Have you ever been through a natural disaster?

I've been thru a few earthquakes, since I live in So.Cal. I don't remember when they were, but the last one I remember that was a 'big' one, was in like 1994 or something like that. I believe it was the Northridge quake. I know it caused some major damage, but fortunately we didn't have any damage or injuries. We just stayed home for the next two days or so from school. I can't remember much more after that.

In Samoa, November-February is hurricane season and we were unfortunate to be in one two years ago. It wasn't as strong as previous years but it was bad enough that our power was out for almost a week (I think a little more than a week). There was a lot of damage to the surrounding property (trees fallen, power line damage, floods in the main town area that were up to waist high). The wind and rain was horrific at times and the house would shake and it would feel like the roof was about to come off. My neighbour had a gas burner and we were able to boil water for hot drinks, or warm up baby bottles for our children. We were also able to cook simple foods together and keep several coolers stacked with ice to keep our milk and other refridgerated items fresh and cold before the ice started melting. It was ok during the day but at nights we would light up a few candles in the main living area, put our mattresses down on the floor and sleep there together. My hubby had a laptop that was fully charged, so we were able to watch a few dvds on it to entertain the kids. We were not allowed to leave our homes until the hurricane had surpassed. The offices downtown were flooded and many had their rooftops missing or left with big gaping holes in them. Alot of businesses lost electronic equipment and a few had to close down because they did not have the means or funds to rebuild their businesses.

I've been through several tornadoes. The worst one was in 2003. We didn't have electricity for 9 days at our house. But at least we still had a house, which was better than over half of our town. The house behind ours was gone. It was so weird coming out of the shelter and seeing that! The only damage we had was a branch through my sister's bedroom window and some shingles torn off the roof. We also had some mail in our yard from about 25 miles away. There was a letter that was actually stuck halfway in the branch that went through my sister's window. My hometown has been hit TWO more times since then, too. Neither of them has been as bad, though.

I live in northern texas which is part of what they call "tornado alley" so we are always having storms and tornados and all. Not tornados touching down all the time, but enough from me being born and raised here that it's not really a huge deal anymore. I have been thru ONE huge tornado in 1979. It was called Terrible Tuesday, April 10, 1979. I was 9 years old and remember it like it was yesterday. Me and a friend were at the local ceramic shop painting a dog when the sirens went off. The shop owner told us to go to my friend's house which was the closest...it was across a 4 lane highway! LOL (She was a nice lady sending 2 9 yr olds out in a tornado by themselves!). :) Anyhow, we went to my friend's house and her mom was gone...looking for us. My mom was also out looking for us! Long story short...they found us and we went home. My dad got there and he wanted to outrun it! BAD IDEA!!! We started down the street and looked over and saw this HUGE tornado on the ground coming straight at us! My dad turned us around and went right back home! It was hailing SOOO bad and it was so big that my dad had a box in the back of the van and we had to put it over our heads to get in the house. Me and my sister (5 at the time) got in the bathtub and my mom threw a mattress over us. My mom and dad went outside to watch the clouds! It was so loud and so scary. They came back in and got in the tub with us and then it was over. It skipped over our block and the block in front of it, but destroyed everything else in our neighborhood! After the tornado, we had flooding BADLY! We had a huge culvert in the alley and it was overflowing into our yards. The streets were almost knee high! We had so much fun! LOL Anyhwo, that's my story of the biggest storm I was ever in.

During the flood of '93 my town got hit pretty bad as it's right on a river. Lucky for us, not only did we live in the country, but our house was on a hill! I remember my friend's house flooding, though, and that they had to canoe in to their own home to try to salvage their stuff. Other than that, I've been through lots of tornadoes... one was right by our house. I remember seeing it out the window before we all ran down to the basement. I was maybe 6 years old, huddled with my mom, dad, older brother and baby brother. Another tornado happened while I was a counselor at camp. We all got into the showers with mattresses over our heads, then someone radioed down to us and we had to run through the hail to the mess hall where the police met us and evacuated. We spent the night sleeping on the floor of the court house! That was so scary I threw up from the adrenaline! In Guatemala I felt several minor earthquakes, but nothing disastrous. I also saw a bit of lava dripping down a volcano there, which was beautiful, but intimidating. Let's see... oh.. probably some of the worst experiences I had with nature were blizzard related. Our power would go out and we couldn't get out due to the ice and snow. I remember how cold our house would get, and my mom trying to heat water over candles! I grew up in northern Missouri, so we get all kinds of weather, from super bad hail storms, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, sleet, you name it. Missouri is also on a fault line which hasn't been a problem yet, but who knows???

I am a lucky girl because I have never been through a natural disaster in my life.But mu country has been saveral disaster.As i heard there was a earthquake that was very awful happened before i was born.And some flood happens in some sity.Usually,when the disaster happens,I will sent some closthes and money to the people who are through the disaster.

i was liveing in florida when hurrican andrew hit dade county.thank god i was on the east coast.but fort myers fl still had warnings an we had to live an go upstate florida.to get out of harms ways.we ended up spending the night at a rest park because all the hotels were full.the next morning we went to saint pete fl. an they had a long high bridge we crossed an we thought the wind was going to blow us off the bridge. that was scary.after that we ended up moveing back to another state. i dont want no part of any earthquakes or any other disaster.i feel sorry for those that has to.i hope everyone keeps safe..

in other provinces they experienced tsunami, earthquakes but in the place where i lived we only experience typhoons but worsed than that we havent experience thank god. after a typhoon we have to clean up all the mess. some part of our house was gone and almost all parts of the house are wet.

I live on the east coast of the US. We have hurricanes every year. I have lived through many. We have some bad blizzards. We have even had a few tornadoes and earthquakes. So yeah I have lived through some natural disasters.

hi mememama No I've not and thank God for that! I lived in Singapore and we are a small country located out of any earthquake belt, we do not have any volcanos and although an island, we are shelter by bigger countries in our surroundings.

Where I live the only natural disaster are hurricanes and they are few and far between. I do remember a really bad one when I was about five years old. We had some very bad flooding where entire streets were under water and once we had an earthquake, but it didn't do any damage. I feel so bad for people who live in parts of the country and the world where natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes have taken away homes and lives.