love_u2_adam
Blue Crack Addict
i dont complain about snow at all anymore really it's always -39 here in the winter. . we had a blizzerd on may 31st this year school was closed for the first time in like 30 yrs. yaa that was fun..NOT
What's the worst natural disaster you've ever been through?
- Thread starter Tiger Edge
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
ylimeU2
Rock n' Roll Doggie
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
- Messages
- 3,471
LemonMelon said:Oh, we also went through this:
http://www.waterfordva-wca.org/general_articles/03-big-snow.htm
3 feet of snow!
I remember that.
I got stuck inside a one bedroom/one bathroom apartment with my mother. I love her, but not fun.
cobl04
45:33
Nothing too major and nothing that effected me, but it once rained for 33 hours straight and flooded.
Also we get pretty bad fires here, over the summer the fires began early in December from a lighting storm, and lasted over a month. Over one million hectares were burnt, mass devastation. Oddly enough about five months later in the same communites it actually flooded!
Also we get pretty bad fires here, over the summer the fires began early in December from a lighting storm, and lasted over a month. Over one million hectares were burnt, mass devastation. Oddly enough about five months later in the same communites it actually flooded!
meegannie
Blue Crack Addict
ylimeU2 said:
I remember that.
I got stuck inside a one bedroom/one bathroom apartment with my mother. I love her, but not fun.
I had to go to the dentist's in that (walking from the Metro).
There were snow drifts along the road that were at least six feet tall.
hurricane andrew came through my town (well, where i lived at the time) but we were really not affected at all so i don't consider that the worst. really, all we (orlando) had was thunderstorms and school closed only because evacuees from miami were staying there. we were lucky.
i've also been through two earthquakes here but really, those were just blips on the radar. one i slept through. the other, it shook the ground a little.
anyway, the worst would be what was dubbed hurricane elvis. what a stupid name. it was a stormfront with 100 mph winds that came through this area. it occurred on 7/22/03. we were without power for a while. when you drove through the main street in this part of town, there were downed power lines everywhere, trees, fucked up buildings.
the worst thing i saw was a pharmacy i would later go to in midtown for late night munchies which got totally wrecked. even a year later, it was still being rebuilt.
we've never had any damage from anything so i consider ourselves lucky. hurricane elvis hit the downtown/midtown area hardest, which i moved to a year later. then that next year, we had a bad blizzard which, again, hit areas neither i nor my parents lived in the hardest.
i've also been through two earthquakes here but really, those were just blips on the radar. one i slept through. the other, it shook the ground a little.
anyway, the worst would be what was dubbed hurricane elvis. what a stupid name.
it was a stormfront with 100 mph winds that came through this area. it occurred on 7/22/03. we were without power for a while. when you drove through the main street in this part of town, there were downed power lines everywhere, trees, fucked up buildings.the worst thing i saw was a pharmacy i would later go to in midtown for late night munchies which got totally wrecked. even a year later, it was still being rebuilt.
we've never had any damage from anything so i consider ourselves lucky. hurricane elvis hit the downtown/midtown area hardest, which i moved to a year later. then that next year, we had a bad blizzard which, again, hit areas neither i nor my parents lived in the hardest.
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
Nothing really major. Had a tornado hit about a half mile from my house when I was young, living in Wisconsin. Multiple blizzards.
Here in Seattle, my neighborhood managed to avoid losing power and having trees scattered all over the roads in the awful wind/ice storms that hit us last November. Everywhere BUT Seattle proper seemed to get the brunt of it, and several communities were without power for up to a week.
THAT was a wild storm. I was so glad to be home before it hit, making it exciting and fun to watch and hear it. Plus, watching the Seahawks/Packers on Monday Night Football and having it snowing made people think they were playing in Green Bay instead of Seattle.
That night, people were abandoning their cars on the freeway because it was too icy to drive, and the traffic nightmare after the game was multiplied by about a bazillion. Definitely not typical Seattle weather.
Here in Seattle, my neighborhood managed to avoid losing power and having trees scattered all over the roads in the awful wind/ice storms that hit us last November. Everywhere BUT Seattle proper seemed to get the brunt of it, and several communities were without power for up to a week.
THAT was a wild storm. I was so glad to be home before it hit, making it exciting and fun to watch and hear it. Plus, watching the Seahawks/Packers on Monday Night Football and having it snowing made people think they were playing in Green Bay instead of Seattle.
That night, people were abandoning their cars on the freeway because it was too icy to drive, and the traffic nightmare after the game was multiplied by about a bazillion. Definitely not typical Seattle weather.
kellyahern
Blue Crack Supplier
LemonMacPhisto said:
Good thing you were okay.
I was in Lake Mary, parts of it got pretty rough, more towards Sanford though. School was particularly crazy that year; I think I missed about a 3-4 weeks that year.
I have a friend who is a teacher in Orlando and he was out of work for a few weeks. It was weird that the middle of the state got it worse that we did on the coast for some of the storms.
Lila64
Blue Crack Distributor
southpaw_gil said:
I was about 6½ at the time. I shared a bedroom with my older sister, and I remember waking up and telling her to stop shaking the room. She had already crept into bed with my parents!
And then I guess there were various other earthquakes, being in S.Calif. and all. The Northridge one in early '94 - I was pregnant at the time. Just a few things fell off of a shelf, nothing really damaged.
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
I forgot to add the 2001 Nisqually (Seattle area) earthquake ... but it wasn't that bad, considering its magnitude. It was a 5 point something, but because it was located far underground, it didn't do the kind of damage a 5 pointer normally would.
But it was pretty scary for a midwest girl who'd just moved out to the west coast!
But it was pretty scary for a midwest girl who'd just moved out to the west coast!
Well..we don't really get "natural disasters" here in Albany, NY....but I've been through a couple things.
The first was nearly drowning in the Atlantic when I was 14 at my aunt's house on the Jersey coast the day after I learned to swim in the ocean the first time. It was October and cold but the water is at its warmest that month, and down there and I am a fish. But I can't handle an ocean undertow at approaching high tide when there's been a storm out to sea. I was walking beneath a tall sand dune and the next thing I know , I looked down and saw the wave swirling around my waist and I gasped; then all went black, and it seemed forever and then I was lying on the beach, unable to move, utterly weak as a jellyfish. Then another wave was coming in and I heard shouts, my stepfather was hauling me up the beach away from the oncoming wave..my legs would not move.
I've never forgotten the awesome power of the sea. I have a lot of respect for it.
Growing up in Detroit we had an average of two foot and half plus bizzards and 2 daylong power outages before Christmas or it wasn't normal. In 1988 there was a freak storm here on Oct 2nd and the autumn trees all hung down to the ground, weighed down by snow. The power was out for the better part of a week .
Five or 6 years ago we actually had a little earthquake here, a 5.3 or 5.4 I think. I was sleeping and then I abruptly woke up and I saw the knickknacks and picture frames rattle VERY slightly. And there was the faintest of rumbles, like a gas heater switching on...hard to describe. I had apparently been jerked awake by the quake and it went on for maybe another 15 seconds. Of course the local media went nuts, "Hey, we had an EARTHQUAKE!!" and it was topic #1 for days. That's what's fascinating to me about a quake: you can actually HEAR it! You can actually hear the earth move. (Oh, for you Cali vets, you're going "Oh WOW!" but for someone to whom a quake is a book phenom, cut me some slack OK?)
Speaking of earthquakes, I had a friend who lived in an apartment that a mile and half from the faultline inb the Loma Prieta quake. That was a 6.9 I think....the one in '96? Her pat was on the 2nd floor and she SLEPT THROUGH IT! She woke up and there were cracks up her wall and furniture smashed everywhere. I asked her, "How do you sleep through a 6.9 quake?" "I don't know, I guess I'm a sound sleeper!"
I guess the closest thing to a natural disaster I was in was the disasterous Flood of 1972 in northern Pennsylvania. southern NY state. My family's home was 33 miles north of Corning NY and our beachfront house is 15 feet above the waterline and 20 feet back. That day the lake surged against the walls of the house and my parents thought the windows would break and the house flooded. I was four years old. My mom toldme that it looked like a hurricane and I was crying and saying "Why is the lake coming up to the window?" All of downton Corning, where our family's other house was, was destroyed. The Chemung river rose and flooded the valley. Today if you tour the Corning Glass Works (where Corelle comes from), they still have the High Water Line marked on the wall for the tourists. The Flood caused something like $30 billion in damage and up to 50 + dead. Thank God I remember nothing myself.
The first was nearly drowning in the Atlantic when I was 14 at my aunt's house on the Jersey coast the day after I learned to swim in the ocean the first time. It was October and cold but the water is at its warmest that month, and down there and I am a fish. But I can't handle an ocean undertow at approaching high tide when there's been a storm out to sea. I was walking beneath a tall sand dune and the next thing I know , I looked down and saw the wave swirling around my waist and I gasped; then all went black, and it seemed forever and then I was lying on the beach, unable to move, utterly weak as a jellyfish. Then another wave was coming in and I heard shouts, my stepfather was hauling me up the beach away from the oncoming wave..my legs would not move.
I've never forgotten the awesome power of the sea. I have a lot of respect for it.
Growing up in Detroit we had an average of two foot and half plus bizzards and 2 daylong power outages before Christmas or it wasn't normal. In 1988 there was a freak storm here on Oct 2nd and the autumn trees all hung down to the ground, weighed down by snow. The power was out for the better part of a week .
Five or 6 years ago we actually had a little earthquake here, a 5.3 or 5.4 I think. I was sleeping and then I abruptly woke up and I saw the knickknacks and picture frames rattle VERY slightly. And there was the faintest of rumbles, like a gas heater switching on...hard to describe. I had apparently been jerked awake by the quake and it went on for maybe another 15 seconds. Of course the local media went nuts, "Hey, we had an EARTHQUAKE!!" and it was topic #1 for days. That's what's fascinating to me about a quake: you can actually HEAR it! You can actually hear the earth move. (Oh, for you Cali vets, you're going "Oh WOW!" but for someone to whom a quake is a book phenom, cut me some slack OK?)
Speaking of earthquakes, I had a friend who lived in an apartment that a mile and half from the faultline inb the Loma Prieta quake. That was a 6.9 I think....the one in '96? Her pat was on the 2nd floor and she SLEPT THROUGH IT! She woke up and there were cracks up her wall and furniture smashed everywhere. I asked her, "How do you sleep through a 6.9 quake?" "I don't know, I guess I'm a sound sleeper!"
I guess the closest thing to a natural disaster I was in was the disasterous Flood of 1972 in northern Pennsylvania. southern NY state. My family's home was 33 miles north of Corning NY and our beachfront house is 15 feet above the waterline and 20 feet back. That day the lake surged against the walls of the house and my parents thought the windows would break and the house flooded. I was four years old. My mom toldme that it looked like a hurricane and I was crying and saying "Why is the lake coming up to the window?" All of downton Corning, where our family's other house was, was destroyed. The Chemung river rose and flooded the valley. Today if you tour the Corning Glass Works (where Corelle comes from), they still have the High Water Line marked on the wall for the tourists. The Flood caused something like $30 billion in damage and up to 50 + dead. Thank God I remember nothing myself.
Last edited:
Thankfully I've never lived anywhere with psycho weather. The winter ice storms are bad but they're not really frightening and if you stay indoors, nothing will really happen to you.
Before that I lived in the Mediterranean where nothing bad happens.
Before that I lived in the Mediterranean where nothing bad happens.
Bug
War Child
I saw a dust devil once.
Pretty savage stuff.
Pretty savage stuff.
angelordevil
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Pretty much every day is a natural disaster here! Actually, we're very fortunate in this part of Canada, in that we don't usually get the extreme peaks of natural disasters elsewhere. Usually it's the tail-end of hurricanes, or big snowstorms in the winter that get us good. Certainly no big losses of life, for the most part. We've had some recent flood damage from extremely heavy precipitation, and a few close calls. Probably the last major 'event' here was the 1929 tsunami on the South Coast of Newfoundland. 29 people died, and my grandfather, who witnessed it all as an eight-year-old, was fortunate to have survived.
I think I'd look at storms differently here if people regularly lost their lives. As that doesn't happen, I actually look forward to them, in a weird kind of way. We'll get 4 or 5 "Snow Days" in winter, where everything shuts down. I love walking around the streets when that happens...things become so quiet, and houses get lost behind giant walls of white snow. It's especially nice when storms hit around Christmas...but they do tend to lose their charm as it gets closer to Easter.
Actually, we're very fortunate in this part of Canada, in that we don't usually get the extreme peaks of natural disasters elsewhere. Usually it's the tail-end of hurricanes, or big snowstorms in the winter that get us good. Certainly no big losses of life, for the most part. We've had some recent flood damage from extremely heavy precipitation, and a few close calls. Probably the last major 'event' here was the 1929 tsunami on the South Coast of Newfoundland. 29 people died, and my grandfather, who witnessed it all as an eight-year-old, was fortunate to have survived. I think I'd look at storms differently here if people regularly lost their lives. As that doesn't happen, I actually look forward to them, in a weird kind of way. We'll get 4 or 5 "Snow Days" in winter, where everything shuts down. I love walking around the streets when that happens...things become so quiet, and houses get lost behind giant walls of white snow. It's especially nice when storms hit around Christmas...but they do tend to lose their charm as it gets closer to Easter.
Carek1230
Blue Crack Overdose Get me off the internetz!
SF Earthquake 1989. My Ex and friends were at Candlestick Park 3 rows from the top of the stadium at the All Star Game. I freaked not hearing from them until near midnight that they were OK. There was some structural damage to our house in the East Bay and our neighbor's pool sloshed water out that flooded half our backyard but didn't get inside our house like it did theirs. I was in the car when it hit, backing out of a parking space & thought someone had hit my car then it felt like the car was surrounded by big burly guys trying to bounce and tip the car.
Then there was the terrible Oakland Hills fire. We have 2 friends who were evacuated and lost their beautiful homes.
Then was the 2003 San Diego Fires. THAT was frightening, being told to be prepared, packed and ready to evacuate for 2 days. To be told to stay home from work, stay off the roads, stay indoors....thank goodness we were alright, but I know several people who lost their homes and the fires in Poway, Penasquitos & Scripps Ranch was less then a mile in all directions from us.
Then there was the terrible Oakland Hills fire. We have 2 friends who were evacuated and lost their beautiful homes.
Then was the 2003 San Diego Fires. THAT was frightening, being told to be prepared, packed and ready to evacuate for 2 days. To be told to stay home from work, stay off the roads, stay indoors....thank goodness we were alright, but I know several people who lost their homes and the fires in Poway, Penasquitos & Scripps Ranch was less then a mile in all directions from us.
LMP
Blue Crack Supplier
kellyahern said:
I remember being in the eye of one of the hurricanes for a solid 20-30 minutes.
What a surreal experience.
Do tell! Everything....what does it look like, sound like, etc.
Bug...LOL!! I wish it was all that boring! I take it you live in the Southwest?
I've been to Canada a few times and all I remember is the cold in the winter..and I thought the Adirondacks and Lake Effect Detroit were cold! You guys actually had a tsunami in '29? I take it there was a quake then?
And AngelorDevil, it must take special courage to live in Cali these days. What with you folks pretty much going through everything under the sun! And they say you're overdue for the Big One....along that nifty shallow Subduction Zone that runs directly umder the Hollywood Sign, like, only 5 miles below or something?
(Geez, not to exactly joke around here, but if Hollywood were destroyed by a quake whose fault line ran under the Hollywood sign, the Fox News crowd would go bonkers.
Not that I wish any of this of course. The beautiful parts of Cali must be wonderful indeed if you keep living there, in the face of so many disasters. It must take patience these days.
Bug...LOL!!
I wish it was all that boring! I take it you live in the Southwest?I've been to Canada a few times and all I remember is the cold in the winter..and I thought the Adirondacks and Lake Effect Detroit were cold! You guys actually had a tsunami in '29? I take it there was a quake then?
And AngelorDevil, it must take special courage to live in Cali these days. What with you folks pretty much going through everything under the sun! And they say you're overdue for the Big One....along that nifty shallow Subduction Zone that runs directly umder the Hollywood Sign, like, only 5 miles below or something?
(Geez, not to exactly joke around here, but if Hollywood were destroyed by a quake whose fault line ran under the Hollywood sign, the Fox News crowd would go bonkers.
Not that I wish any of this of course. The beautiful parts of Cali must be wonderful indeed if you keep living there, in the face of so many disasters. It must take patience these days.
indra
ONE love, blood, life
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Messages
- 12,689
There are times when I think it's FYM....
europop2005
Refugee
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,420
Hurricane Wilma
RavenBlue
Blue Crack Addict
Probably the ice storm of '98. We didn't get it near as bad as Quebec did, but we were still without power for three days and the roads were blocked with fallen telephone poles. It was a rather surreal thing.
angelordevil
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Teta040 said:
Teta, I'm actually in Canada!
But, yes, the tsunami was from an underwater quake. It was also a rather large one...over 7 on the Richter scale.
LMP
Blue Crack Supplier
Teta040 said:
It's like a vacuum of sound. You can see rain and horrible storms in the distance, but it's dead silent by you and completely overcast. The grayest possible gray you can get.
Basically, it's the scene in the horror movie where the music reaches a crescendo, stops, and you know some crazy shit is about to go down.
well... if we get 2 inches of snow new yorkers act as if it's a natural disaster
i guess hurricaine gloria back when i was a wee lad, but even that wasn't that bad.
i did get 30 inches of snow dumped on me while i was at college... wasn't really a disaster, got 3 days off from class.
i guess hurricaine gloria back when i was a wee lad, but even that wasn't that bad.
i did get 30 inches of snow dumped on me while i was at college... wasn't really a disaster, got 3 days off from class.
shari schultz
ONE love, blood, life
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/may30-311998page.htm
In WI ~ we were part of the 110 mph straighline winds here.....
I can remember running to the basement and hiding out there. Afterwards, I can remember hearing firetruck, ambulance, police car, sirens for hours. We lost electricity for 12 hours on our side of the street..........the houses on the other side of the street were without electricity until mid-afternoon the next day......I can remember extension cords running across the street from houses with electricity to houses without electricity.
We have had a 4.1 earthquake here in 2004. Strange sensation
In WI ~ we were part of the 110 mph straighline winds here.....
I can remember running to the basement and hiding out there. Afterwards, I can remember hearing firetruck, ambulance, police car, sirens for hours. We lost electricity for 12 hours on our side of the street..........the houses on the other side of the street were without electricity until mid-afternoon the next day......I can remember extension cords running across the street from houses with electricity to houses without electricity.
We have had a 4.1 earthquake here in 2004. Strange sensation
Last edited:
Angela Harlem
Jesus Online
either the bushfires of the 93-94 summer, or this drought we're currently in have been the worst.
corianderstem
Blue Crack Distributor
shari schultz said:
BluRmGrl
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Hurricane Fran in 96 & Hurricane Floyd in 99 - although, truth be told, the worst of Floyd's flooding was for folks further up the coast. Still, the NE Cape Fear River crested at something like 10-12 feet above normal if I remember right. Funny, you can drive through Pender County even now, along homes near the river & immediately tell those who rebuilt after Floyd... their houses sit about 15 feet above ground now.
The bad news for the Wilmington area is this, though: we're due for our own Andrew or Katrina. I hope I never see it in my lifetime, but the chances are actually pretty good (to my simple mind) that we'll catch our own Category 4 or 5 storm in the next 10-15 years. I just hope I'm not still in working insurance when it happens. 
The bad news for the Wilmington area is this, though: we're due for our own Andrew or Katrina.
I hope I never see it in my lifetime, but the chances are actually pretty good (to my simple mind) that we'll catch our own Category 4 or 5 storm in the next 10-15 years. I just hope I'm not still in working insurance when it happens. 
Mr. BAW
ONE love, blood, life
BluRmGrl said:Hurricane Fran in 96 & Hurricane Floyd in 99 - although, truth be told, the worst of Floyd's flooding was for folks further up the coast. Still, the NE Cape Fear River crested at something like 10-12 feet above normal if I remember right. Funny, you can drive through Pender County even now, along homes near the river & immediately tell those who rebuilt after Floyd... their houses sit about 15 feet above ground now.
The bad news for the Wilmington area is this, though: we're due for our own Andrew or Katrina.
I thought you'd say that $400 restaurant tab from New York!!!
I'm surprised Varitek is not on here. His office is literally right around the corner from where that huge pothole explosion was in NYC recently....with that and the subway floods/tornado in Brooklyn last month....interesting place these days!
PS Angelor Devil, sorry I got you mixed up with someone else....anyway, for someone in CA, that must have been scary as heck.
What all this means to me is to NEVER be complacent about the power of Nature. We humans think we are in control with our awesome technological power but really we know nothing. Primative Man just naturally accepted his role in the scheme of things and were alot more humble, even as they were a lot more defenceless. But we must learn that somethings will remian outside our control and we have to live with it if we choose to settle there.
Speaking of natural disasters....on the tail of the hurricanes this past month, and the Peruvian earthquake, Greece is now on fire!?!?! Check out http://www.drudgereport.com
PS Angelor Devil, sorry I got you mixed up with someone else....anyway, for someone in CA, that must have been scary as heck.
What all this means to me is to NEVER be complacent about the power of Nature. We humans think we are in control with our awesome technological power but really we know nothing. Primative Man just naturally accepted his role in the scheme of things and were alot more humble, even as they were a lot more defenceless. But we must learn that somethings will remian outside our control and we have to live with it if we choose to settle there.
Speaking of natural disasters....on the tail of the hurricanes this past month, and the Peruvian earthquake, Greece is now on fire!?!?! Check out http://www.drudgereport.com
Last edited:
Similar threads
- Sticky
- Locked
