How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

You can vote more than once. I was near (Lynnhaven) where the February 2, 2007 tornado hit the Villages and also was close to where a landslide created a mudslide after a bunch of rocks went into a mountain lake near Lake Tahoe (NV-CA) on Slide Mountain in 1983.

Been in some minor earthqaukes in CA, a blizzard in MN (Halloween storm of 1991), and a sandstorm in Phoenix, AZ. Thankfully for me, all the hurricanes that initially were heading towards Palm Harbor, FL turned even if we got the tail end of one of them. Brush and/or forest fires often ringed Reno while I lived there as well.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

Susquehanna River flood, Wyoming Valley, PA early seventies. F5 Tornado, Xenia, OH which passed over our little town before touching down....I was a medic in the military at the time and I searched for survivors (and non-surivors) all night. Blizzard of '78 in Ohio....worst storm I've ever been through....70mph winds....white-out conditions for two days.....I-75 was shut down for several days.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

In NY 1985..Hurricane Gloria..I lived on the water and it was very scarey!! 85-115 MPH winds...

I had 20 foot windows overlooking the ocean and we had them all taped up..

It blew shingles off the roof, washed away the sea wall..It was a horrible experience..

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightni
 

I was in my living room at 11:50 am on Sunday Nov 22, 1992, when a tornado struck and destroyed a path of 7 miles in Marietta and Kennesaw GA....My ears popped from the low pressure drop and I ran and hid in a closet (no basement in that house).....
Quite an experience. 30 + trees down on and around the house.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

Earthquake twice in Missouri; blizzards in MO and Rochester NY; tornados in MO; hurricane in Florida. As you can see, of the places I've lived Missouri seems to have the most interesting variety of weather/events. Another reason I'm ready to move to TV.

Ron

A Whole Lot Of Villagers Experienced The Tornado...
 

...earlier this year. We live in Mallory Square and the tornado tracked right across our nearest country club and our neighborhood rec center, pulverizing many, many homes along its track thru and out of TV. Then it hit Lady Lake and the big church on 441 just south of 466. The damage was awful. The response by our developer, contractors, volunteers and residents was amazing. Today, about six months after the storm, you'd have a hard time telling that a tornado ever hit here.

The track of the tornado missed our house by about 300 yards. We thank our lucky stars. But based on the response, love and helpfulness of Villagers, there is no place in the world we would rather live.

Re: A Whole Lot Of Villagers Experienced The Tornado...
 

The Villagers did handle the February 2, 2007 tornado very well. I could not even get myself up to visit where that tornado struck in the Villages until April of 2007 or so.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

Ancient history, perhaps, but still applicable:
Hurricane on Cape Cod September 1942 or thereabouts (no hurricane names, then). Spun a canoe Mother stashed against the house around and around "all night." Her convertible lost its top and was plastered all over with a sand and grass mixture that took days and days to remove!
Huge snow storm in Boston and New York, Christmas 1947. Something like 27" all up and down the coast. The whole winter following was so snowy that our street on Beacon Hill wasn't plowed out until April, and then it took a bulldozer!
Another huge snowstorm in St. Louis, MO, end of January 1982. Better than 20" in my back yard. Our private street wasn't plowed for weeks, and it became a nightmare of icy ruts to drive! Didn't go out of the house for almost 4 days, 'cause there was no way of getting anywhere!

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

swrinfla -
Ref the St Louis snowstorm. When I lived in Rochester NY that was called a flurry. I'm back in Missouri now (although here we now seem to get ice, not snow. I'd rather have the snow).

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightni
 

I had a new baby when hurricane CLEO hit south Florida in 1964. It was kind of exciting getting ready for it, but very scary when it hit. Then cleaning up all the debris afterward wasn't fun. We never did find our mailbox!

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

I was a kid when Hurricane Carol struck New England. I am pretty sure it was 1954.I thought it was fun because school was closed for a week or so. My parents didn't share my enthusiasm.
Blizzard of 1976 in Massachusetts put me on the other side of the disaster. As a parent being without heat, water and electricity was not the fun my kids thought it was. Cooking in the fireplace and living in 1 room for 2 weeks was not fun. Thank goodness we had a fireplace and lots of wood to burn.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

1954 is right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carol

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

I was in the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. 8.1 magnitude - scary time, doesn't seem like so long ago. The worst thing was communications were down for 2 weeks, my family back home in USA couldn't find out if we had survived. That's a desperate feeling!

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

Must have been a frightening experience to say the least. I have been in some small earthquakes near San Francisco, but fortunately missed the 1989 big one but some of family were in this 1989 one.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

San Francisco Earthquake in 1989. My husband just missed being killed on the Cypress Structure. He got off the last exit prior to this structure just before it collapsed. He had a CB radio and asked if anyone knew how the traffic was on the cypress structure. His handle was Speedy Blue. He heard a voice say "Speedy I see cement in the roadway. Best get off." He tried for weeks to find out who had answered him to thank him for saving his life. He found out from a highway patrolman he knew who was stationed at the Cypress Structure after the quake that the person who saved his life was killed. He was told the first person crushed by the structure was found with his CB radio turned on in the front seat. It just wasn't his time and God was really looking out for him.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

That was a really close call for your husband. :bow:

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightni
 

Hi, Living in Southern California, on the San Andreas Fault, I felt many earthquakes but the most frightening of them all was the Northridge quake where the epicenter was about 3 miles from my house. I thought it was the end of the world. With all the small quakes I felt, nothing could compare to this one. But Los Angeles handled it very well. I had electricity and water by the end of that day and phone service early the next day. We also lived in the hills so were used to many fires, some came too close for comfort. Kathie

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

1989 San Francisco earthquake -- in the City at my office on the 18th floor. Truly an awful experience. Beady, glad your hubby got off. I had a friend who was on a motorcycle and managed to maneuver his way through the Cypress structure when the quake first started.

A couple of tornadoes when I was a kid and Dad was Stateside (Army/embassy duty) in Kansas.

Sandstorm in Saudi Arabia when I was a kid and on I-5 in Southern California that blasted the paint off one side of my car.

Typhoon in Hong Kong (also a kidling).

Blizzard in St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida :joke:), again a kid.

Two fires -- one in Kentucky when I was young and the Caldecott Tunnel fire in Oakland, CA, that caused several deaths and was a true inferno. Fortunately, I was just entering the tunnel when it occurred. My car was destroyed but I managed to get out.

Two mudslides -- one in Malibu when I was visiting a friend. The other was a rock/mudslide in Big Sur.

Probably a couple of other natural disasters I've forgotten to mention. Hands down, the worst natural disaster, though, is my bedhead days. Nothing like serious bad hair days to make you sit and cry. ;D

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightni
 

I vaguely remember the flood of 1954 on the East coast.... I was a little kid in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Mostly I remember seeing the water mark on the side of the skating shelter by the pond as I got older.

Sometime later in the '50's there was a blizzard where we lost power and heat for several days and had to use the gas oven very cautiously for heat. I remember having an earache and sitting with my Mom on the kitchen chairs grouped around the oven while my Dad went out to help take care of the students and other faculty members at the boarding school where he taught. We lived in a ground floor apartment and the snow was much higher than the windows! I desperately wanted to accompany my Dad the day after the storm to play in the snow but he said that I was much too small and that it probably wasn't a great idea anyway in light of the fact that I still had an earache. I was furious and just cried. I must have been 4 or 5.

When I was 7 there was a fire one floor up and our apartment sustained minor water damage. I was in another fire at 15 which was much more serious; thankfully everyone got out of the building safely just before the windows exploded and the roof caved in. I've never ignored a fire alarm since then.

Almost struck by lightning.... at least twice. Singed the hair off my arms, made my mouth taste funny, (braces), and exploded all the light bulbs at the lodge. The second time I was in an aluminum canoe with several other kids sitting in the bottom while a two teenagers paddled us back to shore when a thunderstorm came out of nowhere. I remember all the adults pouring out of the lodge, running up and down the beach shrieking and screaming at the older kids to paddle faster.

A few Earthquakes in California. A couple of really scary mondo brush fires where we sprayed water on the roof to keep it from catching fire. Big fires near my parents house in the Oakland hills in 1971 and then in 1991. Stopped a 1/4 mile away in '91, a mile and a half in '71.

Sand storms in Palm Springs... made a mess of the pool lol.

Then back to the East coast where I lived in Key West surviving multiple incidences of lightning... the type that accompanies HUGE tropical / borderline hurricane / storms, heat lightning over the ocean while sailing, an incident while sitting around drinking coffee and just generally yukking it up at the kitchen table of my best friend Charlie when a rogue lightning bolt struck and exploded a bush right outside the window next to the table. The lights went out, we jumped up screamed and grabbed each other in total fright. We swore never to tell anyone how totally terrified we were, it would have tarnished our image. I can't recall anything as loud as the accompanying thunderclap including all the Dance Clubs I've frequented lol. Wild lightning while flying from Key West to Sarasota in a little plane which was too small to fly over the thunder clouds. We kind of zig zagged our way to Sarasota because it seemed that every time we changed direction it was as if we were flying from one storm to another.

And oh I almost forgot about the waterspouts; somewhat un-nerving if you’re out on the water. Interesting to watch while on land.

That brings me to Boston where I currently reside. As you might guess there've been several instances of violent storms... heavy rain, heavy snow, a couple of hurricanes but nothing as intense as what I experienced last spring. There were these incredible really scary micro bursts raging in the air above Boston. Since I am on the road all day in a ¾ ton van for my job I got really anxious because I thought I’d driven to a safe spot to stop as the visibility had become so bad. I was on the phone checking to see how the weather was in other parts of the city when I realized that the truck was really being heavily buffeted, the sky had become dark and the trees were being whipped around. I knew I was in real trouble when a garbage can flew past my windshield and a huge branch crashed to the ground. :o Right before my very eyes a funnel cloud was developing, that’s when I stepped on the gas and drove like crazy away from what I knew could turn in to a really dangerous situation if that funnel cloud touched down. Amazingly as I drove away looking in the rear view mirror praying that I wasn’t being followed by that nightmare, to my utter amazement the violent swirling winds dissipated and the sky lightened. Miraculously as I drove in to the parking lot at work I could see the sun emerging through the clouds in the distance.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

Tornados in Missouri. Fortunately, never got caught in the direct path but I sure have been close a couple of times. :o

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightni
 

Taltarzac,

Yes, it's true I'm somewhat long winded lol :redface: I come from a long line of Storytellers.

The Ms's MoneyPenny are Jack Russell Terriers. We have another JRT named Nickel but the photograph of Money & Penny was taken before he came to live with us.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

1964 Alaskan Earthquake at 9.2 on the Richter Scale. You have not lived until you experience the earth moving in waves that throw you around for at least 10 minutes. Dont even want to remember the aftershocks.

We were all home alone, parents shopping and at work, and watched the only adult running down the street screaming. We kids just stood holding onto the fence once we made it out of the house. Cars and telephone poles were bouncing or waving around.

We were going to go to the movies and it was a good thing we did not. The theater slid down a hill for a full story. You could walk out the second story windows and step onto the street.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

God must have been looking out for you and yours. Going through something like that would make me want to move to Florida even if we get tornadoes and hurricanes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday_Earthquake

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

we were coming out of a water park near cincinatti when we heard a loud boom. we got in our car and left. a man was struck and killed in the parking lot. sad. I often wondered what would have happened if it hit the wavetech poool.

Re: How many people have been in or near a natural disaster or struck by lightning?
 

Bump.