MeanLaureen's Useless Poll of the Day - Sat

[MeanLaureen]

Good morning everyone.

I'm sure that we have all had a very humbled morning looking at the devestation that occured in Florida. My thoughts and prayers go out to all my Florida DIS buddies and I hope this finds you safe and sound.

Today's poll will be based on the natural disaster that has hit Florida and will be working its way up the east coast.

This poll will allow multiple votes.

What disasters have you been through? Tell us a story of what happened.

 

[MeanLaureen]

Personally I have been in a tornado (watched it come right towards my store and hop over it at the last second), a Hurricane (Isabel last year along with a few tropical storms), a small earthquake last year - not much damage other than some cracks in my house and some flash flooding.

 

[MeanLaureen]

Oh yeah.. and a couple of blizzards. (And not the Dairy Queen variety - although that sounds good right about now!)

 

[KrnB]

I was in school in the Fargo ND/Moorhead, MN area for the winter of 96-97, which had something like 13 big blizzards. With the flat land west of the city, those winds would come whipping through and you couldn't see anything but white. They shut down the highways quite a few times that year because of dangerous conditions. I actually had to miss my first two shifts for work after Christmas break because I couldn't get any closer than 100 miles alway, since they closed I-94 at Alexandria.

Then, with all that snow we had, came the floods in the spring of '97. We had a rain storm that caused our basement to flood (frozen ground, so the water had nowhere to go but in). It then turned into the last blizzard of the season. A week later, the Red River started going over its banks.

We were pretty lucky in Fargo because the sandbagging efforts and the dike the city built were enough to keep it relatively contained. Grand Forks, ND, wasn't so lucky.

 

[MeanLaureen]

KrnB - floods from blizzards - I forgot about that one. In Richmond we take a big brunt of the water coming down from the mountains after big snow storms. For the longest time downtown Richmond businesses would find themselves submerged under water.

Luckly they have constructed a flood wall in the low lying areas which has not stopped all flooding but seriously cut back on how bad it could be.

 

[Annette_VA]

All the stuff you mentioned that happened in Richmond.

 

[monarchsfan16]

I've been through my fair share of blizzards and Nor'easters. We've had some that have dumped 30" of snow on us in 24 hours. Lots of fun to miss that kind of school, and to play in, but a royal PITA to shovel. And with schools in NH there have been days when we've gone to school in the blizzard and gotten into accidents on the busses and gotten stuck and everything else.
Have been through a couple of tropical storms, but nothing major with that, just a couple flooded basements, and some big tree branches to pick up.
Had some serious flash flooding here last summer and a few years ago. More flooded basements. Our basement floods constantly, and with 2'' of rain expected tomorrow, we'll probably be firing up the shop vac to suck up some more water.

 

[FroggyinArk]

have seen several tornados up close and personal like, but hte worst i have faced was putting my face through the front of the motor home in the wreck last year

 

[Meriweather]

Earthquakes....floods ...earthquakes....wild fire (in Yellowstone the year it was on fire for most of the summer)...earthquakes

 

[honeywolf7]

Tornado-In Salt Lake City
Hurricane-Isabel
Earthquake-2 in Virginia, one in Colorado, and one in California
Blizzard-I was born during a blizzard that took place in Denver, Colorado on April 30th.
House Fire-Not my house but when I was 14, my parents had me burning the trash in our backyard in a barrel (we lived on 7 acres.) On Thanksgiving, I went out to do that and came back inside. We heard a sound that sounded like a car door slamming and went outside. A large section of our backyard including one of our garages was on fire. It didn't get to the house but it was extremely scary and I remember trying to get my mom to come back in the house with me and leave the men (my dad and a couple of the neighbors until the fire engine got there) out there to fight it. It turned out that she had put a light bulb in the burnable trash and it exploded....there were leaves close to the barrel and they caught on fire....It took me quite a while to stop blaming myself.

 

[aprincessmom]

I've lived through blizzard that left us stranded without electricity or water or heat for more than a week, hurricanes both big and small which are to be expected when you live on Cape Cod or vacation in SC (yes, I managed to make if for Hugo), earthquakes in CA, the complete loss of our house due to fire (not even the foundation was left), a major car accident (which has left me with some lingering effects -- some minor and some serious -- that I'll live with for the rest of my life) and by far the disaster that scares me the most is hurricanes.

The intensity, the extreme unpredictability, the way they can go from minor to devastating in a matter of hours, the way they can speed through an area or stay there pounding you for hours....hurricanes are frightening and dangerous.

 

[SnoWhite]

Wow, I had to check a few off.

Earthquake: We live in Seattle, we had a pretty big one a few years back. And there are a few small ones every so often.

Hurricane: When we went down South to watch my cousins while my aunt and uncle went on vacation, they said there hadn't been a Hurricane in their part of Georgia for over 30 years...guess what, the next day...we got one.

Car accident: 10 years ago I was in a bad car accident

House fire: Our house caught fire while I was vacationing in WDW a few years ago. So I guess I wasn't physically there...

Lisa

 

[Pin Wizard]

Well, I didn't check off blizzard, but I suppose that's what it was when I was a tyke and it snowed at my Grandparents' EASTER! I remember them digging cars out of side street parking.

Definitely hurricanes...Camille and whatever other ones there were in NJ, Andrew in FL.

A house fire when I was just 3. Strange thing happened...We lived on the 2nd story of a 2-family home. I was no more than 3 years old...moved and lived in another town when I was 4. When I was in 8th grade and the guidance counselors came to school to help us choose classes for Freshman year of HS, the counselor kept looking at my Dad and told him he knew him from somewhere. Dad didn't seem to know him. Finally, before we left the counselor said to him...I was the 17 year old kid that knocked on your door when your house was on fire in Lodi! WEIRD!!!! My Dad said he was right. He remembered a kid with red hair. Any way, the FD determined that the house fire was started by a BIRD! Found a birds nest in the corner of a drain pipe with a cigarette butt in it! Thought the bird must have been trying to stay warm since it was winter.

Floods...in our low lying town in NJ. "Pompton Plains" had it's name for a reason. Flooded every few years with the spring thaw and the rain. Luckily we were in the 100-year flood plain part of it and didn't get it directly. One year my sister did in the lower area. When my Dad wanted to buy in this town...when I was 4... the realtor told him to buy ABOVE the railroad tracks! Said they build RR tracks so they don't flood! At least in the 100-year flood plain.

 

[MJTinNH]

When I lived in Ohio growing up, we had tornadoes pass very close to the house. And the lightning storms that would kick up off the Lake Erie would make your toes curl. We enjoyed watching them. Best fire works show on earth.

Since moving to NH, mostly blizzards from Nor'easters. We have also had flooding in spring from snow melt and heavy rains.

My thoughts are with the residents of Florida and all others on the southern East coast that have taken the brunt of Hurricane Charley.

 

[nativetxn]

I experienced hurricanes in Houston and Blizzards in Michigan.

I could only vote for one though

 

[arminnie]

Hurricane - Betsy 1965, New Orleans, very bad, also lots of scares and near misses in New Orleans and Houston

Tornado - Houston 1979, demolished all of the houses across the street from me

Blizzard - Pittsburgh 1978, awful winter

Earthquake - San Francisco, 1989, bad

Wildfire - Oakland Hills, CA 1994 (?) came within 1/2 mile of my friends home, destroyed many homes

Locusts - Houston - can't remember which year they hit.

I'll take an earthquake any day over the rest of the stuff. Just make sure you live and work in structurally sound buildings.

 

[slo]

Wow......I can be very grateful that I have not been through any traumatic experiences in my life.

 

[Nutsy]

Thankfully nothing life threatening...............been through cyclones & floods

 

[browneyes]

Blizzard of '93 (I was 9 months pregnant at the time, no power for about 10 days, no water for over a week, then there were my hormones to contend with ).

We've had a couple of baby tornadoes touch down near me. The closest was about 2 miles from where I live, no one got hurt, but my SO's cousin's house and car were damaged. There was another one that touched down a couple of weeks before that that killed an 8 yo little girl though. That happened about 5 miles from where I live.

 

[disney4us2002]

I'm really surprised we don't have more here touched by terrorist activity. Noone at the Pentagon? Maybe because it was worded as did you experience it yourself? While I wasn't physically in the Pentagon, my dh was and that to me is the same for this type of poll. We also lost a church member and a good friend's brother in the Pentagon explosion. I just figured there would be a higher number than one.