Has anyone experienced a natural disaster 1st hand?
Discussion
Crashed my TVR due to a wet road 
OK, sorry about that.
Fell into a flooded river when I was a kid and have never liked to see raging rivers, floods, giant waves etc since.
(hair standing on end as I write).
I also quite regularly drive on that stretch of Highway in San Francisco that is two levels, South is over, north is under.
I hate it as I always think of their last major earthquake when some people were completely crushed to the thickness of a penny when some of the top sections came down onto the lower.
(double goose bumps now).
OK, sorry about that.
Fell into a flooded river when I was a kid and have never liked to see raging rivers, floods, giant waves etc since.
(hair standing on end as I write).
I also quite regularly drive on that stretch of Highway in San Francisco that is two levels, South is over, north is under.
I hate it as I always think of their last major earthquake when some people were completely crushed to the thickness of a penny when some of the top sections came down onto the lower.
(double goose bumps now).
Edited by so called on Tuesday 16th September 16:03
Yes. i was in athens when a 5.9 earthquake struck back in the late 90s. It wasnt long after the bigger one in turkey, and really scared me. i remember being under the kitchen table and it lasted long enough to register what it felt like. it didn't vibrate but had a definite direction. like a giant had grabbed hold of the building and moved it to-fro.
After that I spent the rest of the holiday sleeping in a car, as it ***might*** have been safer, and the suspension might dampen any aftershocks.
One unusual thing was the amount of dead cats in the road: they panic and run in all directions, even straight under the wheels of cars.
Another very unusual thing happened earlier in the week: I was asleep and woke up to find myself running, naked through their apartment. Never done that before or since. My mates Dad said the next day there had been a small earthquake.
To is day i wonder if my brain had felt the small earthquake, and said to my body "time to go. Dont worry, I will wake you up on the way..." Hence me waking up running.
What really scares me is that I was heading for a balcony, not the front door. had I woken a few seconds later I might have been a "holiday suicide" you sometimes read about....
not a big fan of earthquakes, me....
After that I spent the rest of the holiday sleeping in a car, as it ***might*** have been safer, and the suspension might dampen any aftershocks.
One unusual thing was the amount of dead cats in the road: they panic and run in all directions, even straight under the wheels of cars.
Another very unusual thing happened earlier in the week: I was asleep and woke up to find myself running, naked through their apartment. Never done that before or since. My mates Dad said the next day there had been a small earthquake.
To is day i wonder if my brain had felt the small earthquake, and said to my body "time to go. Dont worry, I will wake you up on the way..." Hence me waking up running.
What really scares me is that I was heading for a balcony, not the front door. had I woken a few seconds later I might have been a "holiday suicide" you sometimes read about....
not a big fan of earthquakes, me....
Been through a hurricane a few times. Hurricane Luis blew the roof off the house and the skipped the Land Rover around the garden in one. Trashed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Luis
In the Venezuelan earthquake. Nasty one, a school fell down on the girls while they were sitting their O-Levels, 40 dead in one go. I was on my boat in the marina, it shook all the onions off my hotdog, right down my shirt. Disaster.
I also went to help at this landslide. Not nice, I used to live in Caraballeda and knew many of the people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vargas_tragedy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Luis
In the Venezuelan earthquake. Nasty one, a school fell down on the girls while they were sitting their O-Levels, 40 dead in one go. I was on my boat in the marina, it shook all the onions off my hotdog, right down my shirt. Disaster.
I also went to help at this landslide. Not nice, I used to live in Caraballeda and knew many of the people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vargas_tragedy
The water once rose high enough outside my house to make me feel uncomfortable about leaving. Luckily we live approximately 4 feet above road level and, after waiting for the water to subside, along with the creation of numerous cups of tea, eventually I escaped.
Touch and go at points though - milk supplies were dwindling by the end. Luckily Waitrose is open until 9pm on a Friday so all was okay.
Touch and go at points though - milk supplies were dwindling by the end. Luckily Waitrose is open until 9pm on a Friday so all was okay.
When I was a kid I was on one of the last planes to land in Orlando before Hurricane Andrew struck. It did a complete loop around us (albeit about 90 miles away the whole time)and the only effect it had on our holiday was to reduce the queues in Disney World.
I was in Lima when the big earthquake hit in 2007. I was backpacking around South America and had just settled down in a coffee shop. A family walked past my table and the floor started to vibrate- “they’re heavy on their feet” I thought, just as everyone else in the shop started shouting and madly scrambling outside, leaving only me and another bemused Brit sitting in the café. Once outside (and in the relative safety of a small public park) it was a weird experience watching the tarmac roads undulate like the tide hitting the shore- cars were bouncing around on their suspension like they do on moving recovery trucks and streetlights were swinging madly from side to side. The oddest thing for me though was the complete lack of noise- having only ever seen them on movies and TV I expected there to be a rumble but apart from car alarms and people shouting there was no noise at all. People were yelling and crying but all I could think of was “this is a real earthquake! THIS IS SO COOL!”
After about 90 seconds it stopped and I went back into the coffee shop, then back to the hostel. A couple of aftershocks hit but they just felt like a lorry had passed outside at speed. I wrote a quick email to my parents and brother saying I was ok and then crashed out.
The following day the true nature of the devastation outside Lima became apparent and I felt bad about how lightly I’d taken it at the time. Whole areas had been destroyed and the main road to Chile had been cut, and even worse one of the guys I’d got to know had left for the Nazca lines that morning and wasn’t answering emails. Luckily a few hours later he turned up, having been unable to get to his destination because of the destruction further south. I was glad I’d written those emails to my family though, as my parents read them before seeing any news.
I was in Lima when the big earthquake hit in 2007. I was backpacking around South America and had just settled down in a coffee shop. A family walked past my table and the floor started to vibrate- “they’re heavy on their feet” I thought, just as everyone else in the shop started shouting and madly scrambling outside, leaving only me and another bemused Brit sitting in the café. Once outside (and in the relative safety of a small public park) it was a weird experience watching the tarmac roads undulate like the tide hitting the shore- cars were bouncing around on their suspension like they do on moving recovery trucks and streetlights were swinging madly from side to side. The oddest thing for me though was the complete lack of noise- having only ever seen them on movies and TV I expected there to be a rumble but apart from car alarms and people shouting there was no noise at all. People were yelling and crying but all I could think of was “this is a real earthquake! THIS IS SO COOL!”
After about 90 seconds it stopped and I went back into the coffee shop, then back to the hostel. A couple of aftershocks hit but they just felt like a lorry had passed outside at speed. I wrote a quick email to my parents and brother saying I was ok and then crashed out.
The following day the true nature of the devastation outside Lima became apparent and I felt bad about how lightly I’d taken it at the time. Whole areas had been destroyed and the main road to Chile had been cut, and even worse one of the guys I’d got to know had left for the Nazca lines that morning and wasn’t answering emails. Luckily a few hours later he turned up, having been unable to get to his destination because of the destruction further south. I was glad I’d written those emails to my family though, as my parents read them before seeing any news.
Helped clear up the town centre of Bewdley in Worcestershire a few years back after the Severn had burst its banks - black, stinking mud absolutely everywhere. Fortunately no casualties.
Nothing much else although the minor earthquake that was centred on the West Midlands a few years ago certainly f
king scared me - was sat in my room reading, heard a rumble that I thought was a low aircraft, then the house seemed to rock back and forth for a few seconds. Not a nice experience, but pales compared to some of the posts in here.
Nothing much else although the minor earthquake that was centred on the West Midlands a few years ago certainly f
king scared me - was sat in my room reading, heard a rumble that I thought was a low aircraft, then the house seemed to rock back and forth for a few seconds. Not a nice experience, but pales compared to some of the posts in here.Loads of Hurricanes...I think Fabian (Cat 3+) was the worst though, gusts of over 140Mph, 4 people dead and the whole island properly trashed. Airport closed for 3 days while they removed boats and boulders from the runway and rebuilt the causeway (which washed away taking those 4 unfortunates with it)
Chilli said:
I was in a medium sized earthquake in NZ. Was in a parked 4x4 when everything started swaying and the car was rocking about. No dramas though.
Likewise. Kindof felt like a train going past, and surprisingly loud. Luckily I just missed the big on that killed a lot of people in Christchurchjuice said:
Loads of Hurricanes...I think Fabian (Cat 3+) was the worst though, gusts of over 140Mph, 4 people dead and the whole island properly trashed. Airport closed for 3 days while they removed boats and boulders from the runway and rebuilt the causeway (which washed away taking those 4 unfortunates with it)
Unlike the financial benefits of operating from Bermuda, natural disasters are taxing.Honk!
Not me really, though I was on Koh Phi Phi, Ko Lanta and some other lovely beaches in Krabi in Thailand less than two weeks before the tsunami in Dec 2004. All the places we stayed at were completely destroyed so if it had happend when we were there I've no doubt we would have been swept away. Knowing us we'd have been staring at the outgoing tide with dumb fascination until it was too late.
Two weeks is a long time, but in geological timescales I feel we missed this by a tiny whisker.
Two weeks is a long time, but in geological timescales I feel we missed this by a tiny whisker.
Not a natural disaster as such, but I've been caught at the periphery of an avalanche above Avoriaz. Not recommended at all; got away with nothing worse than bruising, but I honestly thought my time had come. If I'd been even 20 feet further towards the centre I suspect that would have been game over.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff