Living in a high rise in San Francisco

Living in a trailer in South Florida

And I've also thought about natural disasters and which type I prefer to live with. I could never deal with living in an earthquake zone. Having the very EARTH against me is beyond my tolerance. If you can't depend on the ground you stand on, what can you depend on?

At least with tornados, there's usually a bit of a warning, and with hurricanes you get several days in which you can flee or fortify your surroundings.

I'm sure blizzards are terrible when you're on the road, but that's usually your own fault for being on the road when you know you shouldn't. If you've prepared properly for a blizzard with supplies and a fireplace, what could be the harm?

I have seen my relatives home, miles from the river, drown in water so thier freezer goes floating down stream.

I've seen harmless stretches of road that I've driven over thousands of times become the homes of flash floods that rip at your legs trying to pull you under.

I have smelled the aftermath of a flood--rot, decay, mud and sewage.

It's probably more a matter of what you grew up with. I remember the time I was on my parents' waterbed when a real rocker rolled through. It was kinda fun.

In reality though, it is unlikely that 'big one' everyone fears will hit while I am here, and I'm just glad that if it does I am far enough from the coast to not have to worry about a tsunami.

Other natural disasters? Well, the fires in Australia left one of my friends homeless and (others on the alert for days on end in case they too had to evacuate). This is the breakdown I got via email of that day for the first friend:

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On Saturday night, my and my flatmate's house burnt down in Duffy, Canberra. We were able to save a few photos and odds and ends but things were happening so fast that we had to leave. The two cats are safe - but unfortunately our chickens perished.

For those of you not in Australia, the fire in Canberra has been described as a once in 100-200 year occurrence. 4 people are dead, 388 homes burnt, sewerage and electricity is severely damaged. Schools, firestations and other infrastructure were also lost. It is estimated that with the 2001 Christmas fires and these, Canberra has lost over 4/5 of it's softwood pine plantations.

At 2:15pm I was watching the Australian Open tennis on TV then left to go to an afternoon Jazz concert. As I was driving the big black cloud to the SW disturbed me so I decided to turn on the local radio station. The talkback radio station had people calling in but it was the announcement that people in Duffy (and other suburbs) were to return home and prepare their homes that had me worried. I called my flatmate and got her to go home as well.

We arrived home around 3pm. It was still light and not very smoky so we were quite calm as we got the cats inside, filled the bath, buckets, sinks with water. We soaked towels and were starting to hose down the outside of the house. We were lucky that a few of her family members were there to help us put water in the gutters and scoop up some things. I grabbed my photo albums, and of all things my camping gear (can you tell I just got back from a 10-day trek????) - which is some of the most expensive things I own. Putting this stuff in the car we set about hosing some more. As my mobile phone was flat I started to charge it in case we lost power. All this in 10-20 mins. A further 10 mins was spent chasing chooks around their enclosure, put them in a box and put them in the bathroom.

All of a sudden it turned black as night as the smoke cloud hit. It was petrifying. The electricity went off and it was pitch black. Couldn't see a thing. I can remember standing in our lounge room ripping the batteries out of the smoke alarm that was driving us barmy when my flatmate's brother called from the front yard that we were leaving. I can remember thinking that I wasn't ready to go, but there was no way I was staying by myself. As I locked the door, I felt as if I'd be able to come back later when the firestorm passed over.

Driving out the driveway, I remembered the mobile phone but looking up the street I could see the wall of fire hitting the end of the street through the thick smoke. Embers were flying everywhere. If you saw the footage on tv of the firestorm hitting Duffy (the shot of the embers going over the top of the fire engine - and the fire engine catching on fire - that was the end of our street) - remember this was 3:30pm in the afternoon - not at night. We left at the time the fire engines were pulling out.

As we left embers were covering the suburb, trees were blowing over. The wind was so strong. The sky turned a burnt orange colour. It's what I always imagined the end of the world would be like.

Sunday morning I went back. Going up our street I was feeling so hopeful as all the houses were still standing. I could see the telephone box, untouched, out the front of our house. Then I looked through the blackened trees and saw the shell of our house. It was totally gone, only the chimney and parts of the outer walls standing - it wasn't even smoking. Garage (containing a friend's uninsured car), chookshed and woodshed gone. Only the small three-sided garden shed was left standing without a mark on it. Looking down our street, all the houses opposite were fine, just our next door-neighbours and ours gone. At the end of the street (5 houses away), the houses facing the pine plantation were all gone.

In hindsight, I wish I'd grabbed clothes and filled my car to bursting, but there was no time. We seriously didn't think our house would go until the last 5 minutes. It was truely the most terrifying experience of my life, but we are lucky to be here and thankful to be alive.

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<---has a ridiculous yet persistent curiosity about what being inside a tornado would feel like
<---has no plans at this time to find out

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And think of all the sledding that comes after!

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Dan...I didn't think of floods. They are awful! Fire still tops my list, but floods are a close second.

The Weather channel listed that tornado as the worst natural disaster in the U.S. because of the loss of life and property. Something like 300+ people were killed. My family watched it happen. It did a sort of "jump" and passed over us. The next door neighbor was over, and her sister saw this HUGE oak tree in our back yard start to sway. She ran over and was pounding on the door. I went to open the door, and suddenly there was a tree in it.

I just remember thinking, Why is there a tree in my door? Then someone yanked me away from the broken glass and stuff. After that, we found out my sister had a real phobia about Tornadoes. She actually puked at the opening of The Wizard of Oz.

Because I am basically sadistic, years later I took her to see Twister. She only had to leave to puke twice.

My sister is a master's degree level therapist. Head Shrinker, heal thyself.

I live in an area where tornados are fairly common, and I do not have a basement. *shrug*

I've learned enough about tornados to realize the mass stupidity people exhibit around them is inexcusable. Going outside with a camera, outrunning them in a car, and hiding under overpasses are all examples of blatant stupidity. No one is kidding when they tell you to get to the basement or hide in a culvert. For an interesting lecture and diatribe by an expert, read this

That said, there's not much in this world that strikes me with such awe and beauty as a tornado. "I, like other weather enthusiasts, wished they only occured over open country, where nothing, even farmland, was damaged." I forget who made that quote exactly, it might have been from the Doswell link I included here.

But the thought of a tornado or hurricane sounds scarier to me.

My least favorite natural disaster would have to be an ice age.

That would totally suck.

On the bright side, I'd probably have some warning so I could put up a few sandbags or dig a moat or something.

That is a big freaking swath of destruction.

That being said, Tornadoes and Lightning are the only natural disasters that I am currently in danger of. About those warnings for Tornadoes... We live under a perpetual watch from about March until July or September, but they can happen anytime. It's a calm year if we don't get between half and a whole dozen warnings in that time frame.

The frustrating thing about them is how inconsistent and seemingly irrational they are. They can kill a person stanging in their kitchen making breakfast, but drop a half dozen eggs to the ground without breaking them. The hopping over buildings and hitting the next one is a bit irregular as well. At least with an earthquake, there are actions you can take to prevent your house or office from collapsing. Then again, I've never felt one, so I'm not sure how unsettling having the earth move below you is.

If I had to pick a disaster to be in, I would probably pick a hurricane. I've been through one of those while staying on the AL coast a few years ago, though we only got clipped.

I saw one when I was a kid in grade school, it was about a half mile away and moving away from me, but I've never forgotten the experience of being there, on my bicycle watching this tornado.

Of course, now that we have kids I'm much more cautious, we built a storm room in the basement, and invested in a weather radio since we're not where we can hear the sirens.

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I'm not sure how unsettling having the earth move below you is.

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