Have you experienced a natural disaster of a huge magnitude?

Thankfully no i haven’t

Must have be devastating for you and others that this has happened to.

The worst I’ve been through personally was a tornado a few years ago, and none of my property was damaged at all. Still not something I’m eager to experience again, but… all in all, not traumatic.

I have experienced 3 one hundred year rains which yielded massive flooding and a boat was your only mode of transportation despite the nearest rive over a mile away. The city planners promised they would correct the situation.

We lived through several cyclones so far but only one really bad one. The dogs and I hid under the table and shivered. It sounded like a 747 was landing on our roof. It went on most of the night. In the morning, thankfully, despite the fact that trees were uprooted and power out, there was only one fatality and it was not directly attributable to the storm and no injuries. It sure was scary though!

I have experienced Hurricanes since I moved here. Some more major then others. I have experience a 5 point plus earthquake, and a tornado or two. I find them exciting and scary at the same time. Nature and all it’s forces fascinate me. I am sad when it wipes out a town and destroys a family’s home though.

I moved to central Florida a month before Charlie Frances and Jeane directly hit the town I was living in (which hadn’t been hit in 60 years prior!) And then a year later, Wilma came by. I lost my first apartment there in Charlie and all the wallpaper fell off between Frances and Gene. I probably would have moved out of the second one, due to terrible molds but there was nowhere else to go.

Moved out as soon as my teaching contract expired. YUCK!

We had a 500 year flood in 2006. An inch of rain per hour for seven hours straight. You realize pretty quick what an insignificant thing you are in the face of mother nature.

We’ve been through several major ice storms that shut everything down. Our farm was about the only place in the county with full electrical power and the Unimog about the only thing that could go on the roads. At one point we were substituting for the ambulance, had families living in our barns and were making grocery runs for elderly folks in outlying areas. We live in a rural area where the “help your neighbor” ethic is still strong.

Little old England town fortunately is spared this fate, well the odd flood or two blott the landscape from time to time. Another advantage of being an Englander methinks :¬)

Hurricane Elvis is the closest one for me. People were without power in the steamy 90+ degree heat for up to two weeks.

Two or three minor earthquakes when visiting a Greek island, nothing devastating.
And some weeks ago a wildfire on the same island, which was quite something, since tourists were evacuated and livestock was brought down to safety to the beaches, and we were troubled by the smoke and ashes and the heat.
No injuries, fortunately, ‘just’ some kilometers of olive trees and other greenery burned to the ground.
“The blaze began late Monday and rapidly spread to other parts of the island, forcing the evacuation of dozens of hotels and coming dangerously close to several villages.
Six water-bombing airplanes and five helicopters were involved in the operation to bring the wildfire under control but they were grounded at dusk for safety reasons.
Hundreds of firefighters and volunteers were also helping in the effort to put out the blaze”

This wasn’t a disaster in the sense you mean, but it was definitely a major event. I was living/working in Manhattan when when the Northeast blackout hit in 1965, affecting not only New York, but also Ontario, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Jersey. The power was out and then partially out in Manhattan for days. No lights, no subways, no trains… it was an incredible experience.

We had major flooding here in 1996. About half the homes in the area took water damage of some kind. Underpasses were impassable. 6 to 8 inches of water on a lot of the main streets. Creeks and rivers overflowing their banks. The only way I could get around was on my mountain bike.

When I was living in the deep south of the United States one late afternoon the TV began emitting a beeping noise which meant there was an important announcement and we should tune into a particular frequency for more information. We did to discover that a tornado alert was being put out for our area and a tornado had been seen just 300 yards from our house. The sky had turned a peculiar green, the wind did get up and brought torrential rain but we never did see the tornado.

I just remembered this. It wasn’t a huge natural disaster, but when I was a kid, my cousin and I were riding our bikes from town into the farm. We got caught in a downdraft (or an updraft. I can never remember what they are called) Basically there was tornado like weather around. The sky turned green and the wind blew so hard that the rain went sideways. We actually tried to ride our bikes in the wind, but we couldn’t steer. We ended up hiding under a bridge until it passed. Our parents freaked out but we were OK. It FELT like the worst natural disaster ever at the time.

Ther was a blizzard in ‘68 which broke records where I lived in Alpena, MI. Several hurricanes during my navy tenure, obviously I lived in those kind of zones. And in I believe ‘97, Super Typhoon Paka in Guam. Houses were blown down and tumbled across roads. The floor to ceiling windows in the Hospital where I worked and was called in for the duration of the storm were bowing in and out so much that we all were insubordinate and refused to suck water from those spaces with the shop vacs. I got a garbage can lid through my windshield, and a coconut through the drivers side window. There was a palm tree propped up on my house when I got home and we were without power from 17 – 27 December. It was an incredible storm.

Northridge earthquake of 1994.

Not much in the way of natural disasters ever reach my area, thankfully. When major earthquakes hit, we receive aftershocks more than anything… we have brushfires and mudslides that have ruined the lives of others, but those are always far enough away that I only see them on the telly.

Except in one particularly horrible fire when I was a freshman in high school. It was raining ashes for a solid week. The roof of my house was gray for a long time because the rain hadn’t washed it away. Of course, brushfires here are a strange case because it’s difficult to determine whether it was a natural disaster, or some idiot who caused them.

yeah, marrying my ex. oh, natural disaster….have worked many as an insurance adjuster. Earthquake 1989 (San Fran), Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, Hugo, Flood in Pa….etc. Also, worked some hail stroms in Tx. and Kansas that had hail the size of softballs. Worked many tornadoes… Not a fun job..seeing people that have lost everything, but at the same time, a very rewarding job to help people who are suffering….. Also, lots of pressure to produce at a rapid pace.

The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. I was dispatched afterwards to help the rescuers at the Cypress Structure collapse, and worked there all night.
Two years later, I worked at the Firestorm in the Oakland hills.

The 1971 San Fernando Earthquake, the 1994 Northridge Earthquake along with some pretty huge rains and firestorms.

Wow, Thanks for all the stories.
Hurricane Iniki 1992 Check this out.
It destroyed everything,and we were living off MRE’s. I remember it didn’t get much media and it destroyed the economy for 10 years. I guess we didn’t get much attention since many people don’t think of Hawaii as the U.S.A. There are still places that are destroyed, and never cleaned up.