Disaster Thread
I'm scared that Wellington is gonna get "the big one" soon. Earthquake, I mean.
I think our house will be reasonable ok. We get little earthquakes here all the time, so I don't get too freaked out over them, it's mostly an inconvenience trying to decide if we should stand in a doorway or not. We've got emergency water and stuff.
But since the big Christchurch quake I worry about it a lot. Especially when I'm in town with Lucy, or if I leave her with someone. And since the Japan Tsunami I worry heaps about them too, I'll never live by the sea now.
When I was little we lived by a river and got evacuated once when it broke it's bank, but our house was fine.
That's the closest I've ever been to some kind of natural disaster, what about you guys? Got any major fears? What is your area/country prone to?
Irina, you can't live there if you constantly think about being hit. People just go about living their lives.
I don't really have any fears regarding natural disasters. I was never confronted with them in The Netherlands, and they're not common in Norway either. The only thing that happens around here are landslides, because of heavy rainfall. My boyfriend's parents' house is on a hill, and over the years it has "slid" towards the edge.
In The Netherlands there is a risk of flooding, but we've gotten pretty good at flood control.
The Netherlands is a wonder of science and nature, being below sea level and all.
When I lived in Florida, it was lighting, wind, and on particularly bad days, tornadoes. Those sons of bitches scare me. But they have it really bad in the midwest, and I would never move there, just because of that. I mean, that goddamn tornado removed a whole city from the map in Joplin. Fuck that shit.
On April 27, 2011 in my state, we had a total of 173 tornadoes in that one day, killing 238 people. It was the worst disaster in Alabama history. My neighbors lost windows and roofs, but we were lucky and only lost our fence and some shingles. So yeah, tornadoes. They scare the crap out of me.
Fortunately, we don't get many natural disasters in the UK, other than flooding to the same high risk areas every couple of years.
We did have a big hurricane the year I was born, dubbed "the great storm of 1987". There hadn't been anything like it for over 100 years. It did a lot of damage to the South coast. Hours before it struck, the BBC's weatherman at the time dismissed it by saying:
Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way; well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't, but having said that, actually, the weather will become very windy, but most of the strong winds, incidentally, will be down over Spain and across into France.
He got quite a lot of flack for that.
My parents were both in Hong Kong at the time so my Godmother was looking after my sister and I. She took lots of pictures of us by the harbour, showing lots of capsized boats and broken hulls.
Stay safe, all!
Your birth upset the earth!
Haha, I was already 7 months old so it was obviously a very delayed reaction!
The earth has a lot on its plate.
I live in constant fear of a defrocked Jesuit kicking in my front door armed with the Seven Daggers of Megiddo and trying to kill my soul.
Other than that, I don't worry much.
This is why we can't have nice things.
LOL! On it's PLATE!!
Yeah, I... well, not loled; lqtmed, maybe.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Oregon has...rain? And thats about it.
As your attorney, my advise to you is to start drinking heavily(er).-Tuffy
It gets really windy in January and there are a couple of hundred very very tall trees surrounding my house.
It always seems like they are going to come down on us.
once a huge branch did come off of one and tore our power box off the side of the house taking the power line attached to it with.
A guy came out, looked at it, saw the line hadn't actually detached from the box, it was just laying across the van and yard and then up to the pole, and told us it was our responsibility as it had ripped away from the house not the pole, and then he left.
Had to walk around that until we could get an electrician out to fix it.
Not a natural disaster exactly but West Nile virus was the bane of my summer.
Not because I got it. But because I could've. You know, maybe.
I'm pretty scared of Tornadoes. When Haily was about two, I was going to Cosmetology School at the time in Louisville. I was on my way home, coming across the bridge. You get a huge, open wide view of the sky between the states. Anyhow, coming across the bridge, I noticed the sky had a green tinge to it. Not Good. When I arrived home, Bob was using his Dads truck and was scooping mulch out of the back into the landscape. It was starting to drizzle rain. I told him we should take the truck back. (about one mile down the road from us) so I followed him down in the car. He got Haily and her cars eat out and put her in and climbed in with us. As I was backing out of the drive, across the road from my Inlaws house was an open field. Putting it in drive, looking at the field, there was like a wall of white fog coming across it towards us. Bob said,"Go Winnie! Get to the house!" I started driving and heading up the big hill before our house. Now there were woods on our left side of the road. All thes big and small branches were flying out of the woods hitting the car. The rain and wind was soooo bad that I couldn't see past the hood of the car. I stopped in the middle of the hill. I was crying and yelling, "I can't see to drive." Bob said, "All you have to do is go straight! Get us to the house! Go" I pushed on the gas and was trembling so bad. I didn't think we were going to make it and we had maybe 1000 feet to go. The branches were still flying out and hitting the car and I could barely see anything. When we were almost to the driveway, it stopped. We pulled in and there were leaves stuck all over the house. I got Haily out of her cars eat and headed into the house still shaking. Bob said he was gonna head back down to his Mom and Dads to check on them. He came right back in a few minutes later and said there was a tree laying across the road, on the hill where I had stopped the car minutes before. We found out soon after that a tornado had started in Corydon (a little town right before us) and headed all the way into New Albany. It traveled like 25 to 30 miles from the time it started till it ended. It didn't touch down in our city, but I think we were driving in maybe the under or outside part of it when we were driving. That was one of the scariest things I've had happen. Since then, that was back in '91, anytime we are out in the car and it starts storming, I loose my shit. If I'm inside anywhere I'm fine, but in a car..... CRAZY!! Terrified of Tornadoes.
Whatever Whore!
hurricanes when I was younger in louisiana
ice storms, tornados
mild earthquake in alaska
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
I survived one of the big earthquakes that hit Whittier in 1987. I was about 4 or 5 months old. My parents first apartment together was pretty much destroyed since it was on the first floor. My mom had to crawl out of a window to get out. Most of the phone lines were down and somehow a call made it through to the apartment so the neighbors told my mom to answer it. My dad called to check if we were okay because he was stuck in L.A. and my uncle for some reason had got off work early and was on his way to visit us and was the first one to check up on us but it took him almost 3 hours to get there because the roads were all fucked up.
Wow jaz, that is scary and amazing.
I remember the quake that hit the bay area in '89. Scary time for me. I didn't live there but my family does and we lost contact for days. No idea what was happening or if they were okay. Nothing but disaster all over the news.
I remember in class the teach got all solemn the next day and talked about it and asked if anyone had family in the area. Myself and two other kids I think raised their hands. next she asked if we had heard any news and I was the only one who hadn't.
I would like a set of postcards with this picture on it. Devastating and beautiful. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to your disaster. It's just such a quiet beauty after the storm. Makes you reflect. On what to be grateful for.
We really have a crap load of pine trees around here. They get unbelievably tall! It's scary when it storm or there is a tornado warning.
My region in France is regularly hit by ocean storms, quite destructive on the coast but also inland (winds, rain, flood) :
I have survived the Whittier and Northridge quakes, getting stabbed, shot at, being arrested, being beaten, emergency evacuated from fire, near-miss of a Cessna in a 757, hit by truck (Chevy), nearly hit by train (Amtrak), meningitis, spinal surgery, self-dentistry, sepsis, pulmonary embolism, homelessness, and bad tattoos, but I've never been to me.
I don't afraid of anything.
This is why we can't have nice things.
You've never been to you?
Not once.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Tuffy:
Twas a little girl, when this came out. I remember hearing the "took the hand of a preacher man, and we made love in the sun". Was like - WHAAA?!!
franc:
Thank you for the pictures. My husband and youngest girl are both French. I had no idea France suffered from natural disasters, of that epic proportion.
Today I head two detailed stories of self dentistry, from my friend Glo who just pulled her own tooth Wednesday after being turned away from the emergency dentist (and loosing her temper royally on them before she left) because she didn't have the $95 fee right that moment.
And from my sister, as I was telling her what friend just went through, she told me the details of one of her missing teeth in all it pliers and kitchen knife and blood and puss and drool alone in the middle of the night glory.
If it weren't my front fucking tooth I'd be yanking this one that is throbbing out myself right now. My face feels like it is going to explode. Call whoever the hell I can to try to get the damn root canal in motion monday. I don't want to loose a front tooth. fuck,
We're prone to earthquakes too. There's this area in the centre of the country, about 200km from where I live, where there are small earthquakes every day. People say that's good, because it takes the pressure and a big one won't come soon, but it's been 35 years since the last major one (7.2 Richter).
At least we don't have tsunamis or tropical storms or that stuff that coastal countries have. I don't understand how those people keep living there, knowing that every year they can be hit.