[Sage]

Originally Posted by fov

Of course you will. It'll be the place to be.

(Maybe then property values will go down enough for me to finally buy a house. )

With three times the waterfront property? Hah!

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

You could always move to Nevada....

The only place I've ever felt an earthquake. I was on the 20th story of a 28-story building at the time, and I assumed it was just a strong gust of wind until I heard someone talking about the earthquake later on that afternoon.

[mszv]

The natural disasters where you don't live are always perceived to be worse than the ones where you live! People who live where there are hurricanes say "there are hurricanes but no earthquakes". The same goes for tornadoes, killer cold (you know, frostbite on exposed skin in one minute), and all that. I think it's an adaptive mechanism that most people have. If you worried about your own natural disasters all the time, then you'd be a nervous wreck!

Little earthquakes are fine - bad ones are not. Building to code helps.

I was in the Loma Prieta earthquake, October 17, 1989 - San Francisco Bay area. I was in the stadium, Candlestick Park, when it happened. No danger to me - thankfully. Even though I was in the section of the stadium that cracked - nothing fell on anyone. It took hours and hours to get home.

There was some loss of life, and some really bad destruction - localized, but bad. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

[saucyminx]

I'm really scared of natural disasters tbh

[Melanie68]

Growing up in the midwest (Illinois), tornados and the thought of being in one scared me. I was in lots of warnings and luckily was never in one (I have tornado dreams sometimes though). Earthquakes don't scare me because we have so many codes to protect people (in comparison to earthquakes that happen in places like Iran ).

[SakSquash]

Though, a natural disaster is probably a cool way to die.

[RLacey]

Every time I hear about natural disasters I'm increasingly glad that I live in the - comparatively - unaffected Isles of Rainy Britain.

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

With three times the waterfront property? Hah!


The only place I've ever felt an earthquake. I was on the 20th story of a 28-story building at the time, and I assumed it was just a strong gust of wind until I heard someone talking about the earthquake later on that afternoon.

I remember that.

[RLacey]

You were that someone?

[Sage]

Originally Posted by RLacey

You were that someone?

Lacey cracks a naughty funny? ROFL!

[RLacey]

Um, no. I meant he was the someone who was talking about an earthquake.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by RLacey

Um, no. I meant he was the someone who was talking about an earthquake.

*sigh* How could I have ever doubted that?

[RLacey]

I have no idea.

In fact, I have no idea what the "naughty funny" you thought I'd made is .

[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by mszv

The natural disasters where you don't live are always perceived to be worse than the ones where you live! People who live where there are hurricanes say "there are hurricanes but no earthquakes". The same goes for tornadoes, killer cold (you know, frostbite on exposed skin in one minute), and all that. I think it's an adaptive mechanism that most people have. If you worried about your own natural disasters all the time, then you'd be a nervous wreck!

What if you don't live in an area where natural disasters almost never happen? ;P

Seriously, I feel lucky to live where I am now on that count. Yeah, we do get blizzards and nasty cold, and yeah, those can be dangerous if you're unprepared.

But honestly, we here very rarely get nasty storms "just out of nowhere". There almost always is plenty of time to prepare yourself. And if you are prepared - stocked up with supplies, staying indoors, maybe a portable generator if you're really cautious (though personally I can't remember ever being in a power outage that lasted more than a day) - then "surviving" a blizzard or cold spell more or less consists of snugging on the couch watching DVDs and sipping hot chocolate or coffee. I just can't bring myself to class a blizzard as a "natural disaster" without feeling like I'm engaging in severe hyperbole.

We do occasionally get hit by things like tornadoes, earthquakes, and even hurricanes, but they're very, very uncommon events. (Well, OK, except for this one fairground in Great Barrington that always gets hit with a tornado at least once a year or something. It's just insanely freaky.)

Apparently I slept through the last time we had a earthquake (a fact which my roommate found amusing). It was a quite small one, however, my roommate said all he felt was that the house shook a little for a moment.

So, I think I'll stay on the upper East Coast.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Jeysie

We do occasionally get hit by things like tornadoes, earthquakes, and even hurricanes, but they're very, very uncommon events. (Well, OK, except for this one fairground in Great Barrington that always gets hit with a tornado at least once a year or something. It's just insanely freaky.)

Tornadoes are tangible proof that God does not approve of mobile homes and, it would seem, a certain fairground in Great Barrington.
Build not thine house on shifting sands. Nor on rolling wheels, apparently.

[mszv]

I think that Jeysie's comments illustrate my point.

You do get hurricanes and tornados, but they are uncommon, so you don't worry about them. Big destructive earthquakes aren't that common in California, either.

You also get blizzards. Yeah, sure preparation helps, but so does preparation in a hurricane, and there are tornado warnings. And blizzards are catastrophic weather conditions, though preparation really helps! People die in blizzards. I admit though, that I'm not that scared of the weather in the US north, except for the parts that are what I call "scary cold", which includes places such as Minnesota, sometimes (though rarely) in Illinois, parts of Canada, Alaska, and where Mira is living. That kind of dangerous, frostbite on exposed skin in a tiny bit of time - that kind of cold is very scary to me. But, you know, in Minnesota people go about their business, and as far as I can tell, they don't worry about it. It's so wonderfully adaptive.

The same goes for killer heat. It's amazing (and very sad) how many people died in Chicago, during a killer heat wave, and we aren't even talking 120 degrees farenheit here!

[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by mszv

You do get hurricanes and tornados, but they are uncommon, so you don't worry about them. Big destructive earthquakes aren't that common in California, either.

True, but they still happen much more frequently than here (In fact, I'm not sure we've ever had a destructive earthquake. Maybe I should look that up...). Same as the way Florida gets more hurricanes than here, for example. I was trying to make the point that I don't think it's merely a matter of what you're used to.

Yes, a blizzard you're unprepared for can be dangerous, but if you are prepared then it's generally nothing more than a bit of annoyance you simply have to wait out. Any damage that occurs is usually not that bad. I think the worst damage I ever remember is when you'd get some stuff like power lines and cars geting smashed by trees... sucky yes, but still pretty tame compared to the carnage other "natural disasters" can produce.

With things like hurricanes, tornadoes, and such, even if you're prepared they're still very destructive and dangerous. So the fact that our only "(semi-)frequent weather problems" consist basically of lots of snow is something I can live with.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[mszv]

OK - I see you are from Western Massachusetts - cold, can be dangerous if you aren't prepared, but not what I would "scary cold". I'm a wimp about the scary kind of cold, but having come from the land of "regular cold", I can handle that.

I agree that it's not just "what you are used to" - it's "what you are used to" combined with "where you are". Some areas have conditions where there are more extremes of weather and natural disasters. Still for all that, I think I freak out over cold weather more than when I lived in it, because I'm not used to it.

Of course that's now - now that we have reliable sources of heating in many parts of the world - an unusually early or late blizzard isn't generally of natural disaster proportions.

[squarejawhero]

We get earthquakes and tornado's in Britain. The Earthquakes aren't big, but they can be felt, and a tornado ripped through part of Birmingham last year leaving substantial damage.

We also have massive gale problems coming off the Atlantic. I'm suprised people have already forgotten 1987. 19 years ago pretty much the entirity of Britain was flattened by a massive storm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

Famously a poor weatherman, the honorable Michael Fish, said -

"Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way… well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't."

[squarejawhero]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns%27_Day_storm

Forgot about this one. My mother and bro were nearly casualties of this one when a big newsagents sign ripped off the building and crashed down the street where they were waiting for a bus.

[Jeysie]

Originally Posted by mszv

OK - I see you are from Western Massachusetts - cold, can be dangerous if you aren't prepared, but not what I would "scary cold". I'm a wimp about the scary kind of cold, but having come from the land of "regular cold", I can handle that.

That I will agree with... below zero (Fahrenheit) weather isn't unheard of, but it rarely ever gets below -10.

In the past few years it's been getting warmer, though... this particular winter it's rarely dropped below 20, and usually it's in the 30s and 40s. Of course, that means summers are getting warmer as well, which we're a bit less equipped to deal with. Electricity prices can get really outrageous if you run an A/C more than a few hours per day.

Peace & Luv, Liz