Tornado alley vs Earthquake lane

[mamajoan]

Yesterday we had a Tornado go thru our neighborhood. We are fine, not a scratch. The neighbors are missing shingles and siding and fences....two blocks over is a mess. Houses blown out and twisted.... trees split down the middle, one mile away- major damage to the big fancy homes .....two miles away- houses demolished, furniture in trees, farms destroyed...
more damage to St. Claire Mall which is 5 miles away. Yet it is so odd how it can be so random.....
one house absolutely fine.. the next is torn up. .... wow....

and not one Tornado siren blew... altho we heard the Tornado warning on the tv...

all in all I prefer the earthquakes we had in California......you shook for a minute.. you checked for damage... which was usually minimal...
but there were no warnings.. they just happened.

Earthquakes and Tornados.. both are scary...but the randomness of the tornados amaze me.

I am counting my blessings today.

 

[Kitty 34]

Glad you guys were OK. Our little town went thru a horrible tornado many years ago. Demolished 55 houses!

For me I would rather risk the tornado than an earthquake but then I've never been thru an earthquake.

 

[OhMari]

I saw a tornado when I was 12 years old and I still have nitemares. There sure is a lot of tornado activity this spring in IL. What is going on?

 

[Feralpeg]

I've been through many tornado warnings in my life. Give me a hurricane any day over a tornado. With a hurricane, you have time to prepare. Not so with a tornado.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

I'm a California - I'm used to earthquakes! Seriously, once or twice every year or so we'll get a small one. Most of the time you can't even feel them. There's been a couple in my lifetime that have been pretty scary - the Landers quake in 1992 (7.3 magnitude) and the Northridge quake in 1994 (6.7 magnitude). Anything below 5.0 really isn't that big of a deal, and those below 4.0 you hardly even feel, if at all. I'll take my rockin' and rollin' over heavy winds and rain any day!

 

[Alice's Mom]

I've been through a few larger quakes too, including the '94, that one was scary, but quakes I can deal with, I am petrified of tornadoes. I guess I would be the other way around if I lived in an area where tornadoes were prevalent.

I was visiting a friend in Wyo. a few years back and her town had a couple of tornadoes rumble through, suffice to say I got very nervous when the clouds turned gray the second day I was there.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

We used to live dab smack in the middle of tornado alley - 2 blocks off of Interstate 35 in Central Texas. My dh moved back to NY and I was packing up the house etc, I quickly found out what a tornado closet was. My neighbor risked his life and told me the sirens meant to get in the closet. Our town had major damage to the town center over $1 million and some of our friends were trapped in the town center and another couple lost their house. We are moving back in several years but this time I will be prepared. We did have a hurricaine here in NY years ago, the tornado was definetely worse.

 

[mamajoan]

wow..my cable modem went out.. along with the phone... I am glad to have it back today. Others are still without power etc.

We were in 29 Palms when the Landers Quake hit in '92.. that is a few miles from the epicenter. 7.3.. major quake with some really big aftershocks that kept us moving for weeks. We just kept drinking our coffee at meetings while the aftershocks rolled thru.


Tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes ... oh my! maybe there is something to this Global warming

 

[diznygirl]

I agree with you mamajoan - I used to live in SoCal, was there for the Northridge quake. You really get used to them. But tornadoes scare the heck out of me!!

 

[minniecarousel]

awww....mj - you traded in earthquakes for tornadoes?! The only problem with earthquakes is that "The Big One" will hit someday, but in the meantime, the little ones just shake us up.
I hope you don't have any more of those!

 

[golfgal]

I have lived in tornado country all my life (granted MN doesn't get as many as Kansas/Oklahoma but we get our fair share) and have never been through a tornado. There have been some nasty ones in towns near ours, but never where we have lived.

 

[luvmy2sams]

With the exception of 2 years after college I've lived in Tornado Alley all my life. I've had close brushes with them more times than I care to remember, but I'd still prefer them over earthquakes any day of the week. Our storm shelter is just outside our backdoor, and our next home will include a safe room. Between that safe haven and the excellent warning system our state has in place, I feel completely at ease. My DD7 is actually fascinated by them and would really prefer to be a storm chaser instead of seeking shelter with her family.

 

[budbeerlady]

I went thru my first Tornado event this weekend in Iowa driving from Cedar Rapids to Davenport. I dont want to do that any time again soon, I dont know how anyone can stand to live like that for months out of the year. We were on the highway with no where to go for miles when the emergency alert blared through the hail over the radio for a tornado warning.

Mi has had tornados but it has been quite some time since there was any real damage. Yesterday was 50 years since the largest one came through our area by Lake Michigan. I'll keep good old boring MI, no earthquakes, few tornados, no hurricanes, just snow storms!

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

I hate tornandos. I am scared to death of them. Last night we had a tornado warning and I made myself sick over it. I hate spring and summer because of storms and the chance of a tornado (yes, I am a chicken!!)

 

[Chicago526]

I've grown up in IL, so bad storms and tornando threats are just a way of life. You get to know the signs quiet early, you can usually tell a bad storm from an average one just by looking out the window, and if it's bad you keep the tv or radio on, and make sure to keep an ear out for the siren. If it goes off, don't second guess it, head for shelter, if there IS a tornado, you may barely have enough time to get to shelter before your roof blows off! The siren went off in my town Sunday night, and I found out the hard way that the dog is affraid to go down the basement stairs! I had to spend precious seconds trying to chase her down and force her down the steps. There wasn't a tornado (someone at city hall got nervous I guess) and the siren turned off after about 2 minutes, but now I know that I'll have to work with the dog so she's not affraid of the basement. The 15 seconds it takes for me to grab her could be deadly (and I won't go without her).

The only thing I worry about is if a tornado comes through at night. If you're asleep with the house closed up (A/C is on) you may not hear the warning siren.

All in all though, I'll still take living in Tornado Alley over Earthquake central. At least with tornados you get some warning, and you could go your whole life without having one near you (I have). But the "big one" on the west coast WILL happen someday, and there will not be any warning at all.

 

[kelleigh1]

Is anyone in the Charleston, IL area? My younger sister and her husband are there and I'm just curious as to how things are in the area as I haven't had a chance to call her. I'm sure my mother would be calling in a panic if she couldn't reach her though.

My older sister, her husband and the kids will be heading to Scott AFB in a couple months and I have a feeling it's going to be a long summer. I'm not sure which is worse...going through it or being the family members in other parts of the country hearing the news reports and waiting to find out if your family is ok.

 

[Free4Life11]

I went thru my first Tornado event this weekend in Iowa driving from Cedar Rapids to Davenport. I dont want to do that any time again soon, I dont know how anyone can stand to live like that for months out of the year. We were on the highway with no where to go for miles when the emergency alert blared through the hail over the radio for a tornado warning.

Driving is what scares me! Always check the weather reports. They say if you are ever caught try and find a shelter. I can't remember, but I believe they say DON'T go under an overpass. I think the best thing is to lie in a ditch?? Doesn't seem all that safe to me.

The only thing I worry about is if a tornado comes through at night. If you're asleep with the house closed up (A/C is on) you may not hear the warning siren.

All in all though, I'll still take living in Tornado Alley over Earthquake central. At least with tornados you get some warning, and you could go your whole life without having one near you (I have). But the "big one" on the west coast WILL happen someday, and there will not be any warning at all.

What scares me is my parents are in the country and there are NO SIRENS. And it is pitch black outside. I am going to get them a weather radio that alerts them. I remember my parents waking me up one night and we all ran to the basement. I guess there was hail and torrential rains! Luckily nothing near us, though lots of people had their crops destroyed from the hail.

That's my thing too...with earthquakes, no warning really. Technology these days IS getting better in terms of tornados. Now the radars can detect wind movements and many times they turn on the sirens even if there is no tornado, but if the radar shows winds that are in the pattern of a tornado.

 

[LoriKay]

I've gotta go with tornadoes because there is usually a clue that something might happen instead of an earthquake coming out of the blue. If I didn't have a safe room and a weather radio I might not be as sure of my answer!

 

[momsgoofy]

Yesterday we had a Tornado go thru our neighborhood. We are fine, not a scratch. The neighbors are missing shingles and siding and fences....two blocks over is a mess. Houses blown out and twisted.... trees split down the middle, one mile away- major damage to the big fancy homes .....two miles away- houses demolished, furniture in trees, farms destroyed...
more damage to St. Claire Mall which is 5 miles away. Yet it is so odd how it can be so random.....
one house absolutely fine.. the next is torn up. .... wow....

and not one Tornado siren blew... altho we heard the Tornado warning on the tv...

all in all I prefer the earthquakes we had in California......you shook for a minute.. you checked for damage... which was usually minimal...
but there were no warnings.. they just happened.

Earthquakes and Tornados.. both are scary...but the randomness of the tornados amaze me.

I am counting my blessings today.

mamajoan...just try moving a little farther south...down here we have both tornadoes and yes, earthquakes.

DH and I both grew up in Murphysboro, where one of the worst tornadoes in Illinois history hit in 1925...it actually blew a 4X4 post through a tree, destroyed 2 schools and part of another one...the entire town, well, looked kinda like New Orleans after Katrina without all the water...and we've had our share since...the late 1950's had a really bad one that killed a few and then again when I was in high school in the early 1980's...another really bad one that killed a few in Marion...I now live only 5 miles from there. When the bad weather hits, I just stay put and keep doing what I'm doing...we don't have a basement here, so I just pray...and we're far enough on the edge of town that we only hear the sirens if it's quiet inside the house. My sis, who still lives in Murphysboro tells me to climb into the bathtub and pull DS's mattress (twin..easier than the queen on our bed) on top of me. I told her by the time I did that a tornado would have already hit the house.

And, yes, we do live in an earthquake zone...the New Madrid Fault basically runs along the Mississippi River and can be as devestating as the San Andres Fault in southern California. Over 100 years ago, the worst earthquake in the area caused the Mississippi river to flow backwards. Predictions were made in 1990 that another earthquake of comparable caliber could happen and people in this area started preparing for such a disaster. Fortunately, we haven't experienced anything more than small ones...all less than 5.0 and usually much closer to the fault line. The problem with the New Madrid Fault line is that much of the area sits on limestone and will crumble if a huge earthquake hits. You may even feel a wee tremble from the New Madrid Fault in your area IF it's a big enough one and closer to you.

I'm not sure which I'd rather live with...tornadoes are something I've got more experience with than earthquakes and knowing that the majority of buildings and road structures in the area aren't built for earthquakes...the new bridge between Illinois and Missouri at Cape Girardeau is...I think I'd rather have to deal with the tornadoes.

 

[diznygirl]

You might not get a warning with an earthquake, but generally they don't cause as much damage. It is believed that numerous small earthquakes will actually prevent there ever being a "big one." The places that have big earthquakes with lots of damage are places that aren't built to withstand them.

Having lived with earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes, I know that I prefer earthquakes.