Growing up in the south east and being perennially under hurricane watches has kinda numbed me to the ?danger? of natural disasters. So many decades ago, I thought it would be interesting to experience most of them. At least once. mostly for sh!ts and giggles. Maybe there is a little bit of a storm chaser in me...
Wiki classifies Natural Disasters as: "A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include firestorms, duststorms, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property,[1] and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's resilience and on the infrastructure available.[2]"
So with that said, What ones have you been through and what has changed in your thought process after it? What ones are you still trying to see/avoid?
Simple breakdown:
Firestorms, Wildfires :
Dust storms :
Floods :
Hurricanes (and other storms) :
Tornadoes :
Volcanic eruptions :
Earthquakes :
Tsunamis :
Firestorms, Wildfires : Closest I've been was driving through Florida when they were dealing with wildfires some years back. Traffic on I95 was squeezed down to the middle of the road, single file. Visibility was trash. No real changes from this other than make sure I had gas in the tank, and GHB had dust masks/face coverings.
Dust storms : Nope
Floods : Only minor ones, and never directly affected. Ie, I could take alternate roads around the area. Changes - Just knowing about the alternate roads. Keep map in car, etc.
Hurricanes (and other storms) : Tons of exp. Mostly it's taught me to keep supplies on hand, and rotate through them. Keep appraised of the trees in the area and the potential damage they can cause. And to not trust the weather people until ~ 3 days out.
Many of us here dont do much of the 'cases of water' for hurricane prep, and instead keep larger 5g containers in the garage, shed, etc. I do have my normal case or 2 of h2o that is daily use here... Standard BOB setup, though in all honestly, it'll be a 'send the wife, and dog away' setup, as I'm pretty sure I can handle anything less than a 5. Always have plenty of propane and cooking ability due to my excessive camping. Large tarps in the shed as well as duct tape, etc. One thing to note, an acquaintance purchased a huge ass used billboard tarp for house coverage pretty cheap. Apparently there is a decent market for used billboard vinyl...
Tornadoes : No experience other than minor EF0, EF1's locally. Mostly spin offs from Hurricanes/TS...
Volcanic eruptions : No experience, but I have some marshmallows and graham crackers...
Earthquakes : I live on a fault-line that's over due. this year we've had a few ~3's. Not much I can changee, other than be annoyed about patching some cracks, etc.
Tsunamis : No experience.
Firestorms, Wildfires : Not so far
Dust storms : Not so far
Floods : Some very minor
Hurricanes (and other storms) : Numerous, both ashore and at sea. At sea hurricanes are nasty bastards.
Tornadoes : Quite a few, again, both ashore and at sea (large water spouts)
Volcanic eruptions : Not yet, but the wife has.
Earthquakes : Several. Southern California in the 70s, northern NY in the 80s, Virginia just a few years ago.
Tsunamis : Not so far
Blizzards/Ice storms : Camped in Northern NYS in the 70s & 80s, Ice storm in the Northern Plains states in '08
Other : Not so far
Firestorms, Wildfires : Helped fight a grass fire at my grandparents (neighbor tossed her cigarette butt into a dry field), but that's it
Dust storms : Nothing
Floods : Grew up in Midland, MI, which is where they had those dam bursts in 2020. The whole area is basically a swamp / river valley (e.g. the house I grew up in had a basement which went down into the water table, which meant that the basement would flood any time the sump pump quit or the power went out). My main experience there was from the 1986 flooding, which pretty much shut everything down for a few days and caused a lot of millions in damage. The dam breaks last year were even worse, but I'd moved out long before that. Our local CERT did a water / supply collection and then delivered several trailer-loads of stuff up there afterwards.
Hurricanes (and other storms) : Hurricanes, none. Large T-storms, some, but nothing that caused any more than transient power outages and minor damage.
Tornadoes : I've had to go down in the basement just-in-case maybe 3-4 times in my life, including one time while I was at work. I've had a few near-misses though. Had an EF0 hit downtown Detroit once while I was at a theater performance (nothing was said during the show and we only found out about it afterwards) and had an EF0 / EF1 come through just a few minutes behind me while driving once too. That one shut down the freeway for hours while they cleaned up a bunch of overturned semis and cars which had been pushed/thrown off the road. Again, I never knew anything had happened until after I'd gotten home and turned on the news, which is when I determined it had been 5-10 mins behind me when I'd driven through that same area. I think that weather radios should be required equipment in cars!
Volcanic eruptions : Nope
Earthquakes : Not really. Michigan doesn't have any significant fault lines and the only times we've had anything here it's been due to small ones which happened out of state and managed to just barely jiggle things here. I was never even able to feel them, but the news would make a big deal out of it each time.
Tsunamis : Nada
Blizzards/Ice storms : Dude, I live in Michigan, so there have been too many to count! I've driven through blizzards multiple times (including one where I was driving at night, on almost completely deserted country roads back when I was in college), driven through eight inches of snow in a front-wheel-drive Pontiac Grand Prix (and was only one of only five people who came into the office that day, including a co-worker who drove a Geo Metro!), had my car completely buried in snow drifts in parking lots a few times, and run out of room to put snow from clearing the driveway as the areas next to it had gotten too high/steep for the snow to stay there after I ran the snow blower! Right now, everything outside is coated in ice from some freezing rain which came through yesterday (caused a bunch of small branches to come down out in my yard). There's a reason that I have winter survival kits in both vehicles! This is also is why I rarely let my vehicles get below 1/2 tank of gas - just in case!
Other : Does the 2004 east coast blackout count? I lucked out in that I was just leaving work (literally in the staircase leaving the building) when the power went out. That gave me a bit of a head start compared to a lot of other folks for my evening commute. By sticking to the side roads I managed to get home in about an hour and a half (my normal commute was about 45 mins each way) and still had gas in my car (many other people ended up abandoning vehicles which had run dry). Then I went around my apartment complex handing out some ice cream bars from my freezer before they all melted! Got to meet some of my neighbors for the very first time that way.
Floods:
I was a kid during the flood of 1985.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Election_Day_floods
Derecho:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_2012_North_American_derecho
Don't let the gas tank get empty, keep everything charged up, buy a solar panel for emergency use. We didn't lose power, but other family members did.
The great sewer line collapse of 2012 that happened about two weeks after recovering from the derecho. The basement of that house filled up ankle deep...
Technically I could check off a lot of boxes on natural disasters, but none of them ever directly impacted me much. I've been lucky.
Flooding - I had a few days of excitement this last fall as my entire region was temporarily turned into an island and the levee next to my home was nearly breached. But there was no damage to my property. Flooding just bad enough to disrupt transportation is common in my region, but it's only an annoyance unless there's also a medical emergency happening.
Tornado - I landed at an airport 45 minutes before a tornado hit and at the time thought we were all going to die. But it was a very small tornado that did little damage and would have been nothing more than annoyance if we hadn't been landing the plane right then. Turned out to be nothing more than a few hours of excitement.
Earthquake - Several little ones and one fairly bad one. Luckily I live in a region that has very new, modern infrastructure and there was little damage and very few injuries thanks to modern earthquake codes. A similar quake in a much older or unregulated region would have been far more destructive.
Fire - I drove through about 20 miles of wildfire once, but I knew the light forest and scrub in that area didn't have enough fuel load to seriously threaten anyone on that road. Air quality was the only real threat, and I should have had a spare air filter for my car to be safe. An N95 mask would have saved me from a lot of coughing and discomfort in my lungs the next week. But it was a real cool experience to see.
Blizzard or Ice Storm - A warm home and hot chocolate just make this fun. A few times I was on the road for work. Once in Colorada, once heading from Portland to eastern Oregon, and once heading from... Utah to Nevada?.. Each time I was able to get behind a semi truck with chains on that broke up the ice for me and created lots of traction. We just drove slow. I cranked the heat to maximum and cracked the window for fresh cool air to keep me awake and enjoy the night air without freezing.
Volcano - I was real close to Mt Saint Helens last time it blew up big. Luckily we were upwind from it and we got a tiny fraction of the ash people even 100+ miles farther downwind got. It should have been a huge impact to us but wasn't thanks to the weather. I was real young and remember foolishly being disappointed it didn't have a more obvious physical impact. The adults were all real excited and I couldn't understand why an inch of ash was so exciting. It seemed boring compared to the excitement the TV was indicating it should be.
Wind storms - Nothing compared to hurricanes, but we get the tar beat out of us every few years by windstorms. Just be ready to go without power for a few days to a week.
I will say watching a dry lightning storm from nearly the top of a cell tower at night is spectacular, despite stupid. I don't think I'd trade that for much.
Firestorms, Wildfires : I've driven down roads with wildfires burning right up to the road. Sat waiting for the order to evacuate as the hills on two sides glowed red from approaching flames . Watched news reports stating that the fire destroyed the area our property was ( It didn't. Never trust TV news ) . That time a member of a forum just like this one , who had stayed behind went by our cabin to check on it and report it still standing.
Dust storms : When I was a child , two of my sisters lived in Palm Springs . I remember several dust storms. I also remember my Dad having to stop the car while driving there because of zero visibility. That was one of two times we got caught on the road and my dads windshield was severely pitted and some of the paint was removed from the body of the car.
Floods : Never been in any life threatening floods. Just impassable to barely passable flooded roads
Hurricanes Only hurricane , We were visting our daughter and son in law in Augusta GA when Mathew hit. Technically we were under a Hurricane warning. But Augusta is far enough away from the shore that it was all very Meh
(and other storms) : Lots, Just last week Severe T storm (Drecho) with 75 mph wind and two separate tornado warnings.
I've lived in KS
since 2006 . Can't remember how many times we've had to go to the basement or heard the sirens going. Have yet to see a tornado with my own eyes. I think one might have skipped over us a few years back based on storm debris we found after. I've seen vortex in the sky ( Mesocyclonic ) . Marveled at a sky full of Mammatus . Had lightning strike so close I felt a wave of heat pass. Stood in the door of my barn with my dog sitting next to me ( several times, God I miss that dog. No matter what the weather he went with me) as we both watched up to golf ball suze hail fall. Two blizzards. I fear ice storms the most. Days to weeks of no power. Having to go to a open spring to get water in containers to take home so the toilet could flush. . Roads undrivable with up to an inch of ice over the entire region. Really crappy
Tornadoes : Already mentioned. Closest confirmed about 2-3 miles from our house . I can tell you when the Chapman/Manhattan tornado in 2008 went past just about a mile from us. Even though it was lifted and not causing harm. I knew excactly when it went by overhead from all the animals noises.
Volcanic eruptions : Nope, none
Earthquakes : Lot's From too light to feel, to Oh Holy Shit!!!! Spent the first 50 years of my life in Los Angeles. Northridge was the worst. Thats the area I worked at the time.
Tsunamis : Nope
There's a quote from the book Jaws, that has always stuck with me
""Suppose you fell over with this fish. Is there anything you could do? Sure. Pray. It'd be like falling out of an airplane without a parachute and hoping you'll land in a haystack. The only thing that'd save you would be God, and since He pushed you overboard in the first place, I wouldn't give a nickel for your chances."
― Peter Benchley, Jaws
There is nothing man can build that nature can't destroy at whim. The Northridge quake showed that to me. Don't rely on building codes. Go with your gut. Always have on your person a flashlight, Knife and cell phone with at least half a charge left. Fill your gas tank when it hits half.
Having lived in many places, I have been through a lot of this stuff.
Firestorms, Wildfires : 1 in Montana, 1 in California.
Dust storms : 2 in El Paso.
Floods : Several in Virginia, 1 in North Carolina
Hurricanes (and other storms) : Was at ground zero for Hurricane Ike, went through several others living in the southeast
Tornadoes : I've lived in a couple of sections of "Tornado Alley". Had to run and dive into shelters and on one occasion out-race one in a vehicle. Do not recommend.
Volcanic eruptions : 0 (thankfully)
Earthquakes : 3 in California. Never gonna go back there again. When the ground shakes and buildings sway, that is Mother Natures way of saying :Get the fuck out!"
Tsunamis : 0 (again, thankfully)
Snowstorms/Blizzards: I live in northern New Hampshire. That is the natural state of things. You adapt.
My most feared natural disaster?
Ice storms. *shudder* Have been through 2 horrendous ones. One in Missouri. Power out for 2 weeks....and we were lucky. Some rural areas were out of power for 6 weeks.