The forces of Nature

[Sister Golden Hair]

With hurricane Frances barreling toward the Florida coast packing winds of 145 mph, I started thinking about the power of mother nature. Last night on the Weather Channel, I watched a show called "Storm Stories." It was about the Xenia Ohio tornado of 1974 which was the most powerful tornado in history, beating out even ones that had occurred in the plains. It was an F5 with winds over 300 mph. It killed 32 people in an outbreak of 148 tornadoes in 8 states that day. 5 of which were F5 catagory killing over 200 total. The city of Xenia was destroyed, with damage estimated to be over 75 million dollars.

Although I have experienced being in or witnessing some major storms, I have never been in or seen a tornado.

What kinds of natural events occur in your areas and what experiences do you have with them?

azalea, what's going on where you live in Florida right now? I understand that Frances is expected to hit the Florida coast sometime tomorrow. And Florida is just picking up the pieces from Charley.

[Valandil]

And then there are those internal forces of nature!!!

[Rían]

what, did you eat a bad hot dog on your vacation?


I'm in earthquake country. I've been thru 2 big ones and many, many smaller ones. They're quite impressive, especially the roar of the big ones. It's really weird trying to walk when one is going on, too!

[Valandil]

Heehee... OK, I'll try to stay more on topic.

There are indeed a wide array of natural hazards. My dad has a place in North Fort Myers, FL... they didn't suffer too badly from the last storm (fallen tree - many neighbors fared far worse) - and now he's anxious about this one.

Southern Illinois, where I grew up, has heavy tornados at times. I saw an exhibit once - including part of a tree with a piece of straw sticking out of it... the wind had driven the straw into the tree! Most of the midwest is rather earthquake-free, but that area of southern Illinois, along with SE Missouri and W Kentucky, have the 'New Madrid Fault Line' running under them... and there'll be a big one along some day. I think one back in the 'old days' made the Mississippi River flow upstream for two days.

Chicago doesn't seem to have the earthquake threat - and tornados won't form with interrupted landscape - like with mountains or lots of big, tall buildings.

Then there are those folks who have volcanoes, heavy flash floods, etc.

[azalea]

I've lived in 4 states in my life. Georgia gets a good many tornadoes, especially the area where I lived. It's not as bad as out west, but I spent many an hour in the basement or a closet there during bad weather. There is a fault line there, but it's generally inactive, and I only experienced one tremor while there (I slept through it, so it must not have been too bad! )
I lived in Massachusetts during a big blizzard in the '70s (lost power, snowed in, had to huddle in blankets by the fire. I was a little girl then, but I still remember how high the snow was outside our door!
In NC, we had a couple of hurricanes, but we were pretty far inland, and although we'd get lots of wind, we didn't bear the brunt of it. We had a few tornadoes there, too. The interesting thing about thunder in NC and FL (where I live now) compared to GA is that it sounds different. The best I can figure is that in north GA it is somewhat mountainous, and that must buffer the thunder "rolls," whereas in NC and FL where I lived, it is very flat, and the thunder just rolls and rolls. It's interesting.
Now here in FL we're dealing with hurricanes again, but it's different, because we're closer to the coast, and the homes here don't have basements, plus there's only one way out, Interstate-wise. So we're on edge a little more. I haven't decided whether to go up to Atlanta or just take the gamble that it'll avoid my area entirely, like Charley did. Since it's coming from the other way, we'd be getting the aftereffects if it comes this way, but that can be just as destructive and dangerous as the area of impact, but without the storm surge.

[Earniel]

Belgium is relatively safe stormwise speaking. We get some storms, usually in winter but a few in summer as well. I'm quite happy it's not like the storms you can get in America, those are just scary. I remember there was a real freak tornado a few years ago in another part of Belgium. It sprung up out of nowhere and disappeared after a few minutes after wrecking two houses. During the normal storms, the most damage is done by falling trees.

Some of the trees on our street have been affected by a broken gaspipe a few years back and their roots have rotted away. They can fall quite easily. Last winter the two tops broke out of the firtree in the front yard and hit the little roof over our frontdoor. Luckily with little damage. Another tree fell across the driveway of neighbours just as the mother and her two daughters drove on it. The tree fell just behind their car, they were very lucky.

What does happen more and more frequently here during the last few years are floods. Luckily we live in a higher part of our town so we never had any trouble but a bit of water in the basement. The downside was that our basementfloor was covered by old rugs. It stank for quite a while. Yet I've seen and heard quite worse tales. One of the bakeries nearby had its basement with all the ovens, fridges and other equipment flooded to the basementroof. They had to close down for months. In a nearby town the flood prevention sewers had been neglected for years and filled up with mud and rubble. Those people had a flood nearly every rainfall and often had to reach their house by rowboat. It took years to get the sewers clean, I'm not sure they are even cleaned and ready today. There was a lot of red tape-trouble involved, IIRC.

The first high water levels I remember was when I was still in high school. On one morning I rode with my bike from our drive way onto the street to go to school and ten meters in front of me was this calm, flat, mirrorlike pool of water where the road must have been. It was a very odd, but memorable view. I wish I had taken a photo, it has never been that high here since. Stupidly I thought I could get through it but the road lay deeper there and I returned home with wet shoes. I was however one of the only ones to reach school that day, albeit by detour and with wellies on. When I returned home later that day the water had risen and at one point I pedalled through 30 cm of water. The water was gushing up through the sewer-manholes like a fontain in a pond! A few nearby kids were cheering me to reach the other side dry. I barely reached it before I had to step down from my bike.

Antwerp, the city nearby is built on the side of the river Schelde, each springtide the water rises over the quai so that a wall was built to protect the old city center from water. But on normal days the space behind the low flooddam is used for parking cars. I pity the man who forgets to move his car when the springtide rises, it just flows away and sometimes people do forget it.

[trolls' bane]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

what, did you eat a bad hot dog on your vacation?


I'm in earthquake country. I've been thru 2 big ones and many, many smaller ones. They're quite impressive, especially the roar of the big ones. It's really weird trying to walk when one is going on, too!

I live in "the northern part of southern California" (the San Fernando valley) but, since I was only three at the time, i don't remember the Northrige Quake. Then again, mom says I slept right through it . I do remember driving around the city afterwards, but even then I probably didn't understand what happened, even though I could talk by then.

[Khamûl]

Here in South Alabama, we mainly have to deal with tornados and severe thunderstorms. There have been several major floods in the last decades, too. And we do get the occasional direct hit from a hurricane (I think the last direct hit was Hurricane Opal in '95 [the eye came right over my house]). But at least the earth stays firm beneath our feet.

[BeardofPants]

Nothing much where I am... Of course, we're sitting on top of several volcanos in Auckland, so if one of 'em ever decides to blow, we're screwed.

Auckland Volcanic Field

[Khamûl]

It looks like we're going to get the brunt of Ivan. Fun. My family might decide to get out of Dodge.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Originally Posted by Khamûl

It looks like we're going to get the brunt of Ivan. Fun. My family might decide to get out of Dodge.

Yeah, this is a big one.

[Nerdanel]

hope you'll be alright..

[BeardofPants]

*duck and cover Khamul* and wotever you do, don't leave yer pants out on the line... Might end up being blown to New Zealand or something.

[Khamûl]

Don't worry, the hatches will be battened. But there is a very good possibility that we'll be without power for several days. We're just going to have to sit this one through.

P.S. -- I find it interesting that 12 days ago, I mentioned the last direct hit we got from a hurricane. Now, here we are on the verge of another one. I guess Ivan is going to go down in the books right next to Opal.

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

we have been getting an awful lot of hefty storms over here at the moment,
not quite the same as hurricanes, but of the same sort of magnitude,
and even as i write, the rain pours on and on and on,
and my college bus broke down this morning, because the engine was
waterlogged, my lane is frequently blocked by fallen trees, and the deer
and wild ponies often shelter on my front garden, because the weather is
too bad on the hills