Me too, Sherry. I have been in them during the daylight and after nightfall. Neither one is good but actually watching the wall cloud approach and seeing trees going down in wide swaths as it makes it way towards your house and whole roofs landing on your lawn as you sprint to your hidey-hole.... is not good. The other thing that I hate is a crown fire. They are terrible during the day when the trees are exploding and the brown smoke blocks out the sun and most of the light... but when they occur during the night it seems as though the whole earth is on fire and the flames meet in the sky. And no one can see people or livestock running and yelling or roadways thick with smoke. Frankly, I have had quite enough of both and prefer not to see any more of that stuff.

Fully understandable Bonnie. Now to make nature cooperate....

Dachsylady86 said:Haha Rob you always crack me up! I'm not gonna lie, I was freaking out about the tornado yanking out my irises!!!

Of course you were!

Henhouse said:I'll take an earthquake any time!

Earthquakes only damage structures. As long as you're not in, on or near one, you and your irises are safe. Whenever we had one, I ran outside even though they tell you not to. The problem is there is no warning, but it does take a least a few seconds of hard shaking to make a decently constructed building collapse, though things will be flying off the shelves long before that. The worst is when you're trapped in a highrise or on a freeway flyover. I don't know how people stand the stress of living in a place with constant tornadoes and hurricanes. You must be very brave, is all I can say.

I was in a high rise hotel in Vegas once years ago, and during the middle of the night I kind of woke up and vaguely remember feeling like the world was moving and seeing the chandler swinging a bit, but I guess I thought it was the wine and went back to sleep. The next morning the headlines in the newspaper were "Earthquake Hits Vegas" I guess it wasn't much of one though, no damage.

Dachsylady86 said:I'm not gonna lie, I was freaking out about the tornado yanking out my irises!!!

Don't let the Discovery Channel hear this, next thing you know there will be an "Irisnado" movie.

UndertheSun said:
Don't let the Discovery Channel hear this, next thing you know there will be an "Irisnado" movie.

Another funny!

Henhouse said:I'll take an earthquake any time!

Not me, I don't want either one. I lived six miles from the epicenter of the Sylmar Earthquake. It killed 64 people. I hate them. I've never been in a tornado and I don't want to be either.

@Henhouse and @iciris, don't want either one. but the earthquake is one that i have learned to "live with". not so sure about a tornado. hope they won't become a frequent occurence on the w.coast as well.

I actually felt earthquake tremors in Battle Creek Michigan. It think a small one was confirmed in Ft. Wayne, IN. I also remember my first tornado. It so was f'n awesome at the age of maybe 18. Emerald sky, sirens blaring prior to and after, sideways rain, hail..The aftermath was burned into my head forever though. Hugh Stout and comany probably deal with this more than often in OK.

iciris said:
Not me, I don't want either one. I lived six miles from the epicenter of the Sylmar Earthquake. It killed 64 people. I hate them. I've never been in a tornado and I don't want to be either.

That was a bad one, no doubt about it

Gabe - you noted something that is a true sign of bad weather. The sky turns green. I always get the willies when I see green sky.

We used to have frequent earthquakes in. Washington. Since I moved to the east coast we had one in Virginia that was felt here in central NC. And we had some down at the parents place in St. John, VI (freaked the kids out, I slept through them - hee).

I lived on a country road at the time, A Dr. N in Marshall, MI. 5:15 AM everything just shook and rocked for a few seconds. I look outside thinking a semi crashed. Few minutes later same thing again. I thought, "weird". Later in morning news it was the only news.

Oh yeah, I've even had an oil spill in my backyard. Look up Enbridge oil spill in Marshall, MI. That was tough on the community and myself.

This tornado was at 3am. Some of the people like, LIZ, got warnings on their smart phones. Other iris friends in Concord are like us & don't have smart phones, our daughter in Ohio has town sirens which go off.

Those sirens were on every elementary school and fire station. Nothing makes your heart drop like those sirens. Those phone alerts are that pleasant either..

Cuzz4short said:I lived on a country road at the time, A Dr. N in Marshall, MI. 5:15 AM everything just shook and rocked for a few seconds. I look outside thinking a semi crashed. Few minutes later same thing again. I thought, "weird". Later in morning news it was the only news.

Oh yeah, I've even had an oil spill in my backyard. Look up Enbridge oil spill in Marshall, MI. That was tough on the community and myself.

Gabe, my first earthquake I felt happened about 6 months before the Sylmar Quake. I was sitting on the lawn in front of our house. It was a small rolling quake. I thought it was "fun". Boy was the Sylmar quake different. Strong jolts that seemed to last forever. Everything on the shelves in the kitchen cabinets, linen closet, and bedroom closets was on the floor. We had numerous cracks in the walls of our house. A freeway overpass (I-5) came down (this overpass came down in the Northridge Quake [1994] too) and at least one wing of the Oliveview Hospital fell and the VA hospital in the valley was destroyed. A dam just north of us was on the verge of collapsing too. This dam was located right along the (I-5) just south of the freeway collapse.
To this day I'm still afraid of earthquakes.

Cities around here have decided to quit having sirens. Fortunately I am very close to Duke University so when the tornado was coming I could hear their sirens going off. I had two phone alerts as well. The second said in bold letters "Take Cover Now!". I was barely down the basement stairs when I heard the tornado. So in my opinion the towns are stupid to abandon sirens. And the phone alerts are life savers.

So scary!!! I had 20 minutes between when I got the phone alert and when it actually touched down. I would say that was pretty successful from an emergency alert standpoint. The prison in town sets off a siren if a prisoner escapes, maybe they could also implement it for natural disasters.

I guess I am more afraid of the devil I know rather than the devil I don't know. I hope I never meet the other devil. I have only felt small tremors from the northern part of our state, nothing significant. They sound very destructive.

Liz, so glad your safe, but I agree with Rob. That's too close.