What danger exists at your place?

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by ontheEdgeof17

Freaky.

If you move to the west coast, there are earthquakes. The east coast has hurricanes. Central US has tornadoes. There is no getting away from Mother Nature, and to me, that is scary.

Yeah. Here in the peruvian coast weather is good. No hurricanes, no electric or snowy storms, no tornados, no floods.

But we have earthquakes. Big ones. So tsunamis are a possibility.

[Bryan]

I think i'm pretty safe from natural disasters here in Ireland,which is a nice feeling.
It's awful to see other countries so prone to earthquakes and hurricanes etc. though.



Bryan.

[skcin]

Snow

Supposedly, Buffalo is on a major fault line (I've heard) so I suppose a quake could hit, but I doubt it. We do get the occasional tiny tornado, but nothing close to what you Midwesterners face.

[wondergirl9847]

I live in Tornado Alley, along with Brian and other central US Ledgies. The tornado of March 2000 destroyed a lot of buildings in downtown Fort Worth. I was at work that day, and was alone with my (bitchy) boss getting in some overtime. I'll never forget looking out the window to see the sky changing from blue to green to red...reddish orange, purple...to black. It was a sight and I had no idea how serious it was until I got home. I was terrified that I was gonna die with my stupid boss that night! LOL!!

[Livia]

Tornadoes and freakish ice storms.

The worst tornado around here that I've witnesses was in Jerrell, about 30 miles north of Austin. But the weather was still pretty nasty around here that day - I remember seeing "sideways rain" and driving home, looking at the ominous sky in my rear view mirror. Entire homes were ripped from their foundations, it was pretty bad.

As far as the ice storms, northerners always call us wimps when we get them and schools and businesses shut down, etc. I grew up in the midwest and have seen my share of snow. But there is nothing you can do when the road is covered in inches of slick ice. The inexperienced road workers here thought dumping sand on bridges and overpasses would help. Before the sleet came down. But all the sand did was blow away, since it had nothing to stick to.

[GardenStateGirlie]

Blizzards, severe thunderstorms, hurricanes. Also, we've had tornadoes but thankfully not right here--the next town over and the town I work in has had them.

[GardenStateGirlie]

Originally Posted by Livia

As far as the ice storms, northerners always call us wimps when we get them ....

Ice storms are worse than snow, IMO. And it's not that you guys are wimps...you're just so unprepared for them because it's not as though it happens there all the time so when it does everyone is like, AHHHHHHH!!!!! People up here are over-prepared. When a meteorologist pridicts snow, the entire state runs to the market to buy milk, bread, etc. What's funny? I'd bet a lot of those people don't even use milk (it's true!)

[tommer]

if arabs can't count as natural hazards, we're perfectly fine here.

[DeadliestPoison]

We get tornados, small earthquakes (but I never feel them), and we've had some pretty bad snowstorms in the past. I think that's pretty much it.

[sara1998]

Originally Posted by DeadliestPoison

We get tornados, small earthquakes (but I never feel them), and we've had some pretty bad snowstorms in the past. I think that's pretty much it.

yup. We had some tornados hit this year real close, and last year or the year before we had some bad one's.

[bikerchic]

Originally Posted by Bryan

I think i'm pretty safe from natural disasters here in Ireland,which is a nice feeling.

Bryan.

What about leprechauns?

[macfanken]

Vocanoes (Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens) and earthquakes, I work with two people whose homes were destroyed by the 6.8 earthquake here in 2001. We're still waiting for the "big one".

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by tommer

if arabs can't count as natural hazards, we're perfectly fine here.

at first I laffed, then I looked at that statement seriously...I cant even begin to comprehend what life must be like in Israel. I personally think the Gaza settlers should stay but apparently Sharon is willing to give up land to Palestinians and pay the settlers (I hope he DOES!) to get them to leave. I find it interesting that only a handful of families agreed....and there were hints in the article I read that even that amount was only for the media, to get worldwide goodwill...
I think its a dirty rotten shame that Israel has to sacrifice ANY land. And, as you can see, I am PRO ISRAEL. ALL THE WAY. I think the Jews have suffered far too long and all they want is their ancestral God-given homeland, which the Ottoman Empire occupied for so long, the Arabs think its theirs! I realize that there are going to be people that differ and thats ok with me.

Having said that however, if the Palestinians are truly willing to accept Israel's Sovreignty and form their own state and STAY WITHIN THEIR BORDERS, and Israel is willing to sacrifice, then by Golly, more power to all of them. If it brings Peace, that is a small enough price to pay.

As for disasters in CA, of course we have earthquakes, but I think I'd take earthquakes over Tornadoes any day! At least earthquakes are spaced out...
now in Northern CA there are Dormant and Active Volcanoes (Shasta and Lassen come to mind) and there is the possibility of an eruption which may rival the first Mt. St. Helens blast (anybody know what is happening there besides a slow dome growth?) Our weather is pretty good overall, though we do have bad spells, flooding and mudslides and whatnot...still...I wouldnt live anywhere else!

[wondergirl9847]

Originally Posted by Livia

As far as the ice storms, northerners always call us wimps when we get them and schools and businesses shut down, etc. I grew up in the midwest and have seen my share of snow. But there is nothing you can do when the road is covered in inches of slick ice. The inexperienced road workers here thought dumping sand on bridges and overpasses would help. Before the sleet came down. But all the sand did was blow away, since it had nothing to stick to.

I remember we had a really bad sleet storm a few years ago. I was at work and our boss let us go home early. Well, my mom came and picked me up and we were in traffic for over 2 hours and I only lived about 10 minutes away. The freeway was jam-packed because ice is just very rare. It gets pretty serious though, people don't know how to drive on it and bad wrecks happen.

[estranged4life]

I live in the area which had the largest recorded wind speed in history back on May 3,1999...The winds from the tornado that killed 43 residents of the suburbs of OKC (Bridge Creek was nearly wiped out from existance) were measured at 318 MPH, Which is beyond the scale of an F5 tornado wind speed which is 316 MPH

I've seen tornadoes throughout my life (They do not scare me since I take caution when one approaches), But the May 3,1999 was the biggest one anyone has ever seen...That tornado touchdowned 2 miles North of Deb's employer in Chickasha and stayed in contact with the ground for 2 hours (It traveled about 60 miles on the ground). Many of those killed died because the winds were so strong, that unless you were several feet under ground in a storm shelter, You were in harm's way (It removed large structures from their foundations and all that remained were the concrete slabs.)

The saddest death on May 3,'99 was a Mother who was protecting her 12 year old son when the tornado passed overhead as they huddled with strangers under an overpass on I-44 and the wind started to suck both of them in, So she let go of her son to save his life even though it meant ending her's...Had she not let go they both would have died.

Brian j.