Poll: Natural disaster

[knight steel]

Which is the worst and why do you think so?
Also have you ever been in a natural disaster if so tell your story!
If you haven't tell us what your plan is and how you think your would do?

As for me my answer's are:
Floodrowning sounds horrible and I'm not a good swimmer.
I've never been in a disaster But my plan is to stick to my family no matter what ^_^.

 

[Shinsei-J]

Bush fires.
Once one has started no where is safe except for any where but.
There's Story's of people in underground bunkers being almost boiled alive in the air they breath and people jumping in water tanks to escape the fire actually being boiled alive.
The worst part, unlike other disasters, it can be started by people.

 

[BoogieManFL]

While others can be more.destructive, I think Wildfires are terrible because the insane amount of land can be consumed by them. Thousands upon thousands of acres and homes. And you know wildlife dies aling with ancient trees. And they are sometimes started by someone being stupid. And they can last days. But they're all horrible and it really depends on how the circumstances.

As for what I've experienced, I've been in two hurricanes as I live in central Florida. The rain is just insane. And hearing your home creak and seeing the windows bow in slightly with the winds is crazy. Followed by days of no power around for miles. I have never seen darker nights with no moonlight coming through and no manmade lights around. So little light thst your nightvision barely does anything. It was weird seeing miles of trees, walls, plants, and anything not a fixed structure all blown down in the same direction. And the sounds of crackling and snapping trees as it approached was scary. We went outside briefly when the eye passed over, it was eerily still and quiet. It took about a year before seeing and hearing birds was common again.

There have been nearby wildfires too. The thick blueish white smoke smells horrible and hangs for days.

 

[Tom_green_day]

The worst part, unlike other disasters, it can be started by people.

Apart from avalanches. There are loads of stories of people starting them.
I'll have to say tsunami. If you're caught in one of those, I have bad news buddy.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

Whichever one you or your loved ones are caught up in.

 

[doggy go 7]

Went with Volcano's, just because they're so unpredictable, and you can't do anything if you're caught up in one (seriously, there's no standard defence against rocks that are so hot that they're ON FIRE).

I live in Britain, so the most likely natural disaster I'm likely to experience is a remarkably rainy day. It's not a probablem I give much thought to is what I'm trying to get accross

Whichever one you or your loved ones are caught up in.

Or this.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I would say a really bad earthquake would be the worst, since a bad earthquake can also jump-start start other natural disasters, like tsunamis, floods, volcanos, etc.

Wildfires tend to be really scary as well, just because of how destructive and difficult to contain they are.

Then again, I'm probably pretty biased, since I live in California and earthquakes and wildfires are the two big natural disasters we deal with around here.

 

[Miss G.]

I live in The Bahamas and we usually get hit by hurricanes before they get to the US. But, like Japan has building codes for earthquakes, we build specifically for hurricanes so other than downed trees and power lines we're relatively ok and better off than our coastal US neighbors after the fact. Some of our outer islands got hit pretty bad last time a hurricane hit us so I guess it was poor building structure in that case. Since I'm over in Florida right now for school, I guess I'll just be smart about storm preparedness and hope nothing happens to my apartment complex.

 

[Lyiat]

Volcanoes are the only disasters listed that have world impacting consequences. The ash actually impacts weather systems and influences climate change.

Also, wildfires really shouldn't be on there. Nature has adapted to the point where they are necessary. To give an example, a few decades back we realized that the Red Wood Forests in Flordia were slowly dying out, and we couldn't find out why. Well, what was happening is that we were getting better and better at fighting forest fires. Red Wood Trees reproduce and spread in the wake of these fires. Without them, they can't replenish themselves.

 

[Colour Scientist]

They all seem pretty unpleasant.

Strong earthquakes and tornados always seem to do horrific damage though.
I'm in Ireland though, we only ever experience extreme mildness.

 

[Angelous Wang]

Avalanches can destroy what is under them.

Wildfires can destroy forests.

Blizzards and Tornados can destory anything in their limited paths.

Earthquakes and Floods can destory citys.

Volcanos can destory anything, including all life on the planet if a super one goes off.

... I think I know which one is the worst?

Plus you can ether prepare for or prepare against all the ohters, with a Volcano all you can do is run or die.

 

[his1nightmare]

I agree to volcanos. There is absolutely no defense against them other than running away, and unlike similarly strong strong disasters (like tornados), nothing effected can be restored. Not even speaking about the fact that they destroy entire areas in a way nuclear explosions do.

Scary little things they are.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I voted wild fires only because where I live, if there's one thing that can destroy your house, it will be a wildfire. I'm sure wildfires aren't the considering the horrible things tornadoes can do like the one that hit Oklahoma recently.

Also since Volcanoes can literally destroy the world if they wanted to as others have pointed out, so they are the worst of the bunch. I just voted wildfires because they are more on my mind as an immediate threat.

 

[Me55enger]

The only Game Dev company on that list I had heard of was Blizzard, so I voted for them.

 

[lacktheknack]

Floods, wildfires and blizzards are things that happen fairly often around here (OK, maybe not the flooding, but it is supposed to happen every century or so... and it just did). None of these things are particularly scary once you live in a location that's prepared to deal with it.

I imagine the exception is volcanoes, so I'll pick that.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Depends. When i was a kid we had a hurricane in the UK in 1988 (i think). Broken windows and fallen trees. I guess it depends on how much you have. A tsunami would be the worst, it wipes clear everything you own.

 

[WolfCross]

Volcanoes by a fair distance. Yellowstone anyone?

Discounting Asteroids and other space nasties ofc.

 

[Raggedstar]

I guess earthquakes. I don't mean little tremors, but biggies. Not only do you have one landscape-changing natural disaster, but you have the potential for others like tsunamis and volcanic eruptions to happen either where you are or somewhere else thousands of kilometers away.

Also, what the hell do you do with an earthquake? While we have equipment to help predict them and we know several problematic fault lines, you can never truly predict when and where they'll happen. Plus, what the fuck do you do when the land under your feet is shaking or possibly cracking and opening up? It's not something you can simply run from. Roads could be blocked or destroyed too. While there are hot spots out there, you can't just decide to live somewhere where you have 0% chance of an earthquake (unless you live in a balloon) and it's not something you can simply stop or find fool-proof shelter with.

 

[McMullen]

Volcanoes are the only disaster type that have ever nearly driven us extinct, the only one listed that can have global consequences, and the only one listed that has, in recorded history, killed thousands of people who were on the opposite side of the world from the actual center of activity.

The only things worse than the biggest volcanic eruptions are extraterrestrial hazards like asteroids and gamma-ray bursts.

Of course, those big eruptions are incredibly rare, but even small eruptions like at Mount St. Helens (yes, that was small) create hazards that are difficult if not impossible to mitigate directly. You can create tornado shelters and make buildings earthquake-resistant, but against some hazards like volcanic landslides, there is really not that much that can be done except to get out of the way.