Natural Disaster Experiences

Have any of you ever experienced an earthquake, flood, volcano eruption or other natural disaster?
How was it? Did you have to be evacuated? Many of you live in places like California where earthquakes are not unusual, so I thought it would be intersting to get some insight into what it like.

As for myself, I have only witnessed one earthquake in Britain,which was miniscule. It only measured 4.8 on the Richter Scale though, and people were running out in their pyjamas screaming. O.o Funnily enough, when I woke up to find my computer bouncing hysterically, I didn't grasp what had actually happened until it had finished. :p

I had ex[erienced my first tornado in Kentucky, unfortunatly, it happened at night, darn, i always want to see one in day time. No i wasnt scared, i was feeling great, t was fun, i love storms, and we didn't go to school the next day because there were so many trees blocking the highways

Just a few times experiencing hurricanes. But those happened when I was very small, so the memories of them are blurry now.

Every like 10 years (false probably, but it seems true) there's a big storm, pretty close to a tornado. That happened when I was like, 3-years old though, I don't remember it very well. There was also a massive lightning storm once, but it didn't do much damage, we were just told to stay away from windows and water pipes, etc. That's all I have ever encountered. I'm lucky I haven't seen any real tornados considering that I live in a 'hot spot' for them in Canada. (There was one time, in history, that a flood happened here where I live. It was small, but considering it was water from the most foul and dirtiest river I've ever seen, I felt sorry for all those people who had their basements flooded.)

i've only had 1 tornado pass within 20 miles of my house, but have had some blizzards here in wisconsin (but only one snow day...)

I used to live in Georgia and a tornado struck in the middle of the night!
I slept through the whole thing, and luckily it didn't damage our house.
I remember seeing a whole lot of bent and knocked over trees though and our neighbor's house was damaged.
WOW! I must've been a heavy sleeper sleeping through a tornado that caused quite some damage.

I was in Florida's Summer of Storms last year. that was not fun.

When I was on holiday in Greece I was sitting in a bar in the middle of the day and I experienced a small tremour but it was hella scary. The very first time I went to Greece I was told that their had been a small tornado on the beach one morning but I never saw it. So as you can see I'm a true survivour.

Well the town I used to live in was built around a river, and every spring when the river melted (Alaska if anyone was wondering =P) the low part of town flooded and people used canoes to get to their cars in another part of town. Not dangerous as houses in that part of town are built up and its all safe. Not like the floods you see in movies.

hmm I live in New Zealand and we don't get alot of Natural Desaters... even tho we have tons of fault lines going right thru out coutray... oh well

When I was little we had a really bad tornado going on. We had to go down in our basement for shelter. After the tornado passed we saw that some trees came out as if someone ripped them out like they were weeds and some houses were destoryed. Our house didn't suffer any damage though.

The only natural disasters I've experienced with are Hurricanes, Huge Blizzards, and an Earthquake (yes New Hampshire had a small Earthquake about a year or two ago....it was soo small I slept right through it lol ). The most terrifying would be the Hurricanes (especially when you are on an island). Doors, pieces of wood, blowing across the streets. It's very awesome to see and feel the hard breeze, but it's horrible to be stuck in one (meaning, unprotected).

-BGS

I haven't had serious disasters, but I've been in floods. I lived on a hill though, so they went as far as the cornfield. The rain that got to my house flooded the basement on a regular basis.

the worst thing i have been in is a Hurricane and there was three in a row

I sometimes love living in a state where I mostly have to worry about is the occaisional earthquake. Oh sure, we can get tornados, just about any place can if conditions are right.

Anyways, I do remember the big earthquake in '89. Scared the crap out of me. I felt like I was in that "Walk Like an Egyptian" video.

Usually, though, I don't end up feeling the earthquakes... Most likely because I'm probably used to the minutest of quakes. Early this year there was an earthquake, where its epicenter wasn't far from where I live. And exactly a couple of months before that there was another earthquake where the epicenter was not far from where I live, though not the same location as the one that occured aftwards. My little brother had stayed overnight & I was trying to sleep on the couch & when the earthquake started I thought my brother was rocking the couch & I thought he was going to dump me off of it. Then I saw he wasn't there & heard the indoor windchimes ringing. The one that occured aftewards made me feel a little queasy. And I thought I was perpetually feeling it for a few days afterwards. Well there was an aftershock that occured 24 hours later & was nearly as big as the previous one.

Earthquakes can be a little disconcerting. Especially if you're not expecting it. I don't see how anyone can get accustomed to something 3.0 or higher, especially if you live near the epicenter.