Do you worry about possible natural disasters in your area?

[shootingstar]

I seriously believe there will be a horrible earthquake in Vancouver BC area.  Enough tremours over past year. The major plates are now stuck...a lot of stored destructive energy.

Where I am, because we had seriously damaging river flood that ended up with 100,000 people evacuated, people living near the river, do view the river more seriously each spring. Some the bike pathway underpasses by the river, are low enough that the municipality does erect arm barriers to stop cyclists.

[Wilbur ★]

7 minutes ago, shootingstar said:

I seriously believe there will be a horrible earthquake in Vancouver BC area.  Enough tremours over past year. The major plates are now stuck...a lot of stored destructive energy.

Where I am, because we had seriously damaging river flood that ended up with 100,000 people evacuated, people living near the river, do view the river more seriously each spring. Some the bike pathway underpasses by the river, are low enough that the municipality does erect arm barriers to stop cyclists.

Vancouver will suffer one day.  I am hopeful I won't be there when it does.  Speculation on when is futile.  Didn't happen in my fathers 83 years there.  Toronto will erupt in civil war before nature wipes us out.  Does that count? 

[BR46]

I don't think it pays to worry about things that you don't have any control over 

[Tizeye]

Let's see....Hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning storms, sinkholes. Nah. More concern about giant pythons roaming about. At least I see a gator ahead of time, but snakes blend in.

[Square Wheels]

Nope.  I live in New England, we might get a rare tornado or hurricane, but it's pretty safe here.

[Tizeye]

2 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

Nope.  I live in New England, we might get a rare tornado or hurricane, but it's pretty safe here.

Blizzards? Basically a hurricane at 75+ MPH winds and instead of being a warm front...you get driving snow.

[Square Wheels]

1 minute ago, Tizeye said:

Blizzards? Basically a hurricane at 75+ MPH winds and instead of being a warm front...you get driving snow.

True, but we grew up with it.  If it gets too bad we stay home.  If you're lucky, you've bought a generator and use it during power outages.  We also learned how to drive in it.

[KrAzY]

Nope.. I know I will be ok. I have years of experience in disaster areas, and I'm a damn good Hunter.. I will however just sit back and watch chaos go on.

[maddmaxx ★]

New England gets it's disasters in the form of winter power outages when the trees come crashing down on the power lines.  After a couple of generations of gypsy moths the trees are weakened in most of our forests and the weight of snow mixed with a good wind down they come.  It seems to be happening more and more often with longer outage time.

Then there's the trees that crash down on houses...............

[donkpow]

I am more worried about the inconvenience of minor natural disasters. Storms, severe temperatures, high winds, stuff like that.

[Airehead]

Blizzards.   Less scary since generators became common. 

[Kirby]

Blizzards will inconvenience me (I had over 4 days without heat/power last winter) but this area doesn't have many life threatening sorts of emergencies - like the earthquakes from when I lived in LA.

As long as I have ice cream sandwiches, I'll be ok.

[BR46]

1 hour ago, Square Wheels said:

Nope.  I live in New England, we might get a rare tornado or hurricane, but it's pretty safe here.

Just a few days ago 19 tornadoes touch down in Wisconsin with one passing about 2 miles from my house. 

I still feel safe here. 

[ChrisL]

2 hours ago, BR46 said:

I don't think it pays to worry about things that you don't have any control over 

I think you have to be  prepared if you live in earthquake country but yeah not so much worry.  We keep earthquake kits, Flashlights, water, First aid kits.  The big one is going to hit, its a matter of when not if.

[jdc2000]

shootingstar's problem won't just be the earthquake, it will be the tsunami that follows it.

 

[MickinMD ★]

Although I live on top of a high plateau that overlooks Baltimore City, I fear power outages and being cut-off from shopping, etc. by flooding due to hurricanes.

I have a gasoline generator now. I didn't have it when Irene hit in Aug. 2011, power was out for me for three days, and I had 3 feet of water was in my basement.

I also made sure I can easily isolate the electric junction boc leading to my forced-air nat.gas furnace, splice-in the male end of a heavy-duty extension, plug it into the generator and intermittently run the furnace and heat the house in case it happens during cold weather.

The generator is only 1200 W, chosen because it only burns 1 gal. gas every 6 hours. 8 gal. of gas will run it continuously for 48 hours.  That will allow me to keep the basement sump pump running as well as my TV and a light, plus intermittently running the furnace, refrigerator, etc.  With the current trio of storms crossing the Atlantic, I've made sure my 2.5 gal lawn mower's gas can is filled as well as my car's gas tank in case I have to siphon gas.

[Parr8hed]

Tornaders are our biggest one.  You don't always have a prediction, but look for certain weather patterns and can be careful during those times.  We have had earthquakes but nothing like Cali.  We have had wildfaars but nothing like Cali.  We get the remnants of hurricanes, but it's usually just very windy with lots of rain.  Nothing super dangerous.  I wouldn't "worry" about them, just try to stay prepared.   

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

True, but we grew up with it.  If it gets too bad we stay home.  If you're lucky, you've bought a generator and use it during power outages.  We also learned how to drive in it.

Pretty much in the same boat with SW. 

[Razors Edge ★]

Natural disasters with great damages are rare in my area.  We get floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and earthquakes, but all are essentially "nuisance" issues unless you are the poor person who has the tree land on them or their basement flooded.

Tom 

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

What Mick and Tom said. Florence, or Flo as we know her, will probably cause the most damage south of here in the Carolinas and SW VA. We will see rain up to two feet and some winds. We've had 3x as much rain as we normally have so the ground is saturated and low lying areas are going to flood. The city of Alexandria is already flooded this morning and they are handing out sandbags in advance of Flo. Our house is on a hill so flooding is unlikely but I am worried about trees falling on the house or taking out power somewhere. 

[Mr. Silly]

We've had blizzard like conditions but you can just stay inside that day.  The Polar Vortex a couple years back sucked more than the heavy snow and wind from blizzard.

We get a couple tornado warnings each year but I've never seen a tornado.  We've had straight line winds knock trees down or rip the tops off.  There is a weather-sciencey term for the localize destructive straight line winds but I don't know it and don't care enough to look up. 

For the most part, Michigan is pretty save from natural disasters. 

[jsharr ★]

I live in Texas.  I think Texas means "natural disaster" in Spanish, or Apache 

[late]

Maine doesn't do disaster.

No hurricanes, earthquakes, nothing major.

We have one of the lowest crime rates in the country...

You can't call them tornadoes, but while we've always had dust devils, they've been slowly getting larger and stronger. That's my impression from living here, I haven't checked to see if that's accurate.

[TrentonMakes]

2 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

unless you are the poor person who has the tree land on them or their basement flooded.

Sucks to be that guy. 

The portable generator will help with one of these; for the other, well, if we're going to have trees then we will continue to have some risk.

We recently finished a good chunk of the basement so I think I worry about taking on water even more than I did before.  This even though we live virtually at the top of the hill.  I want to do some grading and put down some stone to help encourage rainwater/snow melt to flow away from the foundation.

We live a mile from the Delaware River, but we're about 150 feet above it in elevation.  Thus if the Delaware gets in our basement, I think we have bigger problems.

[ChrisL]

3 hours ago, Old#7 said:

What Mick and Tom said. Florence, or Flo as we know her, will probably cause the most damage south of here in the Carolinas and SW VA. We will see rain up to two feet and some winds. We've had 3x as much rain as we normally have so the ground is saturated and low lying areas are going to flood. The city of Alexandria is already flooded this morning and they are handing out sandbags in advance of Flo. Our house is on a hill so flooding is unlikely but I am worried about trees falling on the house or taking out power somewhere. 

My MIL has been giving my wife hourly updates on their weather.... We still have power, no trees have fallen yet.  If I give you her address can you kill her power?  ?

[Chris...]

I’m ready for the zombies

[late]

1 minute ago, Chris... said:

I’m ready for the zombies

I think that's true for all preppers, they're all ready for something that will never happen.

[bikeman564™]

Yes, the SE mitten's only concern is the occasional tornado.

[sheep_herder ★]

No, I normally create my own disasters.

[Chris...]

2 hours ago, late said:

I think that's true for all preppers, they're all ready for something that will never happen.

I don’t have enough ammo to be a prepper

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

3 hours ago, ChrisL said:

My MIL has been giving my wife hourly updates on their weather.... We still have power, no trees have fallen yet.  If I give you her address can you kill her power?  ?

For you? Of course, no charge. I have a good imagination so I can make it look natural. Hook the winch line to the right tree, boom, lights out, Bob's yer uncle.

[Further]

Shit happens, we deal with it.

[Dirtyhip]

I tend to not worry about things like that.  I don't worry about much at all, really.

[Page Turner]

23 hours ago, Kirby said:

like the earthquakes from when I lived in LA.

 

[Page Turner]

...so who's on the list for @AirwickWithCheese to stay with if he gets flooded out by Florence ?

[Prophet Zacharia]

We get remnants of hurricanes and some big snows at times, otherwise no. 

[shootingstar]

Until I was evacuated from home for 5 days, by the river flood, I never truly paid attention to disasters or threat of one.

It was bothersome this summer for 2 wks. or so, we had smoky wildfire air that blew in from across the Rockies in British Columbia..that's over 400 km. eastward...  I know for certain a work colleague is quietly and not in a hurry, wondering the viability of owning their vacation home in part of wine country in interior British Columbia.

I seriously wonder if this will be start of annual summer disaster effect.  

[Page Turner]

1 hour ago, shootingstar said:

..  I know for certain a work colleague is quietly and not in a hurry, wondering the viability of owning their vacation home in part of wine country in interior British Columbia.

...if it follows the same path as here in California, they will soon discover that whatever insurance they can find that covers fire will be too expensive to afford on an annual basis.

[Mr. Silly]

9 hours ago, Page Turner said:

...so who's on the list for @AirwickWithCheese to stay with if he gets flooded out by Florence ?

Cheese will be fine.  He can just hook his home to the back of his car and drive it to higher ground.

[Wilbur ★]

I am worried about RR.  "Tidewater" doesn't sound like a place you want to be in a hurricane.