Speaking of earthquakes, what natural disasters have you been in? I was in both the Sylmar

[ohiosmith]

earthquake and the Northridge earthquake. The epicenter of the Northridge was about five miles from my house.

[hobbit709]

1. I was in LA in 1971.

So earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, floods and volcanoes-was about 200 miles downwind of St. Helens.

[Tom_Foolery]

8. I was in the '71 earthquake, too...

We lived in Hawthorne.

[ohiosmith]

11. I was in the Hollywood Hills.

[Tom_Foolery]

12. That was one hell of a ride, wasn't it? I'll never forget it. n/t

[ohiosmith]

13. It was but, Northridge was worse for me. A 26" TV bouncing off our bed woke us up.

Burst water mains, broken gas lines, fissures in the street, and our house moved off the foundation. Additionally I managed over a million square feet of commercial office space including high rise office towers, movie and television production facilities, and Panavision's west coast headquarters. All suffered serious damage.

[Tom_Foolery]

14. I was only ten years old then...

I remember my mother's running down the hall to get to me and my sister; and the doors on the hall linen closet were flying open and hitting her, causing her to fall on the floor. My dad yelled at her to get her ass back in the bed. My mom is gone now, but we still laugh about that.

[kick-ass-bob]

2. Hurricane Fran, 1996, in the eye. North Carolina Tornado, April - 1/4 mile from my house.

Interesting times. I wasn't worried about anything in '96, because I owned basically nothing.

I was nervous as hell that my house was going to get hit in April. :P

[ohiosmith]

29. Scary!

:scared:

[LynneSin]

3. Earthquake, Flooding & Tornado. I also survived TMI (unnatural disaster)

We've had Hurricanes in our area but by the time they get here they're usually just leftovers.

Probably the most memorable hurricane was Agnes back in 1972. That thing went out into the ocean and then came back inland and then stopped right over central PA and flooded the bejesus out of us.

[RebelOne]

4. Hurricanes, lots of hurricanes.

Lived in South Florida since I was 5 years old and experienced plenty of them. I now live in North Georgia and have been through one flood a couple of years ago. Also, a couple of tornadoes that came real close to my town last year.

[sakabatou]

5. None. Only earthquakes.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. The great Twin Cities tornado orgy in 1965 (seven twisters in the area in one evening)

Hurricane in Connecticut in 1976
Countless earthquakes in Japan
The "spring break quake" in Oregon in 1993

[XemaSab]

7. Loma Prieta

and I was near the Oakland firestorm.

[pink-o]

32. Loma Prieta for me too.

I was working at SFO (still do, just for a different airline) and had been let out of work early, otherwise I would have been in one of those jetbridges that connect the aircraft to the terminal. But they took me off overtime and sent me home. All my friends were watching the Bay Bridge World Series, so I joined them and within an hour the quake hit.

We never lost electrical or land line power, but up to that point I was pretty jaded about earthquakes. Then, when my little house almost rocked off its foundations, I got a lot more concerned. Luckily, nothing like that has hit our community since--but we all know it's just around the corner.

[Tom_Foolery]

9. Earthquakes, tornadoes, ice storms, blizzards, floods, fires...

to name a few.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. The ice storm of '98. We had no power for 10 days, and very little heat from the kerosene heater. I

was 8 mos pregnant and came down with Influenza. No fun at all. :(

I'd still take it over tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes, though. (And man-made incidents like nuclear meltdowns of bombs.)

[MorningGlow]

15. Many minor earthquakes in California, countless snowstorms in the Northeast

including the massive one in '77 (and the nonevent in '78). And the ice storm of '91 that absolutely devastated western NY (not to mention downed hundreds upon hundreds of trees--we are still recovering, tree-wise) but barely got a mention on the national news.

[Lucinda]

16. I was born during a tornado - when my mother was returned to her room, she saw

a station wagon wrapped around the spire of the church across from the hospital. But I, of course, have no memory of any of that. :) I do feel much more "alive" during heavy, stormy, windy weather. I've often wondered if there was a connection. I also kill light bulbs and have a lot of problems with electrical things. I can't wear a digital watch. Which is all way off topic, and I suspect somehow connected. :P

I grew up in Los Angeles (mostly the San Gabriel Valley) so I have LOTS of earthquake experience. We never had any severe damage to any of our homes though.

I believe that kind of background tends to make you think differently. I scope out buildings that I spend lots of time in, looking for exits and places to scoot into in case of severe weather or falling debris, and I have stockpiled things I need for a medical condition that I have, in case of a natural disaster, but other than that I don't worry much about it.

I really love stormy weather. One bad disaster might cure me of it, but for now, stormy weather rocks.

[pitohui]

17. many but the king of them all was katrina (EOM)

.

[applegrove]

18. I was in Hurricane Juan in Halifax. Quite a lot of older tree damage (the soil is very rocky there).

I was in the earthquake in Ottawa in 2010. It was a 5.0. We were in the car at a stop light. I thought I'd been rear ended. Other people thought so too and started getting out of their cars to look at the damage.

[Aristus]

19. The 2001 Nisqually earthquake.

Just a temblor by California standards, I'm sure, but a pretty big one for us up here in Washington State.

[Rhythm]

20. Hurricane Hugo, a couple of blizzards, distant rumblings of this Mineral VA quake, ...

Bad flooding a couple of times... neighbor's garage tossed by a tornado... house fire (if that counts)...

I really need to go through a tsunami and a volcanic eruption, so i can have collected the whole set!

[csziggy]

21. Hurricanes Donna and Kate, Tropical Storm Fran

Some other hurricanes and tropical storms that weren't impressive enough for me to remember their names. I've lived in Florida all my life - what other kind of disaster would I expect to have experienced?

[Kali]

22. 20 year drouth

:shrug:

[trof]

23. Just earthquakes and hurricanes.

No tornadoes or forest fires, so far.

[rurallib]

24. Damned close to about 6 tornadoes - 2 small earthqukes

and a couple of humdinger blizzards - especially last winters.

[nickgutierrez]

25. Hurricane Wilma, in '05.

So many trees got knocked down, it looked like a marauding gang of beavers was turned loose right in our back yard. It took about a week to restore power.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

26. Loma Prieta earthquake and Angora fire in Tahoe -

I was leaving the epicenter area when the earthquake hit, and the fire was stopped just a few blocks from my Mom's house. Good times. :D

[driver8]

27. The Northridge Quake! The epicenter was about a mile from my house!

One of the scariest experiences in my life -- I actually thought I was going to die.

[driver8]

28. Oh yeah, we were also evacuated during the CA wild fires a couple of years ago.

I kept calling my house to see if the answering machine was still there.

[mysuzuki2]

30. I lived through both the Reagan and Bush presidencies

[geardaddy]

31. Tornado in Minneapolis in 1982

Several small quakes in Taiwan
Loads of typhoons in Taiwan

[Arugula Latte]

33. '89 Bay Area - Loma Prieta - World Series Quake

That was a doozy. I was driving in Berkeley and from the hills I saw fires spring up all over the area.

[fishwax]

34. May 3rd tornado

Our home, fortunately, was not in the path, though.

[Bertha Venation]

35. Sylmar '71, Whittier Narrows '87, Landers/Big Bear '92, Northridge '94, Hector Mine '99 and

Mineral, VA, '11.

[Bertha Venation]

36. . . . and the La Plata, MD F4 tornado of April 2002

[baldguy]

37. I live in Buffalo.

[Odin2005]

38. Red River Flood of 2009.

That flood was just UNREAL.