Victimized

[pinkieparrot]

Well, I was alive during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 magnitude) But I can't remember it. MY mom says we were in the car on a highway when it hit, so she hardly noticed it- thought it was just a bumpy road. Then when she realized it was an earthquake, she just stopped on the highway. My dad, however, was at the top of a tall building and he said the building swayed back and forth. Luckily, California is used to earthquakes and al of the buildings are reinforced.-- check out this bookstore around where I was living at the time--http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/screens/048sr.jpeg and heres some picturesfrom San Fransisco--- http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/web_pages/sf.html

[dagwood]

We don't get much in the way of natural disasters.

I keep hearing promises of "the big one" (earthquake) but it never happens. I live on a major fault. We get snow in the winter and hot hot hot in the summer. There has been a couple of tornadoes..the worst I remember was an F1...woohoo.

[J.D.]

We don't get much in the way of natural disasters.

I keep hearing promises of "the big one" (earthquake) but it never happens. I live on a major fault. We get snow in the winter and hot hot hot in the summer. There has been a couple of tornadoes..the worst I remember was an F1...woohoo.

I only know of one tornado here - was that the F1 a couple of years ago? That was really nasty - but I've never been in any others, so I have no frame of reference. I'm still waiting for the "big one" too, Dag, but I do have my 72-hour kit. What about the flood of - was it 83? Where they turned State Street into a river? Maybe not unusual in other places - but we are basically a desert state.

[veejer]

And of course - I was without power for 24 hours in the big blackout of '03.

Nine months after the Blizzard of '78, the maternity wards around here experienced a population explosion of so called "Blizzard Babies". I'm wondering if there will be a lot of "Blackout Babies" this month, in the areas hit the longest by the August 14,2003 blackout.

[Qboots]

Not in my house!

[dagwood]

I only know of one tornado here - was that the F1 a couple of years ago? That was really nasty - but I've never been in any others, so I have no frame of reference. I'm still waiting for the "big one" too, Dag, but I do have my 72-hour kit. What about the flood of - was it 83? Where they turned State Street into a river? Maybe not unusual in other places - but we are basically a desert state.

That's the tornado I am thinking of. You know, the one with the video of the idiot in his office watching the tornado head towards him while standing behind the plate glass window. I haven't been in any of them either...I just remember the news stories.

I hadn't thought about the flood. I lived in Brigham at the time so it didn't affect me much but that was bizarre. I am wishing it would happen again just so I could go see.

[Muduh]

A friend of mine was in Memphis to do a craft show. She and another friend were staying in a motel. She remembered that she needed a bag out of her van and went out to get it. Some one mugged her and beat the heck out of her. They took the bag. She wasn't badly hurt but was mad because she had lost her two dirty pairs of panties and an orange she wanted to eat before bed.

[Stargazer]

The area I came from would actually miss more school every year because of flooding than it would for snow.
My house was up on a hillside, so *it* was never in danger of being flooded, but we would get trapped by the flood waters. Half a mile in one direction, the road would be covered and a mile in the other direction it would be covered. So, we'd have to wait for the waters to recede before we could go anywhere. We used to sit on our porch and watch a neighbor throw tow lines to stranded people who were foolish enough to try to cross the waters in their cars. He would stay busy all day, pulling people out. For some reason, each one thought *their* car would be the one to make it across.

When I first went to college, it was a town that was prone to floods as well. I was continually surprised by how unaware people are of how dangerous floods can be and how fast they can happen. I've literally seen the creek close to my mom's house overrun it's banks and flood the whole valley in less than an hour.

I've also experienced a few blizzards and ice storms (including the one last year that knocked half of Kentucky out of commission for two weeks). One of the most interesting blizzards was when I was snowed in to a teeny three room apartment with over a dozen people for several days. Our main form of sustenance was Hamburger Helper and Cappuccino and we were turning on each other like a pack of wolves by the time we shoveled out. Caffeine-fueled cabin fever caused a hysteria that could have quickly turned into a Lord of the Flies scenario if the snow plows hadn't of arrived when they did.

[Duxxy]

two years ago I was awakened at 3 am by some loud banging noises.. turns out there was an idiot in my backyard kicking in my shed doors. I woke my husband and called 911. My husband (a Manitoba backwoods boy) went after him with a long handled axe. He found him at the end of the lane way, drunk as a skunk.. with our lawnmower. My husband held him there (at axe point) until the police arrived seconds later. (he threw the axe into the bush and retreived it the next day.. that's illegal here)
Ends up the guy had been taking things all over the neighbourhood.
We got a subpoena and had to appear in court, we both took the entire day off only to find out that he was being held on probation issues and our case had been pleaded out - so he got no jail time for stealing from us and scaring the hell out of me. My husband works graveyard and I am alone 4 nights a week with our daughter.
My husband should have smacked him upside the head with the axe and sent him on his way :rolleyes It would have been more satisfying.
I guess that makes me a vengeful person.

ETA: I thoroughly enjoyed Blackout 2003. With no running water I had to tell my kids to stay home and hubby broke out his camp stove and made us a full breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. We spent the rest of the day working in the yard and just hanging out together. It was so quiet. The neighbours were all outside doing yard work too and later that night you could smell the campfires and hear voices instead of traffic. It was lovely - for 24 hours.

[Lucy]

In 1996, during winter break from college, I was supposed to go to an internship in D.C. My mom woke me up the morning I was leaving to say it was snowing and I'd better get going. I made it as far as my apartment at college -- about four hours from home, two from D.C. -- and stopped for the night. By the next morning there were four feet of snow outside and I couldn't even find my Honda Civic. I was snowed in alone for four days, living on Doritos and donuts from the 7-11 behind the apartment building. Thank heavens it had been one of those free HBO weekends and they decided to extend it, otherwise I'd have been bored out of my skull. When it finally started to melt I had to shovel my car out with a breadpan, because I didn't have a shovel.

Last fall we got hit by Hurricane Isabel. I had to work and drove home through the storm that night, and I couldn't go through town because the road was flooded. So I had to take a highway that was a toll road, and I had to pay the friggin' toll. When I got back to my neighborhood, everything was pitch black, and it was impossible to drive more than a block on any one street because of all the downed trees. I finally made it to a spot about five blocks from my apartment and found an open space in a tree-free area. Then I stupidly walked home through the hurricane, not even thinking I could be hit by a flying branch or something. All the power was out, and neighbors were out watching the storm on the porch and drinking beer, so I joined them. The next morning the street was a disaster zone, we'd lost four trees in my block alone and they were blocking the street totally.