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What natural disaster is common where you’re from


Seshi

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It’s come to my attention lately, discussing the recent events of Hurricane Dorian with others from all over the world, that we don’t all share the same feeling when it comes to high winds and what is considered “normal”. 

Some of us may be more comfortable amongst flooding streets, others with streets of snow, and some of us feel right at home in a 60mph wind storm. 

So what kind of weather are you accustomed to that might be a shock to others?

What natural disaster have you lived through? Perhaps more than one, and maybe your parents or grandparents have a story or two. Tell the tales of your ancestors if you must, but enlighten us. What’s it like to be where you’re from when the weather is at its worst?

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The worst natural disaster that occurred here, that I know of, is the North Sea flooding of 1953. This resulted in the Delta Works, which have prevented similar things from happening.

My mom, and her (grand) parents lived in Baarlo, which was hit by the river Meuse overflowing during the '90s. She told about that a few times.
The effects of the water levels that were reached then are still visible, and it's honestly quite amazing how much land was flooded.

The storms we have can reach high wind speeds, but aren't as destructive as tornado's.
The worst one I can remember was in 2016. We had heavy rainfall and high wind speeds where I live, but five minutes away there was a really bad hailstorm, with hailstones the size of tennis balls.

But storms that bad are relatively rare here, we get weather alarms once or twice a year.

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I'm in s. california so regionally we're known for earthquakes and seasonal brushfires.  Earthquakes aren't a big deal IMHO.  There's been about half a dozen 6- to 7-point earthquakes within 20km of here that I've been around for.  I don't wake up for any earthquake less than a 5 or 6 any more, and I don't even notice anything less than a 3.  At this point everything that was going to come down has done so, and new buildings are built to stay up.  As some point we'll get an 8 or a 9, but those are extremely rare.  Zombie apocalypse or major earthquake... either way we're as ready as we can be.  I've got solar panels on the roof and food and water in a shed out back.  The house is bolted to the foundation, and there's an auto-cutoff on the gas line in case the shaking gets too bad.  I'm not going to worry too much about it.

My thing is wind.  I'm also in the foothills and in the path of "Santa Ana" winds.  These are winds that start in the high deserts and get funneled downhill through the canyons at us.  As they come the air compresses and speeds up, which means warm/hot, dry winds moving at up to 70mph/110kph.  Sort of like a mini-hurricane, without the water.  In fact, these things suck the moisture out of everything, and can make for an extremely dangerous situation during fire season.  We've had far more damage in my neighborhood due to high winds over the years than due to earthquakes.

The worst is wind AND fire together.  The worst natural disaster I've ever been in in 47 years living at my present location was back in the '70s when the hills behind the house caught fire and the high winds drove a wall of flame, smoke, and embers down the hill at us at ~50mph.  Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, when the rainy season came a few months later the now-bare hills couldn't hold onto the water and turned into mud, creating secondary disaster of mudslides and flooding.  Not fun.

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Definitely snow storms and another winter storm we get is Thunder Storms which is a thunderstorm and a snowstorm. In Feburary we had over 6 feet of freshly fallen snow in that month alone. We were getting hit with snowstorms every week that month. We also had -80 to -90 below zero temperatures for almost a week straight. No one could get gas or diesel because not only were all gas station pumps frozen but so were the places where they get the deliveries. February was hell for us and for some dang reason everyone thinks winter/spring is a great time to travel in Wisconsin and Minnesota. We were still getting snow in the middle of May. I think it wasn't until June when it finally started warming up. When you get 80°F weather one day and the next a snowstorm hits and it's -20°F you know you're in WI. It sucks.

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4 minutes ago, EnviousEnvy said:

When you get 80°F weather one day and the next a snowstorm hits and it's -20°F you know you're in WI. It sucks.

My brother lives in WI.  I know exactly what you're talking about.

Sometimes you don't even have to wait for the next day.  :D 

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1 hour ago, efaardvark said:

My brother lives in WI.  I know exactly what you're talking about.

Sometimes you don't even have to wait for the next day.  :D 

True that, lol. There are days you get hit with all four seasons. Mother nature gives me serious whiplash here, lol.

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Hurricanes are fairly normal for me, and have never bothered me. I've been through dozens, though each one ends up being a bit different. The high winds and rain doesn't bother me, and I wouldn't stay in a surge zone, so I'm usually alright. It's like a squall on the ocean....but bigger and longer. That said, not everyone can prepare as well. 

 

I remember the 200 year flood that followed Floyd back in my childhood. That is the sole reason when househunting that I refused to even look at or consider any properties within any flood zone. Wind is fine, water...well, I don't want to lose my home to it. 

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1 hour ago, Beocat said:

I remember the 200 year flood that followed Floyd back in my childhood. That is the sole reason when househunting that I refused to even look at or consider any properties within any flood zone. Wind is fine, water...well, I don't want to lose my home to it. 

And you can’t plan for everything here either. When we had dams break last year, and two years before that, even areas that weren’t in flood zones were flooded - those that were in flood zones had water over their roofs. 

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In 1993, when I was living in Central Illinois, we had horrible flooding. Havana (which is West/Central the river flooded terribly. I used to help my dad survey ("help") and I remember him driving the van through flooded roads while the frogs were trying to hop out of the way (we lived in the country, and we got it bad even around the Springfield area.) We helped to sand bag that year (I "helped" I was like in 3rd grade. I ran around, probably getting in the way XD)

Same year a tornado was right in our back yard. We could see it the corn field, but it thankfully veered off--let me tell you, our home from the early 1900s withstood hundred mile per hour winds! The elementary school got demolished...except for the slide o_O (I didn't go to that school, though, so I didn't get out of can classes when they were rebuilding XD)

Tornadoes and snow and ice storms are the worse I can remember...but living near St. Louis, things have just been hot and muggy...I guess I am thankful for that.

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