What is the worst disaster to ever strike where you live?
- Thread starter A_Parked_Car
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My example certainly won't hold water to yours. There was a flash flood in my hometown two years ago that ruined my sister's basement and went up to my knees when I was walking across the road. I know it doesn't compare at all but it is the worst local disaster ever to effect this town to my knowledge.Marter said:
Hello, fellow Calgarian. I was wondering if anyone would make a thread on this :S Yes, Calgary is pretty much safe from every natural disaster, so it's easy to say this is the worst. Made for an interesting day today. I live in the far east in the centre where it's pretty safe, so I'm glad for that. Also I work downtown so I got the day off... If only I had known before getting up super early and getting all ready to leave, buuuut I guess I shouldn't complain since I had it pretty easy.A_Parked_Car said:
Uh...
A few weeks ago there was a very minor earthquake where I live. Although my mom had to tell me about it since I didn't actually feel it.
...
That's really it I think.
I guess the biggest disaster that actually hit us closest to home was Hurricane Katrina. My grandmother used to live down where it happened and she was in the thick of it. Thankfully, she got out alright. Although her home was completely destroyed.
A few weeks ago there was a very minor earthquake where I live. Although my mom had to tell me about it since I didn't actually feel it.
...
That's really it I think.
I guess the biggest disaster that actually hit us closest to home was Hurricane Katrina. My grandmother used to live down where it happened and she was in the thick of it. Thankfully, she got out alright. Although her home was completely destroyed.
The worst thing here was probably in my area is an ash storm from volcanic eruptions. Seriously, as much as I complain about Eastern Washington being a fucking desert, not much happens here. Hell, on the western side of the state, you run the risk of serious flooding, but here even the floods aren't that bad.
Now when I lived outside of Austin, Texas... holy shit. Large floods, massive tornadoes, and the worst (but coolest looking) thunderstorms I have ever seen. That with the large variety of dangerous animals (not Australia dangerous, mind you) in the lesser developed areas, I certainly have no reservations about leaving.
Now when I lived outside of Austin, Texas... holy shit. Large floods, massive tornadoes, and the worst (but coolest looking) thunderstorms I have ever seen. That with the large variety of dangerous animals (not Australia dangerous, mind you) in the lesser developed areas, I certainly have no reservations about leaving.
Arson. We have one building (Low-income housing, nicknamed "the Crackshack" because of the concentration of hard drugs users) that got burned down when I was in 8th grade. Was rebuilt when I was in 10th. Before I graduated, it burned down again. It's been rebuilt again, hasn't burned down yet.
More recently, we had a historic building burn to the ground (6 years on, we still don't know what where doing with the land), followed by one of the local bars (still down, no word on a rebuilding attempt), and an attempt on a Burger King. Finally caught the guy, who said he was trying to burn buildings down according to the alphabet, like one for each letter.
Natural disaster wise, we have heavy rains and some wind damage now and again, and were part of a blizzard back in '92 or '93, but really nothing really noteworthy.
More recently, we had a historic building burn to the ground (6 years on, we still don't know what where doing with the land), followed by one of the local bars (still down, no word on a rebuilding attempt), and an attempt on a Burger King. Finally caught the guy, who said he was trying to burn buildings down according to the alphabet, like one for each letter.
Natural disaster wise, we have heavy rains and some wind damage now and again, and were part of a blizzard back in '92 or '93, but really nothing really noteworthy.
Hurricane Fucking Andrew. Scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. I have aftermath pictures that give me chills.
There was a massive bushfire about 50 years ago that spread across a large area of South Australia and Victoria. Apparently the flame were visible from urban areas which is very very rare. Apart from that though there hasn't really been any disasters. We're overdue for a big earthquake though.
Nothing terrible, just annoying. There are two I will never forget.
First was a giant dust storm that stuck around for a week and made it very dangerous to drive as well as even walking.
Two, a slight earthquake that caused a bit of damage with constant shaking for about a minute that made things fall off shelves all over Bentleigh.
First was a giant dust storm that stuck around for a week and made it very dangerous to drive as well as even walking.
Two, a slight earthquake that caused a bit of damage with constant shaking for about a minute that made things fall off shelves all over Bentleigh.
Our government...
No,seriously, i'm not trying to be snarky or anything, but Hungary is sitting in a particular part of the world where basically no natural disasters happen. Ever. Closest we ever got was the red-sludge incident, when some factory had a malfunction in their waste disposal and this thick, toxic red goo flooded a large part of the country. (yep, you read that right. We're not too big to begin with).
But even that wasn't as destructive as the massive cunts who've been making decisions about the nation for the past decade or so.
That's why I dislike political jokes. I've seen too many get elected.
No,seriously, i'm not trying to be snarky or anything, but Hungary is sitting in a particular part of the world where basically no natural disasters happen. Ever. Closest we ever got was the red-sludge incident, when some factory had a malfunction in their waste disposal and this thick, toxic red goo flooded a large part of the country. (yep, you read that right. We're not too big to begin with).
But even that wasn't as destructive as the massive cunts who've been making decisions about the nation for the past decade or so.
That's why I dislike political jokes. I've seen too many get elected.
The biggest disaster as far as I can tell that has struck my area (besides ships hitting rocks and sinking, there used to be a really big port back in the day) was a pirate attack well over a century ago.
It was the only pirate attack against California in history.
We went through all the Earthquakes perfectly fine (the buildings are built on solid beadrock, not the sand like San Fransisco), weather is some of the calmest (and most boring) in the world, don't have many factories or organized crime. The only thing that has come close has been a few "controlled" fires that went out of controlled, and I am pretty sure those didn't cause any deaths, only causing sickness from the ash in the air.
Really, nothing really happens around here. >_>
It was the only pirate attack against California in history.
We went through all the Earthquakes perfectly fine (the buildings are built on solid beadrock, not the sand like San Fransisco), weather is some of the calmest (and most boring) in the world, don't have many factories or organized crime. The only thing that has come close has been a few "controlled" fires that went out of controlled, and I am pretty sure those didn't cause any deaths, only causing sickness from the ash in the air.
Really, nothing really happens around here. >_>
Hey there. Yeah, when I heard there was some flooding last night, I didn't think much of it. I thought it was the more typical "people living right beside the Elbow River got their basements flooded" kind of flooding. Luckily I don't live near any of the flooding either. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary until I went to Superstore this morning to pick up some microwave popcorn and ice cream, only to find people stocking up like it was the apocalypse. That was when I finally decided to go home and see what was actually going on.TakeyB0y2 said:
Washington state.
1)We had a month-long power-out in the dead of winter.
Homes that had no firewood for their fireplaces or had chimneys so unkempt with plantlife & nests that they were a fire hazard had to live in hotels or with friends & relatives.
Between the ice on the roads & lack of functioning traffic lights, getting to work was a joke. Some places had to call off work or have people work from home because most of the employees lived an hour away from work.
Some schools were let off because they couldn't be kept heated, so these kids had to stay in school for part of summer break.
A lot of really dumb people accidently killed their families with carbon monoxide poisoning through stunts like barbecuing in the garage or letting the car heat up with the garage door shut.
I was doing a coffee/mail run when I noticed water on the street spilling onto the sidewalks & not the other way around. I had to go to all 8 buildings of the business & tell people to go home early if the didn't want to spend the night under their desks.
2)The autumn flood.
The rain just wouldn't stop & the storm drains were blocked up with leaves.
3)The ice storm.
Nobody went to work or school until the ice melted. No deliveries were made to stores for a few days.
Some peoples' cars were completely encased in layers of ice & they couldn't get the doors open.
Surely any pets that happened to be missing during the storm perished. Even the local coyote population plummeted.
Trees were encased in 3 inch layers of solid ice. 3 of the trees in our front yard lost all of their branches due to the weight of the ice. Our yard was covered in branches. A neighbor saw me trying to move the branches, suckers must have weighed 100lb, he was nice enough to come by with an axe & help me chop up all the wood.
1)We had a month-long power-out in the dead of winter.
Homes that had no firewood for their fireplaces or had chimneys so unkempt with plantlife & nests that they were a fire hazard had to live in hotels or with friends & relatives.
Between the ice on the roads & lack of functioning traffic lights, getting to work was a joke. Some places had to call off work or have people work from home because most of the employees lived an hour away from work.
Some schools were let off because they couldn't be kept heated, so these kids had to stay in school for part of summer break.
A lot of really dumb people accidently killed their families with carbon monoxide poisoning through stunts like barbecuing in the garage or letting the car heat up with the garage door shut.
I was doing a coffee/mail run when I noticed water on the street spilling onto the sidewalks & not the other way around. I had to go to all 8 buildings of the business & tell people to go home early if the didn't want to spend the night under their desks.
2)The autumn flood.
The rain just wouldn't stop & the storm drains were blocked up with leaves.
3)The ice storm.
Nobody went to work or school until the ice melted. No deliveries were made to stores for a few days.
Some peoples' cars were completely encased in layers of ice & they couldn't get the doors open.
Surely any pets that happened to be missing during the storm perished. Even the local coyote population plummeted.
Trees were encased in 3 inch layers of solid ice. 3 of the trees in our front yard lost all of their branches due to the weight of the ice. Our yard was covered in branches. A neighbor saw me trying to move the branches, suckers must have weighed 100lb, he was nice enough to come by with an axe & help me chop up all the wood.
Yeaaah, I think a lot of people were SERIOUSLY overreacting to this. I mean, yeah, it's horrible, but really, I think as long as you weren't in an evacuated neighborhood, you're gonna be totally fine. It doesn't help that there's a lot of misinformation going around with rumors spreading that they're gonna shut the water down, despite actual city officials saying that our water systems are fine but we should consider conserving a bit more at the moment.A_Parked_Car said:
My thoughts exactly! I was with a friend in Superstore and we both thought it was just silly. I didn't even get my ice cream and popcorn, because the lines were so long that we concluded it wasn't worth waiting. The only thing I did was boil one kettle's worth of water just in case a 'boil water' order materialized, which it never did.TakeyB0y2 said:
The worst I have been in was the october ice storm of 06-07. It knocked out the power for 2 weeks where I lived, with temperatures as low as -20. Even thought there were driving bands my family had to leave our home because of it. Lucky for us my grandpa said we could stay with him until we got the power back, so we packed up our things, got the cats, got the dog and left in the family vehicle.
Living at my grandpa's for 2 weeks was fine, it was the damage that was the worst part of it. When we got home there was a massive tree brach in my vehicle windshield. Also another tree branch went threw the sunroom window. Our backyard had a gazebo set on the patio that was cemented into the stone, the winds were so harsh it blew it two houses down and ripped up the stone. we had to throw all our food out from the refrigerator. Also all our fish in our 80 gallon fish tank froze to death. We ended up spending another night while my dad fixed the window in the house and got the heat working. While they were cleaning up our town we found out 3 people passed away because they couldn't get heat to there homes.
It was a horrible experience, for the whole town, my family and myself.
Living at my grandpa's for 2 weeks was fine, it was the damage that was the worst part of it. When we got home there was a massive tree brach in my vehicle windshield. Also another tree branch went threw the sunroom window. Our backyard had a gazebo set on the patio that was cemented into the stone, the winds were so harsh it blew it two houses down and ripped up the stone. we had to throw all our food out from the refrigerator. Also all our fish in our 80 gallon fish tank froze to death. We ended up spending another night while my dad fixed the window in the house and got the heat working. While they were cleaning up our town we found out 3 people passed away because they couldn't get heat to there homes.
It was a horrible experience, for the whole town, my family and myself.
I live in the New York Tri-State area.
I'm not trying to be facetious here, but where would I ever start?
I'm not trying to be facetious here, but where would I ever start?
Normally, this is where I make an "lol Edmonton rulez Calgary droolz" comment, but seriously, that flooding is SCARY. You're all in my prayers, if nothing else. Hopefully no one here had their house carried off by the water.
Since I'm farther north than the flooding, I guess I'll stick with Black Friday, 1987, before I was born.
<img width=500>http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/tornado.jpg?w=940
My parents left town that night. They say that the sky turned green and purple, and they didn't know what was going on. When they got to Lethbridge, there was a minor celebration because they thought my parents had been caught in it.
It missed their apartment by two blocks.
Since I'm farther north than the flooding, I guess I'll stick with Black Friday, 1987, before I was born.
<img width=500>http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/tornado.jpg?w=940
My parents left town that night. They say that the sky turned green and purple, and they didn't know what was going on. When they got to Lethbridge, there was a minor celebration because they thought my parents had been caught in it.
It missed their apartment by two blocks.