hit this area and I was working. It was my first time to work a disaster. We got 36 trauma patients in just a few hours (normal is 0-6 in a day!). Thirty-four people died; one of them was my co-worker's 8 year old son.

There is a book about the experiences of the victims and the survivors.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Rr...cover&dq=eyes+in+a+storm#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It's horrifying what they all went through.

 

[SNylund]

Been in and around several tornados but never took a direct hit, thank God. Just up the street from us (about 2 miles) a friend of mine lived in a trailer. He was lucky to not be in it when it hit, for it was demolished, there is a pond in the back of his yard, the trailer (what was left of it) was in the pond submerged. Ironic thing, about 1 year later, another tornado hit, same exact path, really weird. His landlord had replaced his trailer and guess what??....You guessed it, got wiped out again, same exact spot, same exact thing, what was left ended up in the pond.

Same tornado, another friend was in the same path about 3 miles down. His parents had just finished their "dream house" when it hit. They went outside under the deck, they were lucky to be alive. The tornado hit them directly and took the entire house off of the foundation, the foundation was left clean. All the debris was landing all around them. A giant beam landed right beside one of them with a big spike sticking out, a few more inches and they would have been impaled. They were able to re-build the house on the same foundation. Did not have to even clear the debris.

 

[maroo]

Katrina taught us a lot, didn't she?

I have never been one to "stock up" too much, figuring the little convience store down the road will always be open. He ran out of all food within 2 days of the storm, gas within maybe 3-4 days. We definitly learned to stock up during hurricane season.

Hello, neighbor!

Yes, Katrina taught me a lot! (And taught my friends to listen to me when I told them to go stock up on water! They thought I had lost my mind! ) Now they call me whenever there is weather coming and expect me to pull out my crystal ball.

www.wunderground.com became my friend that summer. I am glad I have not had to check over there much! I much prefer the DIS!

We were in Biloxi/Ocean Springs for Katrina.

Bless your heart! I am so sorry!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Two hurricanes at home and a tornado in Ohio. Hurricane Isabelle (2003) was the worst as we were out of power for 2 weeks and three trees hit our house but I still had to be at work the next day after the hurricane or the employer I was working at for the time would take vacation days (I think they were afraid of a lot of people saying they "couldn't get in" to work when they could). I never realized life could be so boring (hot, sticky, scary) without power for two weeks. I spent many nights killing the battery in my car trying to talk on my cell phone which was charging in the car. I also learned that even though you're surrounded by 30 gas stations every single one of them will run out of gas during a hurricane and you have to be very frugal with where you go (and watching for people stealing gas out of your car).

 

[daannzzz]

Was working at the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company in October of 1989 for the Loma Prieta Earthquake. I was in the warehouse talking to a coworker and stepped outside for a cigarette when it hit. Co worker and another died when the brick wall form the neighboring building fell on our building.

 

[RangerPooh]

Bieng originally from California I have experienced my fair share of earthquakes! the biggest was the Loma Prieta in 1989. So I can ride out an earthquake with the best of them

In 2004 DH and I were at WDW for hurricane Jean, it wasn't bad at all. Our winters on the Washington coast were worse!!!!!!

Lats year while living in Michigan I experienced my first tornado. The sirens went off and we sat in our basement for over an hour watching the news and listening to the radio for updates. Not bad as it didn't came to our neighborhood.

 

[RangerPooh]

Was working at the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company in October of 1989 for the Loma Prieta Earthquake. I was in the warehouse talking to a coworker and stepped outside for a cigarette when it hit. Co worker and another died when the brick wall form the neighboring building fell on our building.

I remember the Coffee Roasting Company being all over the news over the few days surrounding the earthquake. We were living in Gilroy and didn't have any real damage to our property, but my grandparents were living in Boulder Creek and had a fair amount of damage to their business. Just tryingt o get there was terrible. You had to do bipass after bipass each day.

 

[cats7494]

Ice Storms and Flood (twice)
Not so natural disaster was a house fire

 

[Vixen]

being from california i have been trough many earthquakes nothing ever happend in my house but always saw freeways down fires ect ect.. i have a big fear of them

 

[Simba's Mom]

Our house was hit by a tornado when I was 6. My little brother was 3. It was April 3, 1974 - the superoutbreak.

We were in the den with Mom, watching TV. Dad was at choir practice at church (it was a Wednesday night). Suddenly Mom yelled at us to run for the basement. I was half asleep and didn't know what she had heard, but I ran because of the tone of her voice (she sounded terrified) and she grabbed my brother. We got downstairs and huddled into the corner that was completely underground with Mom protecting us with her body. Glass went everywhere and a tree fell on our roof. It was so loud. Mom thought the whole roof was being torn off and was praying to Jesus to save us. I had never heard Mom pray out loud like that (only the blessing, or a Sunday School prayer, not literally shouting out to God).

We had over 20 trees down in our yard. Dad finally made it home, but he couldn't drive all the way to the house because of trees down in the road. I was worried about our dog, as she hadn't come downstairs with us, but she was okay.

We were so much more fortunate that others; my best friend's house was totally gone. And of course, we were most fortunate in that we were all okay. There were 36 injuries and 1 death in our small city. It was an F4 tornado.


Back in April 1998, I wasn't personally in the tornado, but an F5 hit this area and I was working. It was my first time to work a disaster. We got 36 trauma patients in just a few hours (normal is 0-6 in a day!). Thirty-four people died; one of them was my co-worker's 8 year old son.

There is a book about the experiences of the victims and the survivors.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Rr...cover&dq=eyes+in+a+storm#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It's horrifying what they all went through.

Oh, Oh. I see you're from Alabama. Did this happen in Alabama? DH is currently in Oxford, Alabama looking at houses for sale. A major reason we want to move is to get to a less "natural disaster-prone" area. Hadn't thought about tornadoes!

 

[Squirlz]

Well maybe this doesn't qualify as "natural" but I lived in Richmond, Indiana when two blocks of the downtown were destroyed by an explosion in 1968. 41 people were killed when a gas leak in the basement of an arms store full of ammo and black powder ignited.

I was 3 miles away in my bedroom when I heard the enormous boom and my windows rattled. Looked out and saw a huge column of thick black smoke on the horizon. The radio station started pleading for anyone with a station wagon to bring blankets and help transport the injured.

Martin Luther King had been assassinated two days before and some thought it was a deliberate attack, but black and white worked together in the hours after to stop the fires and rescue the injured.

 

[JoyG]

I remember several hurricanes hitting the east end of Long Island when I was growing up.

In Buffalo one year, we had a snow storm dump 5 feet of snow on the city which caused travel bans. I've got dh on video shoveling and the drifts were higher than him. I didn't like the feeling of not being able to leave the house. I get claustophobic.

We also had an ice storm three years ago that knocked out power for a week.