Have you ever been through a natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane, forest fire, etc?
Dream Big, Dream Often
Have you ever been through a natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane, forest fire, etc?
Oooohhh I am first and no, the worst I think we have ever had here was a storm in 1987. For the UK it was bad, for anywhere else, it was like a bit of a breeze
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What was the storm like?
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I was very young, so don’t really remember it, it did blow down a massive oak tree in my back garden
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Yep. When I was a kid, we had to ride out Hurricane Frederick in Mobile, AL. It wasn’t a huge storm, but it was a wild ride. After that, I don’t think I’d ever stay through one again. And with our frequency of being in New Orleans and Mississippi, I’m acutely aware of the devastation that can happen. 13 years later, and things still aren’t back to normal. Wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
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I’m not sure New Orleans will ever be the same. Many of those who were displaced never went back.
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Nope. It’s much more gentrified than it ever was, but even in MS, a bunch haven’t even bothered to rebuild. They just don’t want to have to deal with it again or the insurance companies (State Farm especially) screwed them. Still the poster child for how NOT to handle disaster relief. 😡
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Too many hurricanes including Katrina. Tornadoes well this is Oklahoma.
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You lived through Katrina?
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I did. Gulfport, Mississippi. Destroyed our home and there were no roads. Lucky for us we had driven to my parents in Brookhaven, south of Jackson. We were fortunate the hubby had family in Oklahoma so we came and stayed.
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Wow that is fortunate. Katrina was the worst I’ve ever seen.
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My mom has pictures of Camille. Horrible.
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Close, but not close enough…
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Which types of storms were you close to?
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Yes, the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 (magnitude 6.9) centered near Santa Cruz, CA. I was working at a residential drug treatment program for teenagers outside of Watsonville, CA, less than ten miles from the epicenter. Wikipedia has a good article on the event. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake
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That must have been terrifying!
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It was rocking and rolling and we called it land surfing. When I got outside when the shaking stopped, I saw the program’s big passenger van still bouncing all four wheels off the ground. We had 19 kids there, most of them from the SF Bay area, all worried about family, specially one girl whose mother would have been heading home from work about that time across the Bay Bridge which was reported to have partly collapsed. Of course the phones and power were out for days. I didn’t get home for three days because other staff were unable to get in and the main roads between Watsonville and Santa Cruz were damaged.
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Hurricanes, blizzards and tornadoes here
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And you are still here to tell the stories! Which was the scariest?
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The tornado because I heard something outside and so I went to the door and couldn’t see anything because it was at night. I wasn’t told that it was a tornado until the next day. I went outside and saw all kinds of debris everywhere. I walked a little and saw the path of the tornado. It was very close but had shifted a little before it got to me.
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That is lucky lucky!
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The grace of God, my Friend. Somebody somewhere was praying for me.
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Yes I was in high school went Mt St Helens erupted
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Wow! Were you in Oregon or Washington?
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Washington gosh it was so awful. Ash everywhere it was like a snow storm but ash we couldn’t see or breathe it was dark for a really long time
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I”ve watched videos on Youtube about the destruction. It was devastating.
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Yes it really was
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Newcastle earthquake 1989.
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Was there a lot of damage?
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Oh yes, and deaths. Our worst in history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Newcastle_earthquake
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Wow. I just Googled it and the destruction was incredible.
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Yep.
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Yes, yes and yes. A weather trifecta I guess!
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Which storms?
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There’s been so many hurricanes since I’ve lived in NJ and NC- most notably Hugo, Fran and Floyd, now Florence. 2 tornadoes and one wildfire ( the ones last year raging through the mountains of NC- so much lingering smoke in our house all my plants died)
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Wow, you’ve been through some of the biggest hurricanes!
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Although it can get very hot here in the desert (105-110 degrees in the summer), thankfully no. Some parts of town get flooded here but nothing like Hurricane Harvey or Katrina. We have sunshine around 300 days out of the year. I would not do well in a city where it rains or snows a lot. Lol.
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You are fortunate. No tornadoes or wind storms?
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It does get windy in the spring but nothing too major.
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What is New Mexico like?
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It’s about the same as here. Albuquerque and Santa Fe are about 10 degrees cooler than here. There’s some colder parts up north but they don’t really have natural disasters either.
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For some reason, NM is on my bucket list to visit. My friends wonder why, but the scenery just looks amazing.
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It has beautiful mountains, art, the Native American culture. There’s skiing, casinos, the balloon fiesta in Abq. I hope you get to visit!
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I know you went to university in NM and I’ve always wanted to visit there.
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Yes I did. I remember you saying you wanted to go to New Mexico. You should when you have the chance. I lived in Albuquerque for a year and Las Cruces for 8. Abq is a weird place but I like going for concerts, other events. My boyfriend has an aunt there so we go.
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One smallish hurricane and another small earthquake, nothing much to write home about lol.
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Which hurricane?
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Not quite sure if it was a storm or hurricane, It was sometime in 1982-83 I guess, in Gujarat. Actually I was very happy with the wind lashing out, I was in school then and enjoyed unusual stuff. Now I know how difficult it can get for many people.
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Yes, an earthquake three years ago but it was a very mild one. I was in school (class 8) when all the desks and chairs started shaking. It was the first time we experienced a natural disaster, all my classmates got so excited that we termed it as an ‘adventure’. We even got to go home early so all of us thought that we should have these kind of ‘adventures’ once in a while. We were dumb!
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I wouldn’t say you were dumb. You were just being a kid. 🙂
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Yeah, that’s also one way to put it. Lol
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Several minor earthquakes in Christchurch and Napier New Zealand. I once was caught in a flood in Te Awnaga Hawkes Bay New Zealand…..had three children under the age of 5 , we were rescused in 20 ft boat at 2am.
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Floods are no joke. The water moves fast and people die
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You’re so right water does move fast . It was an interesting experience , maybe I should write a short story about it.
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I forgot to mention when I was living and working in the outback at St George South West Queensland the township was floooded three times in 22 months. The worst thing that annoyed me were mice plagues, sandflies and mosquitos.
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You got my attention with “mice plagues”. I would move. lol
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I did eventually move on because I couldn’t tolerate it any longer.
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I live in Florida so hurricanes and tornadoes are a common occurrence. In our 23 years here we’ve evacuated once and have had flooding from two hurricanes that didn’t reach our house but made it impossible to get out of our neighborhood for a few days. Still, I haven’t had to shovel snow.
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Don, the “no snow” is a great trade out. lol Are you getting any residual rain from Florence?
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Sunny and bright here. It’s all being pulled north. The surfers here are in heaven.
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It is beginning to get very windy here and it appears the rain is coming this evening. We are projected to get 12″ tonight.
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Yikes. Stay dry.
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I have lived through just about every natural disaster that can be named. Tornadoes, earthquakes, fires, mud slides, floods, hurricanes. Tornadoes are the worst IMO.
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I image earthquakes and tornadoes would be the worst. They happen unexpectedly and fast.
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I’ve been lucky. I’ve been through hurricane’s but we were so far inland, it was just downpours and once I had to call off work because I wasn’t driving in it. Several years ago, my home in NY was hit bad by a hurricane. The willow tree that I grew up with was uprooted and some minor damage. They had no power for a bit.
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Which hurricanes?
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Hugo here in CA and I want to say Katrina in NY
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Hurricane Hugo hit North Carolina and katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico. Maybe there was another Hugo? I don’t know.
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I could have the name wrong. It was 15+ years ago.
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I remember Hugo. Not all of the details but in a general way. The wind was unbelievable and ripped massive trees right from the ground.
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Yes, I was born and raised in Florida so I’ve gone through hurricane Andrew in the 90’s all the way through hurricanes Charlie and Wilma that devastated Southwest Florida. We never evacuated and have been without power for over 10 days. To survive, you prepare the best you can, say a prepare and bunker down. It’s terrible! I hope soon God’s Kingdom will rid this world f natural disasters like these (Mark 4:37-41, Revelation 21:3,4).
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Floridians are resilient. I love going there on vacation, but I’m not a fan of hurricanes. I lived through Hugo and it was horrific.
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Never. But there was this great flood 2 years before my birth and people still talk about it.
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Hurricanes. Katrina. Tornadoes…a couple of small earthquakes in Costa Rica.
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