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Natural Disasters | Pad Patter 2/15

Not me personally but I have had things affected by natural disasters. Way back in 2011, I was meant to be flying to Christchurch until the Christchurch Earthquakes cancelled that trip. Had the odd small earthquake at night then of course the flooding a couple of weeks ago and the Cyclone that has hit in the past few days (both of those really only brought a heap of wind and rain to where I live)
 
Not really. I've been in a few minor tornadoes but nothing that was causing destruction
 
I was in the April 27th 2011 tornado swarm that hit Alabama, we lost power for 8 days. There were over 300 tornadoes that formed in the skies over most of our state that day. I have been thru 4 hurricanes, living in Pensacola FL, and Norfolk VA in the late 90s/early 00s.
 
We have had some nasty floods around here. Back in 2001 I woke up one morning having literally my bedroom flooded (I lived in my parents basement at the time). ...
And also survived a minor tornado.
But nothing too serious
Thank goodness
 
When I was little there was a tornado warning while I was visiting my cousin in Florida. That's the closest I've ever been to a tornado.

I felt my first earthquake in March 2020. Thankfully nothing was damaged but it was the weirdest feeling ever.
 
umyesh said:
I felt my first earthquake in March 2020. Thankfully nothing was damaged but it was the weirdest feeling ever.
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I agree, it was kind of not what I was expecting if that makes sense. To me it didn't feel much different than when a heavy freight train goes past my house so at first I didn't think anything of it.
 
I've lived through these hurricanes in my lifetime:

Sept. 12, 1979 (Frederic)
Sept. 5, 1985 (Elena)
Aug. 3, 1995 (Erin)
Oct. 4, 1995 (Opal)
Sept. 16, 2004 (Ivan)
Aug. 5, 2005 (Dennis)
Sept. 16, 2020 (Sally)

During Hurricane Erin, we had a large pine tree fall on our new home. We hadn't made our first payment on it yet. It was devastating. That was also the storm where I lost ephemera/cards from our wedding due to water damage in our home.

Hurricane Dennis arrived when Daniel was just over a month old. I sheltered in our walk-in closet with him. We were without power, so I left with Daniel and Olivia and went to visit my aunt and uncle in Alabama.
 
The first one I remember was the Blizzard of 1978 (Jan 25 to 27). I lived in Toledo which borders Michigan. I had a basement level apartment where the bottom window sill was ground level. I had gone to a basketball game on Wed night. When my date left at 12:30, it was raining. When I got up to go to my 9th day of work at my new job at 6:00, I couldn't see out my windows because of snow. Needless to say I didn't work that day or the next. The Ohio Turnpike was shut down across the whole state for 2 days. The only way you could get around was by 4-wheel drive vehicles. I still couldn't get my car out of the apartment parking lot the next Monday and got a ride to work that day and on Tuesday. I finally got my car out by Wednesday. The snowfall amounts varied throughout the state with the most being around 19 inches but the winds were the problem causing the drifting and blowing snow. At one point winds were almost 70 miles per hour. 51 people lost their lives during that storm.

In January 2005, we had an ice storm. Over 2 inches of ice overnight with the whole town losing power in the early morning hours on Thursday. Our local municipality has its own electric department that purchases power from 3 of the big power companies. All 3 of them had issues that caused no power to come into my town. Generators were not to be found. A friend drove over 2 hours to Cincinnati after finding one that he paid for over the phone. They let me stay with them for 2 nights. Power finally started coming back late Friday in some areas. My friends got theirs back on Saturday morning and let me have the generator. My power came back on Saturday night. To top it all off, we ended up with several inches of snow on Saturday. Some of my co-workers that lived in the country were without power for over a week. I had a tree limb come down on the roof of my patio enclosure with a small limb off of it breaking a window. After that the door to the outside on that enclosure was hard to open/close because the roof line had shifted. I got it closed and never opened it again. I could still access the enclosure through the sliding door in the dining room.

3 years ago a tornado went around the edge of my town. It was on the ground for 1.3 miles and rated EF-1. A town 14 miles to the west of me had an EF-3 that same night that was on the ground for 11 miles. A couple I know had major damage to their home from that EF-1 and last I heard, still have not been able to go back to living in it. I do live in an area that has tornadoes but thankfully have not had any damage from them other than power outages.

And, yeah, I've even felt an earthquake here in Ohio. There is a Seismogenic Zone in my area. We had 4.5 Earthquake in 1986. I was home with mom and getting ready to go to work (worked 2nd shift at the time). We definitely felt the house shake. No damage or things flying off the walls though.
 
I've only experienced edges.

For instance, the remnants of hurricanes sometimes come up as far as Virginia and we have lots of wind and rain. We have many tornado watches, but rarely warnings.

I grew up in southern California, so I felt several earthquakes, but only powerful enough to make picture frames on walls crooked.

Yes, I'm very grateful.
 
Oh my.. march 11th, 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake in North-Est Japan (we felt about 8 vibration level as they calle it here in Japan, the farther you are the lesser the vibration that's why I don't think just about magnitude anymore cause it depends on how deep is the earthquake and how far you are from it... sorry, earthquake knowledge kinda come with living in Japan lol
And the tsunami after that.
We were actually at the port at the time but because we fled quite quickly thanks to the company people who saw the sea changes, before even the tusnami alert rang, we were able to drive to the closest mountain and I haven't seen the waves at all. But the shake was my first big ever before and I am still traumatized when I see on TV, footage of that time, especially sounds. I remember an exhibition a year after, when I heard the recordings of the local radio at the time and recognized the voice I was listening to that night in the mountain, before I had to turn off my engine to save gazoline, I bursted in tears.
Tsunami footage or movies still feels like a movie cause we were waiting in the mountain and saw nothing. Afterward we saw desolation all around of course... I still have goosebumps thinking of it. We were very very very lucky. And I'm glad I was with my husband all the time cause if I had left him at his work appointment and go home like I usually do, I would have tried to come back to him (it happened just a little bit after we arrived at the company) and would probaly be dead drowned in my car.

The only good thing remaining from this is that I am now much much MUCH stronger when it comes to shakes. I used to run to the door with a vibration of 3 but now I just keep calm, wait to see if it needs panicking. I can even notice the growling of the earth before it actually starts shaking. The fact that when I fled to the mountain and there was still a town, houses around me, made me a true believer in Japanese house making skills. The tsunami brought it all down but unless you have a 100 years old house, you can be pretty sure your house will still be standing when it's over. That's why I was finally ok in buikding a house here. I used to think what's the point, better just rent and move when needed.
We had several rather strong shakes since we are here and we are still standing. I am totally trusting my house. Careful but trusting. I wish Turkey had more of this technology :(
 
ninigoesdigi said:
Oh my.. march 11th, 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake in North-Est Japan (we felt about 8 vibration level as they calle it here in Japan, the farther you are the lesser the vibration that's why I don't think just about magnitude anymore cause it depends on how deep is the earthquake and how far you are from it... sorry, earthquake knowledge kinda come with living in Japan lol
And the tsunami after that.
We were actually at the port at the time but because we fled quite quickly thanks to the company people who saw the sea changes, before even the tusnami alert rang, we were able to drive to the closest mountain and I haven't seen the waves at all. But the shake was my first big ever before and I am still traumatized when I see on TV, footage of that time, especially sounds. I remember an exhibition a year after, when I heard the recordings of the local radio at the time and recognized the voice I was listening to that night in the mountain, before I had to turn off my engine to save gazoline, I bursted in tears.
Tsunami footage or movies still feels like a movie cause we were waiting in the mountain and saw nothing. Afterward we saw desolation all around of course... I still have goosebumps thinking of it. We were very very very lucky. And I'm glad I was with my husband all the time cause if I had left him at his work appointment and go home like I usually do, I would have tried to come back to him (it happened just a little bit after we arrived at the company) and would probaly be dead drowned in my car.

The only good thing remaining from this is that I am now much much MUCH stronger when it comes to shakes. I used to run to the door with a vibration of 3 but now I just keep calm, wait to see if it needs panicking. I can even notice the growling of the earth before it actually starts shaking. The fact that when I fled to the mountain and there was still a town, houses around me, made me a true believer in Japanese house making skills. The tsunami brought it all down but unless you have a 100 years old house, you can be pretty sure your house will still be standing when it's over. That's why I was finally ok in buikding a house here. I used to think what's the point, better just rent and move when needed.
We had several rather strong shakes since we are here and we are still standing. I am totally trusting my house. Careful but trusting. I wish Turkey had more of this technology :(
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So scary, and so glad that you and your husband survived, and so sorry that you are traumatized.
 
I really haven't. I've been through a couple small tornadoes or micro burst storms that caused power outages, but no direct damage to our house. And I lived through the awesome blizzard of 1978, but I was a kid, so that was just fun! No school, plus a ton of snow to play in every day!
 
I grew up in NE Florida, but I don't remember any real major damage from any hurricane, but my mom remembers being terrified when Dora hit in 1964. I don't think it was a particularly powerful hurricane, but it took out the pier at the beach. I was just a wee one and have no memory of it. We lost power I think during every thunderstorm. I do remember when I was older driving along A1A as a hurricane was approaching just to see the churn of the ocean -- it was impressive, maybe stupid as I look back.

Here in Arizona, we had a microburst hit our neighborhood in August 1996. It was scary, it was so tempting to watch outside, but we tried to stay away from the windows in case of anything crashing through. Some neighbors had their heat pumps ripped off of their rooftops, lots of downed power lines and snapped poles, debris everywhere. It was so eerie after it passed: the streets were lined with stuff that had been blown from all over and it was soooooo quiet. We were without power for 3 days at our house, lost all the food in our freezer -- had a hole punched in our roof from what must have been a flying 2x4. One neighbor has the back window of their van sucked out. It was all covered by insurance, and was limited to a small enough area that it did not receive government assistance. We went to a local resort hotel several miles away that had not been hit and stayed in the air conditioning.

In 1988, my husband and I unknowingly drove through a blizzard -- scary, but not really a disaster. The road had been closed after we had started along that highway.
 
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I live in South Florida, so that's a big yes. Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004. (Interesting factoid. Those two hurricanes were three weeks apart and they came on shore within five miles of each other. Some people had not had power restored from Frances when Jeanne hit.) Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Wilma was only supposed to be a tropical storm for us because it came on shore on the west coast but when it hit the Atlantic, it doubled back and became a Cat 3. Lots of people here were not prepared for that one.

We also had effects from Hurricane Irma in 2017 and both Ian and Nicole last year but they were minor for us. (For some people in the city where I live the flooding from Irma was really bad but we live in an area of the city with better drainage.)

We've prepared for even more than that but they either came on only as Tropical Storms or they missed us. With Hurricane Matthew in 2016, we went to bed and we were still in the path. Then overnight the storm moved slightly, missed us entirely and hit Cape Canaveral instead.
 
I have survived all of them, but not by my own doing. Nature just changed course and we were always lucky.

Hurricane's: A lot of them hit the NJ area, and I'm not far from the coast. Not as many as Florida, but we get our fair share. My parents now live at the beach. We don't usually have to deal with tornados or huge blizzards.

Sandy just cause of the destruction at the shore, and how we were impacted. The destruction and photos are crazy. Some nearby. We were supremely lucky! No power, heat for 10 days, snow, kids sent to aunts homes, gas shortages. It was a lot.

Flloyd was a big storm in 1999. I was an insurance claim adjuster at the time. It was chaos from a different perspective.
 
I forgot to mention the Derecho we had in 2012. A Derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system. Derechos can cause hurricanic and tornadic-force winds, heavy rains, and flash floods. Derecho - Wikipedia.

It was just before 4:00 on a Friday afternoon when the storm rolled in. I got off work at 4:00. The storm was mostly wind with little rain. Although the rain we got was falling horizontally from west to east. Those of us still left at the office waited it out and watched it out the windows. We could hardly see the building across the street at times. The winds were in excess of 80 mph with gusts topping the 90 mph mark. About 20 minutes later, the winds had died down and we were able to leave. On my way home I had to take multiple detours because of trees down across the roads and even power lines were down around town. I had lots of leaves and small limbs in my yard but no damage to the house. However, there was significant damage elsewhere in my neighborhood. My neighbor had their huge wood playset turned over and I saw trampolines completely upended on my way home. I took a walk with the dogs later with my camera and got photos of the neighborhood. Couldn't even walk down one road because of the huge tree blocking it. The neighborhood was already in clean up mode. The next day I took another walk with my camera and that is when I saw the damage to a house. A tree had fallen on it. The family had only been in it for 3 months. Turns out they could not live in it and it took awhile for the decision as to whether it could be fixed or would it have to be torn down. They were able to fix it and about 9 months to a year later, they were able to move back in.

I have grown to dislike high winds a lot... as I sit here in a high wind advisory today. We had one last week as well. Seems like our weather this winter is lots of wind.
 
ninigoesdigi said:
Oh my.. march 11th, 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake in North-Est Japan (we felt about 8 vibration level as they calle it here in Japan, the farther you are the lesser the vibration that's why I don't think just about magnitude anymore cause it depends on how deep is the earthquake and how far you are from it... sorry, earthquake knowledge kinda come with living in Japan lol
And the tsunami after that.
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That was such a terrifying and tragic event. Thank goodness you were able to get to safety.

I haven't really experienced any serious natural disasters. We got stuck in a pretty heavy blizzard back in the 90s in Virginia. They just weren't equipped to handle that much snow and it took a week to get plowed out but we were home and had plenty of heat and water, so no big deal really.

My sister had her wedding in St Augustine, FL and a hurricane hit 2 days before her wedding causing wide-spread damage and flooding. But, we got lucky and managed to fly in just after the hurricane cleared out and the flooding stopped just at the top step leading into her wedding venue so it all worked out ok.

And I've experienced a couple small earthquakes but no harm done.
 
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