Question Of The Day - Saturday, March 12th.

Good morning!

With the devastating earthquake/tsunami that hit Japan, I decided to ask a question about natural disasters.

Do you have any first-hand experience with natural disasters (earthquake, volcano, hurricane, etc.)?

I've been about 20 feet away from a tornado before, but that's about it.

I actually lived in Japan . The entire country is pretty much on top of a huge volcanic system, so the seismic activity is fairly constant. The largest earthquake we had while we lived there was 5-something. 5.6 if I remember correctly, and a few smaller ones that caused discernible movement. But the earth there isn't stable, whenever we came back to the states for vacation I was surprised by how still the ground was, LOL. And one of the volcanos was spitting ash while we lived there, but we weren't close enough for anything but some haziness in the air. Also in the time we lived there, there were several moderately-sized typhoons. No really big ones, though.

Since I've lived here, there have been quite a lot of strong windstorms (straightline winds can be almost as bad as tornadoes sometimes), some bad ice storms (power lines down and all that), and some tornado warnings, although no actual touchdowns.

Nope nothing like that here, its pretty safe in England in other parts of the country there has been mini tornados horrendous flash floods and tiny earthquakes but nothing as bad as what some countries go through

My goodness, nothing as bad as some countries do, we are very lucky really. I get upset when it lightnings, things like earthquakes and when bad things happen scare me, even though I know it is just a natural thing.x

The only thing I've been through that was declared a natural disaster was the 2002 ice strom that left my town with close to two weeks with no power. Towards the end of it the town was low on gasoline, kerosene, propane (actually I think that ran out first), and food.
Other towns in the same region had it worse with no power for for 3-4 weeks.

We get a lot of tornados here in the St. Louis area. One touched down not too long ago just a couple of miles from my house. The destruction left in the path of the tornado was mind boggling. Just awful. The company I work for sponsors an organization called "The Search Dog Foundation". I love this organization because their purpose is to make certain no one is left behind, 2 legged, 4 legged, feathers or anything else. I expect an email any time now with the names of the firefighters and their dogs stating they are heading to Japan. My heartfelt sympathy goes to those people and their animals in Japan.

I sat in a parking lot in Houston through Hurricane Alicia, and I've been through the edges of several more. That's about as close as I've come (or care to come!).

Nothing too bad, a 4.9 earthquake, a few hurricanes and floods but thankfully nothing too bad to damage my house, knock on wood.

While living in San Diego CA in the 70's we had a small quake. It wasn't huge but just enough to redecorate my china closet. Everything was shaking and I was scared out of my wits. I don't recall how small or big the numbers were but it was a quake.

No thank goodness! We have pretty bad winter storms and had had a terrible ice storm once, but nothing that wasn't handled fairly easily.

When I was little we had a hurricane, I can remember it because the tree in our back yard blew over. Our neighbor was out trying to protect his garden from the hurricane, and almost got hit by our tree when it fell on his garden.

unfortunately 2 hurricanes...
the firts called Gilbert and 10 years ago Isidore.... is horrible!

When I was a baby and my parents lived in Camp Jejeune, NC, we went through Hurricane Diane. Of course I don't remember any of that as I wasn't a year old at that point, but my mom said that they had an old Coleman lantern and that they were the only ones on base with light. I'm 56 and I now have that Coleman lantern....and it still works.

My DH and I went through Hurricane Agnes back in 1972. We had gotten married in 1971 and had had our son...I had just turned 17 years old. We lost everything, everything. There was nothing left, other than some dishes. And a Snoopy cookie jar. The top of the cookie jar lifted off with the rising flood waters and when the waters receded, the top was on the floor. A little chip on Snoopy's nose and that was it. He's sitting on top of our kitchen cabinets now.

We were lucky. Yes, we lost everything. But we had flood insurance. Not many people did. We were able to build our house.....high on a hill with absolutely no chance of flooding. If we get flooded out now, the world is in seriously bad shape.

One thing I've never forgetten....we were carrying some waterlogged items out of our trailer and a large car full of older people, who had been driving around to see the "sights" stopped me. The driver put his window down and said, "Hey! How's the weather?" And everybody in the car laughed as they drove away. Idiots. All of them. It's hateful how some people act when they're not the ones whose world was just torn apart.

I've only been through rather minor ones, such as small earthquakes (enough to shake the house a bit, and knock stuff off shelves); hurricanes (not the epicenter, but still a ton of `high winds and flooding--think Hurricane Agnes); tornadoes (didn't come to our house, but was sighted in the area--this happens about once a year), minor flooding; major snowstorms (no heat/power for 5 days). When Three Mile Island happened, I was a kid, and we were to be the next load of evacuees, but they got things under control before that happened. We were sweating it out--my cat had just had 4 kittens the week before, and Mom & Dad were worried where we could go, and still keep them with us.

I still live near 4 nuclear power plants, within 100 mile radius, and it makes me a tad concerned sometimes.

I always keep disaster prep supplies handy and updated. No, I don't spend my days chewing my fingernails with worry. I just acknowledge that bad things can happen, I want us to be ready for them. DH & I include our cats in that statement, BTW. We're not leaving them behind, should we ever need to evacuate. If they can't go, we don't go. Fortunately, after Hurricane Katrina, there was a push to have a lot more pet-friendly shelters.

Toronto is mostly natural disaster free fortunately. Although a tale end of a huricane hit on my wedding day...rain was gushing almost sideways.