Has anyone experienced a natural disaster 1st hand?

Has anyone experienced a natural disaster 1st hand?

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Discussion

Matt Harper

6,613 posts

200 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Hurricane Charley Aug 13 2004 passed right over the neighborhood I live in - removed most of the roof of my house, destroyed my pool enclosure and took out every stick of fence work on my property and pretty much nuked all of the old majestic oaks in the town - which in falling, took out all of the power lines - no deaths locally - but lots of destruction. The eye passed directly over us, so it all went quite still for about a minute, which was really unnerving, before it all kicked-off again, only in the opposite direction. A 600lb tree limb was propelled parallel to the ground straight through my next door neighbors garage door. The power of nature is impressive.

ch108

1,127 posts

132 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Not first hand but a colleague of mine was in NZ at time of the Christchurch earthquake. They had hired a car and were out of town at the time when it struck. They initially thought there was something wrong with the car. It was only when they stopped and got out they realised what was going on. They didn't even bother trying to get back to their hotel in Christchurch and had to drive for miles to find any hotels with vacancies. Luckily for them it was near the end of their holiday when this happened. They travelled back to the UK on emergency passports and their belongings were returned to them about 2 months later. It was just by luck they had decided to take a trip out of town that particular day.

TheAngryDog

12,394 posts

208 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was living in Hull when it flooded, house got flooded. - 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_Kingdom_f...

Was also living in Hull when an earth quake struck in Market Rasen - felt it as I was still awake. - 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7266136.stm

I was in Birmingham when the Tornado hit. I didnt see it, but was caught in the storm etc - 2005.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2...

grumpy52

5,565 posts

165 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was having my morning evacuation when the Folkestone earthquake hit , thought it was the curry and beer from the night before !

fatboy b

9,492 posts

215 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was driving to work a few years back. I had to raise my right cheek to squeeze a sneaky one out, and ended up having to turn back home to change my trousers.

steviegunn

1,415 posts

183 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was on a ship working in the Gulf of Mexico and had to ride out Hurricane Opal in 1995. It was a bit hairy when the ship lost all power for an hour and a half and the crew had to stand at lifeboat stations ready to abandon ship. I didn't think it was any worse that a good Force 12 in the North Sea, though my American ship mates thought it was as bad as they'd ever experienced.

I was in LA and experienced a 3.1 quake which was surreal for me but pretty much no big deal for the locals.

Back in he GoM I saw several waterspouts during a big electrical storm, none got close to the ship.

Nothing much else other than the usual Extratropical Winter Storms that regularly hit Scotland every year.

MrOrange

2,031 posts

252 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I lived in Hastings in Oct '87 storms. The stuff being tossed around by the wind was terrifyingly odd, such a full-sized road signs & street bins. Pretty scary.

Monkeylegend

26,226 posts

230 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I watched the Japanese tsunami on TV.

Daniel1

2,931 posts

197 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I saw a large tornado when driving through Kansas with my parents when I was a young 'un

My parents were in two near serious airplane incidents. The first involved taking off from Hong Kong and the captain ran a full power test on the engine and the whole thing shook like crazy. The take off was cancelled and maintenance performed on the engine involved standing on a step ladder and hitting the engine with a club hammer. The second take off was aborted whilst at near take off speed involved sudden emergency braking - scary because it's a short runway which drops off into the sea. The captain came on the intercom and said he had aborted the run because he couldn't get full power and that a suitable replacement plane will have to be found.

The second was on landing and involved a large sudden cross wind that rolled the plane. So sudden and so much so you could look out one window and see nothing but sky, look out the opposite and see nothing but Tarmac. This was in the late 80's / early 90's so I hope things have improved over the last 20 years or so! Apparently the captain sounded quite shaken when on the intercom after landing.

M3333

2,258 posts

213 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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My parents were both booked onto the Herald of Free enterprise on the crossing it capsized but they had cancelled at the last minute.

I was 6 years old at the time.

It still spooks us out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Herald_of_Free_Ent...

ChrisBMW

328 posts

147 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Whilst in Antigua many years ago an island of the coast had an erupting volcano, it didn't effect us but it was pretty spectacular to see first hand.

Blib

43,789 posts

196 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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MrOrange said:
I lived in Hastings in Oct '87 storms. The stuff being tossed around by the wind was terrifyingly odd, such a full-sized road signs & street bins. Pretty scary.
I flew in from LA immediately behind that storm. Rumours of "a hurricane" began circulating in the departure lounge. I didn't believe a word of it.

The flight was uneventful, which convinced me that the fears were exaggerated.

We lived in Highgate at the time and I remember our cab driver trying and failing to get us through Swiss Cottage which was blocked by a huge fallen tree and thence up to Highgate past Hampstead Heath. There were dozens of trees laying on the ground and the roads were strewn with debris. It took us hours to get home.

We had a lovely time in America, though.

anonymous-user

53 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Two Earthquakes in New Zealand (Christchurch). Only lasted a short while but it closed all the airports, etc. Not much fun to be honest!!

Spanglepants

1,743 posts

136 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was working outdoors during that with two workmates. The one next to me had to duck quickly when a pane of glass from a greenhouse flew through the air and almost hit him in the head.



MrOrange said:
I lived in Hastings in Oct '87 storms. The stuff being tossed around by the wind was terrifyingly odd, such a full-sized road signs & street bins. Pretty scary.

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

242 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was on the island of Penang when the 2004 Christmas Tsunami hit, we were in bed when the quake shook the place slightly (GF thought I'd farted), later on that day the wave came over and washed onto the shore whilst we watched it.
Whilst a few were killed there, boats washed inland and loads of dead fish on the beach it was nothing like as bad as other areas.
I've got it stored on a camcorder disc somewhere.

Hooli

32,278 posts

199 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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MrOrange said:
I lived in Hastings in Oct '87 storms. The stuff being tossed around by the wind was terrifyingly odd, such a full-sized road signs & street bins. Pretty scary.
I lived near Worthing then, watched the storm out the window. Not much happened where we were except the stream at the bottom of the hill flooding half a dozen houses.

entropy

5,403 posts

202 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I've been in a few typhoons in Hong Kong. Not so bad in the metropolis when you get used to being in a bad storm as long as you stay indoors.

It feels and can be worse out in the sticks where my gran lives as my family were poor subsistence farmers.

9mm

3,128 posts

209 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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Hooli said:
MrOrange said:
I lived in Hastings in Oct '87 storms. The stuff being tossed around by the wind was terrifyingly odd, such a full-sized road signs & street bins. Pretty scary.
I lived near Worthing then, watched the storm out the window. Not much happened where we were except the stream at the bottom of the hill flooding half a dozen houses.
You didn't see all the beach huts, or what was left of them, blown across the promenade then, countless buildings with missing flat roofs, or any of the numerous blocked roads? One local landowner killed himself as a result of depression resulting from the devastation. frown
I'm glad I was indoors not thinking much was happening as I usually like to go out in storms. We were lucky it happened at night, that's for sure.

Gtom

1,593 posts

131 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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I was in the Dominican in 2011 when Irene went over. It was (for me) a amazing thing because I'm fascinated by all things weather and I will probably never experience it again. The only thing I didn't do was go out in it at it's peak when it was over us because I had been told by the other half I would be in serious trouble. She slept through the whole thing! Truly gutted but to see the destruction the next day made me realise it may have been for the best.

Axionknight

8,505 posts

134 months

Tuesday 16th September 2014
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1997 - 2010 Labour Government, so yes, yes indeed.

But on a serious note, no, we did however, visit friends near Christchurch in the aftermath of the earthquakes there and it was quite a sad sight, I felt terrible for the folk who had lost homes and such forth. We intend to visit again around this time next year, I hope to see a marked change and those affected turning their lives around. beer