So which is more terrifying for you?

So which is more terrifying for you, experiencing a sudden short duration natural disaster like an earthquake or tornado;

or watching the approach of a inevitable natural disaster like a rising river that will flood your home or the approach of a tropical storm/hurricane that will hit you?

It sort of like what style of horror film scares you more, the sudden "BOO" kind or the suspenseful, full of impending doom kind.

sudden short. Lived in FLA for 40 years Hurricanes and floods don't scare me anymore. But earthquakes, that **** is just nuts.

Neither...

Earthquakes are pretty easy to avoid if you don't go to faultline areas so they don't worry me and if I did go into those area I'd be psychologically prepared.

Tornados too are pretty easy to avoid as well... You can just drive away or go somewhere that won't be effected... they suck, but hardly scary.

rising rivers you can walk away from >.>

Storms only annoy me due to dog being scared...

i can't think of anything i find scary...

None of the above.

Getting caught in a fire terrifies me.

Floods can be mitigated/eliminated by not living in a sub-1000 year floodplain or making sure to have flood insurance (zero sympathy for people who build million dollar houses next to rivers and lakes and act surprised when they get flooded out). Tornadoes...eh. Lived with 'em all my life. I'd like to experience an earthquake just once to see what its like. Tropical storm is not really anything more than a wet tornado.

For those thinking earthquakes are limited to areas like New Zealand and California.

Oh wait I know... Mega Volcano in yellow stone and mega tsunami that will likely hit the east coast in the future or global nuclear war... other than that nothing i can think of

I have been lucky enough not to have any actual close calls with any type of disaster. I've had to hit the basement a few times due to tornadic activity, but none have ever gotten TOO close to me.

And... Durakken... do you live in some sort of mobile home or RV that you can "drive away" from a tornado? And do you also have zero ties to a community, family, job that you can so easily "just not live" someplace? Truly left field answers to this question. I should also note that I DARE you to be in the direct path of a tornado and NOT be freaked out by the experience, just seeing VIDEO worries me sometimes.

I never expected to live this long. I was very impressionable and given this information: reference, I had already contemplated my life and death at an early age. Thus, I can't say that being involved in a disaster would scare me. Not that I have been in any, mind you. I'd be more concern about its inconvenience and cost.

Well nobody really expected the Virginia earthquake this week, it's a pretty low risk area for earthquakes.

While you may hunker down during a tornado warning in your area, you don't know if it'll hit you or not. Their destruction area can be rather narrow.

And while a knowledgeable person may check ahead of time to find if their home is within a 50 or 100 year flood plane most people don't under stand don't understand that it's not 50 or 100 years between floods but a 2% or 1% in any given year. And we all know people suck at probability and statistics.

With modern hurricane forecasting, you can have nearly a week to prepare for the possibility but it's only when you realize that you are going to be affected by the storm that it sinks in. In the case of Irene, the forecast path hasn't shifted a whole lot over the last few days, New England landfall somewhere between NYC and Paragon, I mean Providence, which sucks for anyone living in Connecticut and central Mass.

I'd an odd person, in that I actually WANT to experience said natural disasters. I want to live through an earthquake, a hurricane, and a tornado.

I've lived in California all but 9months of my entire life, and I've never even felt an earthquake. Color me disappointed.


Edit: As for which is scarier, the sudden but short ones. You can see the slow building events before they happen and take action to limit the fallout, but even if you know you're in an area that's at risk for sudden disasters you can't be on alert 24/7/365. That kind of stress could cause serious trauma all by itself. (Think the cold war era threat of atomic bombing, but replacing the soviets with mother nature.)

I am just under 40 miles from the epicenter of this week's quake in Virginia. I, of course, felt the initial quake and felt a couple of the aftershocks. It's perhaps a little unsettling, but not particularly terrifying. Of course, the quake itself was only 5.8 and the largest aftershock, so far, was a 4.5, so while they are significant for this area of the country, they are my no means major quakes in relation to other global, or even National, quakes.

Hurricanes.. I have been through a few, so they don't really scare me anymore either. The last one that followed the predicted path of Irene, though, left me without power for 8 days. No internet or television for EIGHT DAYS!?!?! Now THAT scares the bajeebies outta me! Especially with the launch of Freedom possibly being right around the corner.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty_Femme I said "ur" which is not a word. It's a sound dumb people make when you ask them to spell out "you are".

Being in the military I've had to live in various areas all afflicted by different sorts of natural disasters. Ice storms and flooding in southern Quebec, forest fires and earthquakes in BC, and now I'm dealing with wind storms and hurricanes in Nova Scotia. The disasters themselves don't worry me so much. I'm trained to deal with the aftermath since I'm a likely first-responder. What worries the crap outta me is NOT BEING THERE when it happens. Like right now, my family might have to face a hurricane while I'm still deployed and can't do anything to help and can't even be home in less than 24 hours if something major does happen. My thoughts go out to those caught in the path, wherever it is.

Honestly - all of the above. We never get earthquakes, tornados, flooding rivers, storms or hurricanes in this part of the world (Vancouver BC Canada). The worst "natural" event we'll get is 4 inches of snow (thats scary! nobody here can drive in snow!)

Tornado by far:

• punch of hurricane with 5 min instead of 5 min warning
• what it hits looks like it was in an earthquake
• it may not hit everything, but it is unpleasantly random

Quote:

Originally Posted by Durakken Tornados too are pretty easy to avoid as well... You can just drive away or go somewhere that won't be effected... they suck, but hardly scary.

Shenanigans.
That assumes you get warning worth anything, that you have detailed information about which way it is likely traveling, etc....

Take cover you!

How poor is your vision that you can't see a tornado far enough away that you can't get away or to safety?

I've lived through a fire, multiple tornadoes (including 2 times having them leap over where I was living), multiple tropical storms, and now an earthquake. And I'm considered to be living in one of the safer parts of the country!

I think the sudden ones are the most terrifying. Earthquakes come out of the blue, and you lose precious seconds as your mind wraps around the idea of what is happening.

A lot of tornadoes strike in the night, and many times are not identified as a tornado for days while data is studied and compared. (not every one is as clear as Dorothy Gale's twister) Meanwhile houses are destroyed.

The fire can be disorienting. I was in a college dorm that caught on fire. By the time the alarm had sounded, the hall was full from 3 feet up with roiling black smoke. Until it poured in our door, we thought it a drill. There was that moment of frozen panic and then the moment deciding if I bolt for the door or is there something critical I need to do first? (it does happen, even after teaching yourself there's nothing more important than your life)

I would also point out that flood cannot be ruled out as a instant disaster. The town of Toccoa, GA, 1.5 hours from me had a earthen dam break a couple decades back, spilling instant death onto the college and neighborhoods below. There was no warning. Johnstown, PA suffered a similar fate.

Just got done reading Isaac's Storm, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. The tragedy there played out because an awful lot of people, including many in the US weather service, refused to see a hurricane as a bonified threat to their lives. Also, some things often not considered with hurricanes were discussed. For example, the real monsters (Irene may be one, I'm not sure) have enough suction power to pull at the earth beneath them. The theory was that this effect was present at the Galveston hurricane, and may have increased the effects of the tsunami the storm created.