I agree, Sherry. Being from Southern Calif in my youth and Northern CA from age 15, I'll take earthquake country all day long. LOVE earthquakes and studying seismic activity (not the destruction). How about Oklahoma? There are plenty of quakes around OK City and east of there nearly weekly. Mostly around <>3 magnitude. OK has it's share of severe weather AND earthquakes.

And if you don't have a basement in Tornado Alley, you sleep in the interior hall closet during tornado season.
Every. Single. Night.

I would not know what to do in an earthquake or a hurricane, well, hurricanes come with early warnings, I think. So maybe I'd survive a hurricane. Earthquakes or tsunamis, I don't think so. But if I survived the earthquake, maybe I could get away from a tsunami. Maybe.

I guess it's all in what you are used to, but I don't think I'll ever really get used to tornadoes either.

Dutchlady1 said:Debra - I'm curious why? The unpredictability of Tornadoes scares me more than Hurricanes which I can at least see approaching.

I'm with you Hetty. I lost my home to a hurricane but I was gone way before it got here. Tornadoes can pop up quick and can be far more powerful than a hurricane.

Living on the Space Coast in Florida in 1966, Hurricane Inez sent outer rain bands our way. Horizontal rain and water streaming from the light fixtures INSIDE left a definitely negative impression. Minor earthquake while living in Denver was the spookiest thing I'd ever experienced. Don't LIKE the ground shaking under my feet. Also, I was born in South Bend, Indiana. Have lived in Texas since 1971. Tornadoes are familiar in both places. Hurricanes and earthquakes affect too large an area. Of course, there are always exceptions like Xenia, Tuscaloosa, and Joplin. But in most cases, tornadoes, while violent, are limited in scope. Odds of damage or injury are lower than with the other two. So I'll stay in this part of Texas.

tornados scare the *****out of me. While living on St. George Island, Fl. a water spout (AKA tornado over water" came down the bay, hit land and instead of dissapating traveled on as a tornado. 3 people from one family were killed. Was so sad...the area was small and close knit. Was one of the few times that the island first responders and fire truck were allowed to leave the island to respond to a call.

The silver lining for everyone who lives in tornado territory and wishes all the Californians would quit moving there......well, this year's spell of tornadoes so far has probably convinced us to stay west of Arizona...lol..

We get earthquakes and tornadoes here. The earthquakes in my part of the world have always been pretty minor- a quick rattling of the house and it's over. Many have come and gone and we didn't know about it until we see it on the news.

Tornadoes, on the other hand, always remain scarey. Actually, I think most people around here have a healthy fear of them.

Karen

Well, the truth is that we live where it suits us most of the time, and then put up with the things we don't like some of the time. There is really no perfect place.

I have a lot of "respect" I could say, for tornadoes. I am scared stiff of them and we do get our share here in WI. But they are apart of nature. Natures way if you will, of settling something, being soil, water or air right. We just get in the way. I take warnings and watches very seriously which is oft times met with ridicule from my husband (one who has never actually seen one or been close to one). I lived in Tx. in the late 50's and most of the 60's as a child when these things can make the biggest impression. Having basements in WI, I spend a lot of watches and warnings downstairs.

That being said I was in Cali. in Dec. of 1973 at my great Aunts house in Desert Hot Springs. There was an earthquake, where the chandeliers were swinging, her pictures were being knocked off the wall, knick knacks falling off shelves, Woke her, my great uncle and my grandmother and I slept peacefully through it all. Never knew nothing. I don't know.

kqcrna said:We get earthquakes and tornadoes here. The earthquakes in my part of the world have always been pretty minor- a quick rattling of the house and it's over. Many have come and gone and we didn't know about it until we see it on the news.

Tornadoes, on the other hand, always remain scarey. Actually, I think most people around here have a healthy fear of them.

Karen

I grew up in Manila, where we have our fair share of earthquakes, both tectonic and volcanic in origin, and either way it still rattles my nerves. Have lived thru a shower of volcanic ash when Mt. Pinatubo erupted even though our city was over 100 miles away. We do not have tornadoes there but we do have typhoon cyclones that come barging in, plus the heavy moonsoon rains that really feels like a typhoon at times. Our country is not attached to any big continent, just a group of islands forming an archipelago that just have to brave all the typhoons that forms from the Pacific ocean, so pretty much we just have to learn to bear it anyway we can and help others in any manner possible as well. It does become a big issue too that our small country has such a dense population, so any damage is felt hundreds of times over. And since I have left Manila, the flooding that ensues after typhoons are getting more frequent and on areas of the country that do not use to suffer that. Temperature over there has been much warmer too from what I can recall, being able to visit them in late June to Aug 2011, it is not the temperature that I remember growing up, global warming at its most evident for me.

Thus I have learned to really take heed when nature turns her wrath. No way really to fight it at times but just to try and survive it in one piece, and with the grace of God, he helps us all. Living in Cali, another earthquake prone area, so far have felt the minor shakes from time to time, just grateful everytime it ends and everything else seems okay, and hope it stays that way. And for those in tornado alley and in hurricane prone area, it is what it is..just have to keep on rebuilding and carrying on with life. Indeed no perfect world, but home is where our hearts and families are

On Friday morning I was out working in my yard. It was overcast and rumbling and 'spitting' a bit. At a certain point the siren to warn people to get off the golf course went off - this is common in the summer months when we have frequent thunderstorms but less so at this time of year. I looked to the sky and thought, maybe I better get inside, but let me just plant this one last plant in case we get rain, it will be so grateful. So I did, and a few minutes later I went inside. Less than two minutes after there was an incredibly violent downpour with horizontal rain and very strong (hurricane force to my eye) winds. The power went off.
It lasted less than 4 minutes. We had about 3 inches off water standing on our lanai, and when I came outside I realized that literally THOUSANDS of the huge Royal Palm fronds were littering the streets. It turned out there had been a waterspout - then tornado, directly over our area. It stayed at tree top level and did its most damage there, or our house could have been blown to smithereens.
THIS is why I fear tornadoes. There was absolutely NOTHING to indicate that anything this violent was about to descend on us. If I had dawdled a little longer outside I could well have been hurt by flying debris.
The cleanup is still ongoing. Those palm fronds are huge and heavy.

I fear them very much too, we go into the bathroom at the center of the house with our cat and a flashlight and pray our hearts out .

Earthquakes are no problem, but my worst fear here is wildfires which have increasingly become a constant threat. Evacuating with 7 cats is not so easy and I keep crates and carriers in one spot, ready to go. I've found that after the two fires here in town in the last years, my peace of mind is gone during dry weather and fire season here is mostly year round now. We've been here 30 years and it's beautiful here, but when we move, it will be to an area that does not carry such a threat.

Hetty, that must have been very scary, I'm glad that you and your house are ok.

Having lived in So.Cal. my entire life, earthquakes STILL scare the #@(% out of me. Luckily I haven't personally been affected by them, but I know people who have. Ya just never know.......
My dad was in a hurricane off Guam in WWII while in the navy and after that he wouldn't get on ANY ocean-going craft.

mcash70 said:Hetty, that must have been very scary, I'm glad that you and your house are ok.

Wow!!!

mcash70 said:Hetty, that must have been very scary, I'm glad that you and your house are ok.

Sherry, I keep cat carriers handy too in case we have to go into the under-the-stairs tornado closet with five cats. I discovered years ago when we had three cats, that two was the most I could throw into a closet and keep there, even when the radio was warning us to take cover. When I opened the door a crack to put the last one in, the other two hit it at a run and escaped. By then, fortunately, the tornado had turned south and missed us.

I grew up in Midland and then Lubbock and still lived in Lubbock in 1970 when the big one passed right over our house before touching down and making a mile-wide path through downtown and NE Lubbock. It slammed every window in our house shut at once about 9:45 in the evening and ripped the electric meter off the back of the house. We went to my parents' home about a mile away because they still had electricity and television. When the excited young announcer said there were three more funnels to the south headed our way and told everyone to take cover and pray, we got in the car and drove west about thirty miles until the storms passed. Later the announcer apologized and said what he saw on the radar was blips made by three large towers.

Now that I don't have a toddler and another on the way, I am not so jumpy about storms, but I do have frequent nightmares that tornadoes are pursuing me and I am trying to protect a large group of people. If I lived in an earthquake or hurricane prone area, I imagine the nightmares would be a bit different.

Thanks, everyone. Patricia, my DH is from Lubbock and he was there for that 'big one' too.
We never get tornadoes here so it was quite a shock.
Normally the city picks up our green trash on Mondays but they have been totally overwhelmed today and my pile is still by the road...but that is a minor inconvenience by comparison of what could have been!