Have you or anyone you know ever been through..

[mommaU4]

a natural disaster? A flood, fire, tornado, earthquake, hurricane, etc?

I went through the Northridge earthquake in CA. I was living in Glendale at the time (January 1994) which is about 28 minutes from Northridge. It was a 6.7 magnitude which was the strongest I had ever been through at that point. Pretty scary, but nothing compared to some of the things we've seen lately. Now, living in MI I'm not sure what to expect around here. Tornadoes maybe?

Anyways I was just curious to see if any DISers had been through any natural disasters in their time?

 

[christineann]

Lost my house in Hurricane Hugo in 1989 (storm surge ruined everything), but I can't imagine the horror of a tornado or earthquake - at least we had warning.

 

[Mishetta]

Yep, lived through the "Shake & Bake" Whittier quake (I was in my office in Pico Rivera at the time), & then the next 'big' one was the Northridge quake. I remember flying out of bed & ran to my bedroom doorway jam & it was even hard to hold on, my condo was rocking so violently. I'll never forget the noise too. Not just the noise of the quake, but the noise of my building moving. It was after that quake that made us decide to leave CA. I was so freaked out. That poor man that was sandwiched in the Northridge Mall parking structure......

 

[mtblujeans]

My family lived around Kankakee, Illinois when I was in elementary school. We used to sit on the front porch and watch the tornadoes go over in the summer. They always had about the same pattern and they would go over town and always land in the trailer court on the same spot each time! Then it would rain and the pavement would be so warm and we would run around out in the storm until our clothes were soaked thru.

I lived in Delano, CA (near Bakersfield) when they had the bad earthquake in southern California in the early '70s....I can't remember the year now (as you can tell I am really old) and my bed bounced out to the middle of the room from the rattling of that earthquake all those miles away!

 

[MinnieM3]

Another Hurricane Hugo survivor here. Would never want to go through that again.

 

[Micca]

Tornadoes and hurricane. We suffered no major damage or loss.

 

[tink38]

Katrina survivor here.

 

[mommaU4]

Yep, lived through the "Shake & Bake" Whittier quake (I was in my office in Pico Rivera at the time), & then the next 'big' one was the Northridge quake. I remember flying out of bed & ran to my bedroom doorway jam & it was even hard to hold on, my condo was rocking so violently. I'll never forget the noise too. Not just the noise of the quake, but the noise of my building moving. It was after that quake that made us decide to leave CA. I was so freaked out. That poor man that was sandwiched in the Northridge Mall parking structure......

After the Northridge quake I was a wreck! During it I kept yelling to my DH "make it stop, make it stop". The shaking was so violent and you never know how long they will last. It woke us from a dead sleep but we had enough wits about us to run to the doorway of our bedroom.

After it was over I got ready to go to work. Power was out so we didn't realize the extent of the damage right away. On the way to work we pass right by the golf course at Griffith Park and there were people out playing like nothing had happened.

I went to my job which at the time was manager of Motherhood Maternity in the Sherman Oaks Mall which as you know is right there next to Northridge. Needless to say the whole mall was closed. Alot of damage. I wasn't able to see my store for at least a week and when I did it looked like a snowglobe that someone had took and turned upside down, shaken it and then put it down again. Totally trashed.

Luckily other than a few broken items we personally suffered no damage. But if I remember correctly 57 people died and portions of the I-5 collapsed. Still nothing compared to what others have gone through.

 

[Alice's Mom]

I experienced the Northridge Quake, I was 16 and of course lived with my parents and younger brother...I lived in Simi Valley and the rival high school had so much damage that we had to share our school. We attended class from 7:30am - 12pm and the other students were there from 12:30pm - 5pm for 3 months...we had it made!

At our house all the block walls around the backyard fell down, 3 doors down a neighbor had so much damage they had to rebuild.

A week before the quake our tv had broken, so we went out and bought a brand new Mistubishi, my dad put it on top of the entertainment center, much to my mother's chagrin. She told my dad we'll have an earthquake if he leaves it there and the tv will fall and break, well guess what.

When she bought a new tv about 2 years ago we were very nervous

 

[Mishetta]

After the Northridge quake I was a wreck! During it I kept yelling to my DH "make it stop, make it stop". The shaking was so violent and you never know how long they will last. It woke us from a dead sleep but we had enough wits about us to run to the doorway of our bedroom.

But if I remember correctly 57 people died and portions of the I-5 collapsed. Still nothing compared to what others have gone through.

It did seem to last quite a while ~ or at least our building rocking back & forth kept rocking for a long while after the quake.

The majority of the deaths occurred at the Northridge Apartment Buliding if I remember right. Wasn't it 4 or 6 floors that just sandwiched to the ground & each floor just crushed all the residents still in bed (it was like 430am, wasn't it?) The details are getting "foggy" now. My dear friends lived in Van Nuys (you know how close that was to Northridge) & they had some major structural damage to their home. My friend just took her kids & moved to WA for a while, until she really missed her husband & started to forget about the quake. Almost everyone I worked with had a sad story. Oh, & remember that poor Highway Patrol Man who was on his motorcyle (forgot which freeway now) & the freeway collapsed (just broke off) & he went flying through the air to a very very deep drop. Needless to say, he didn't make it. There were lots of sad stories. Oh & lets not talk about after shocks to that earthquake!

 

[Freyja]

My dad and his family lost everything in a volcano eruption here in Iceland in 1973. They weren´t able to move back to their island until somewhere between 1 and 2 years later.

 

[Feralpeg]

I've been through both tornados and hurricanes.

 

[Alice's Mom]

It did seem to last quite a while ~ or at least our building rocking back & forth kept rocking for a long while after the quake.

The majority of the deaths occurred at the Northridge Apartment Buliding if I remember right. Wasn't it 4 or 6 floors that just sandwiched to the ground & each floor just crushed all the residents still in bed (it was like 430am, wasn't it?) The details are getting "foggy" now. My dear friends lived in Van Nuys (you know how close that was to Northridge) & they had some major structural damage to their home. My friend just took her kids & moved to WA for a while, until she really missed her husband & started to forget about the quake. Almost everyone I worked with had a sad story. Oh, & remember that poor Highway Patrol Man who was on his motorcyle (forgot which freeway now) & the freeway collapsed (just broke off) & he went flying through the air to a very very deep drop. Needless to say, he didn't make it. There were lots of sad stories. Oh & lets not talk about after shocks to that earthquake!

They named the overpass he drove off of after him, its off the 5. I can't remember his name right now, but whenever I drive to Vegas I drive past it, such a sad story. The quake was at 4am.

 

[diznygirl]

Well, volcano sure is unique.

We were there for the Northridge earthquake. 4:20 am on Martin Luther King Day. We lived in an apt in West LA at the time. I never get up for earthquakes - they usually are over before you can get to a doorway. But this one wasn't stopping! Sure did seem like it lasted forever. I kept wondering if the gas wall heater was going to explode.

Older buildings in Santa Monica were hit hard - lots of brick buildings fell apart. I remember the ATM was working, and we had lunch at a McDonald's in Santa Monica. There was an aftershock while we were there. Everyone just stopped eating for a minute until it was over.

All in all, I like earthquakes better than hurricanes. Earthquakes hit, you pick stuff up, the end. Hurricanes you hear about for a week before it actually happens, no one is really sure where it's gonna go, then there is a curfew for the day of until it passes. All that preparedness is stressful. Also, hurricanes also seem to cause more devastation than earthquakes do here in the U.S.

 

[Sparx]

Hmm...I never really thought of them as disasters. We get most of the hurricane winds and rain around here, and we flood all the time, but we are just used to it. I've been in a few ice storms, blizzards... stuff like that. An earthquake and tornado or two. But until reading this thread, I wouldn't have called them disasters. The word sounds so bad. It sounds like people died in them. To my knowledge, none did, at least around here.

 

[binny]

Ive been through several Ice Storms, Mt St Helens ( lived North of Seattle when it blew) and some minor earthquakes.

My friend though survived the Tsunami . Their boat was anchored off the coast of Phuket when it hit, they got out to sea until they thought it was safe and said when they made it back it was horrible

 

[Planogirl]

We went through Hurricane Alicia and I'm told, Hurricane Carla. I was too small to remember Carla though.

We've had tornadoes nearby including one across the street from an apartment I lived in. I heard it and I heard the roof of the house across the road being torn off. I was also driving alone in a raging thunderstorm in a rural area once when a tornado warning came across the radio for the exact area I was in. Pretty scary stuff.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

Being from the Northeast I have been through a few. A few hurricanes have hit here hard. No bad ones in the past few years, thank goodness, but there have been some in my lifetime. I was actually in Orlando when hurricane Charley hit. I was on a cruise so I had no idea it was brewing and going to hit land. I get back on shore and to my hotel room and next thing I know the hurricane was scheduled to hit the next day. Pretty scary.

I have lived through a few blizzards. They really aren't fun once you are an adult. And of course with them comes ice storms. Now those are the worst. I don't know if they are a natural disaster but they should be. Tree limbs falling and power lines falling from the weight. You just pray that you still have power because otherwise you will freeze. I have also seen some Noreasters. I remember in 4th grade a bad one came through and the windows in the classrooms were blowing in. My mom finally came and got me and my brother and we walked home in about a foot of snow and it was still coming down and some really high winds. I haven't seen one like that since. I will always remember it.

I also remember a tornado came through Long Island once maybe 10 years ago. My whole family prepared to run out of the house if it came near. It was scary for a young kid. The sky was green. I am not kidding. I have never seen that before and never have since.

 

[lewdyan1]

Many hurricanes, but Hurricane Andrew stands out for the most damage and scariest!

 

[grlpwrd]

Yes, earthquakes in Hawaii and recently in the Seattle area, too.

Hurricanes in Hawaii and Virginia plus a tornado here in Virginia, too. We lived in Tulsa for a year and ironically never experienced a tornado there that touched down, but when we lived in Hampton, VA a tornado ripped thru our apartment complex in a suburban area. That was scary.

On that note that's why I am always prepared for emergencies for our family. You just never know...