One of the "novelties" of my cross country journey through life is I have experienced nearly every "natural disaster" known to man, either first hand or in the nearby vacinity.
Earth movement - not exactly a landslide or mud slide, more akin in a strange kind of way to a sink hole. My parents had a new home built in a new housing development. My father, being a professional photographer, took pictures all through the building process from before construction began up until the very end. Shortly after moving in, walls started having cracks appear. Walls were seperating from the foundation. Cracks in the walk way. Very subtle but over time became obvious something was wrong. Eventually, the house was so bad and walls tilted so significantly that the house was condemned. Two days after we moved out, the living room ceiling came down. They ended up tearing down the house and it made national news. I faked sick the day they tore down the house thinking it would be cool. Instead, it was traumatic as the chimney crashed onto my room. My grandparents in Omaha saw me on the NBC Nightly News which covered the story. When my father started looking over the pictures, it was clear that the instability of the hillside was present even before construction began. They sued, and won enough to pay off the remaining mortgage plus a little more. The land remains contruction free to this day, even though the lot has been for sale for decades.
Flood - Yup, but not directly. The washes in Southern California overflowed in the general area where I lived, and came very close to one of my best friend's house. I remember my family driving over to watch as the water raged outside the concrete boundaries, filling fields and rushing under the roadway bridges.
Brush fire - Yup. One came within 500 yards of my house and our housing development was saved largely by the heroics of the farmer who owned the land across the highway from my street. I can still see him on his tracter, with his shirt off and dangling from the back of his pants, driving THROUGH the flames and smoke. Hero doesn't even begin to cover it! And this was on the eve of my 12th birthday. While my parents were putting the silver, insurance papers, treasured photos in the car, all I cared about was my stupid birthday presents. I still remember one was a purple rug in the shape of a foot that I wanted in the worst way!
Earthquake? Yup a magnitude 6.6er on February 9, 1971. We lived about 5 miles from the epicenter. No structural damage, but OY! The mess when the contents of the refrigerator and pantry (that were opposite each other) met in the middle in a big stinking pile on the carpeting in the kitchen. (Never did understand why there was carpeting in the kitchen in the first place.) Wine bottles fell out of the closet, I walked over broken glass to get to my mother and sister in the doorway of my parents bed room. While much was damaged contents-wise, my mother's darn treasured ceramic rooster that was the surving one of a pair (the first of which my sister and I broke while horsing around) did not move an inch. Not a single centimeter. It remained in the exact area where there was a small dust outline. My sister and I found this funny because my mother had been so angry with us for breaking the mate and told us if we broke the other one we would surely be sorry. My most vivid memories were of watching the water slosh out of the toilet, the swinging lamp in the corner of my parents bedroom hitting the walls as it swung, and sleeping for WEEKS afterward in the old Rambler station wagon in the driveway.
Then we moved to Nebraska:
Blizzards - Yup, many of them. And bone numbing cold. But that is not all that special
Tornadoes you ask? Yes...was in my high school when it was hit by a tornado. That tornado eventually grew to be an F4, but my high school sat very near where it initially touched down so it hadn't grown to monster size yet. Still, I was never so terrified as I had just called my mother to come pick me up from track practice and was sure she was caught in it. My mother was stopped from leaving the house by my sister who saw the twin tails drop out of the sky in the area of the high school and start throwing up debris. They joined into one funnel just about where the high school sits. She thought I was dead in the high school, I thought she was surely dead. It was hours before a neighbor who happened to work at the school was able to get me home after going miles out of the way due to the damage around the high school. Still remember the barn that was across from the high school flattened, with horses in the trees and the house build on slab (no basement) that was flattened - almost. The only thing left standing was the interior closet. Yes indeedy, it is the safest place to be if you don't have a basement.
Then, on to Connecticut:
More blizzards and a couple of hurricanes and tropical storms. But, really, those pale in comparison to the earthquake and tornado.
What have I missed? Volcano? Nope, nada. Meteorite strike? Nope. But I am a survivor! Just call me the catastrophe queen!
