On a scale of 1-9 (1 low) rank these events in each of these three categories:
a) frequency of having happened in the past 5 years at your current location
b) likelihood of happening in the future 5 years at your current location
c) your own fear/trepidation that it might happen to you
Now, how are we supposed to calculate this? :dubious:
I reckon the likelihood of some of these things happening to my location is zero, such as rockslide (ya gotta have rocks first). Looking at this map, it looks as though my highest risk is from severe storms (36% of federally declared disasters from 1964-2007). Second is flood (24%) and third is hurricane (17%). In order, the others are Tornado, Other, Severe Ice Storm (really!), Snow, Fire, and Freezing.
That’s only for federally declared disasters, though. If I wanted to calculate the frequency of these things over time I’d need data to tell me when each occurence happened. Then I could calculate the probability of that happening over the next five years.
But I have no fear/trepidation about natural disasters. That’s just part of life.
Reasonable issue/question. What I was trying to get at was that even if something like a flood or a mudslide had happened in your vicinity in the past 5 years, what do you see the odds are of it happening again in 5 years time?
Also, I must not have been clear that I was hoping to see something along the lines of:
Tornado 6/6/9
Hurricane 1/1/1
Flood 5/5/3
Which would convey:
Tornados rank pretty high in both past and future occurrence and highest in my own fear ranking
Hurricanes are unlikely and I’m not all that scared of them even if they were
Floods are about midway on the scale of happenings and I’m mildly afraid of them
As to your closing point, that’s a very healthy and wise attitude. My best to you.
In retrospect, I apologize for getting all data-ninja on you. I s’pose by now it’s deeply ingrained in my thought patterns, because a major portion of my career involves floodplain studies and floodplain management.
Thanks for the compliment. 
I give everything a zero in every category.
Gotta love Sydney!
tornado 1/1
lightning strike within 100 yards of you 2/1
flood 7/1
avalanche 1/1
mudslide or rockslide 4/2
cave-in 1/1
earthquake 4/2
hurricane 1/1
wildfire or forest fire 9/2
I ignored the future predictions, because I think they match the past events in every case. I didn’t give any zeros because your scale didn’t allow it, but tornadoes, significant lightning, avalanche, cave-in, and hurricane are all geographically or geologically impossible (or at least astoundingly unlikely here). My part of Oregon gets maybe a dozen bolts of lightning a decade, so that one’s almost but not completely impossible.
The others: (wildfire, earthquake, and mudslide) are basically the standard ones out here (3000 earthquakes a year, supposedly, although I’ve not actually FELT more than one minor one in the last five): I live on the side of a significant hill, so mudslide is perhaps more of an issue for me. In any case, I’m insured against all of these, but they pose a small amount of bodily risk, hence the "2"s.
Flood is the oddball – big floods occur out here regularly, but they’re mere inconvenciences- well-managed and won’t personally affect me on my hillside. I can’t remember anyone every dying in one, for example.
I think you might get interesting results if you added: “automobile accident” to the list, incidentally.
I don’t have any objections to other calamities being added. In fact, I did mean to include the option of “add you own” in the OP.
For my personal opinion, I don’t put car accidents or other vehicle accidents (shipwrecks, train wrecks, plane crashes, motorcycle wrecks, etc.) in the “acts of God” group. They may well be, but the human factor outweighs the random chance and uncontrollable factor as I see it.
But don’t let my choice slow you down.
The latter is a bold statement. Have you ever been through one?
It would appear that you know well of which you speak. The sink-hole issue is one I know pretty well. On the way home from work one day, at a stoplight, I happened inadvertently to switch lanes as I approached the light. Good thing I did: the section of street in the other lane was gone! A good 10X10’ section was just gone and I could see at least 15’ down into a hole that is really hard to explain except the pavement had been on top of a sinkhole and apparently not much else. No telling how many such places there are around here.
My lack of fear of hurricanes has more to do with the lack of lightning. Wind and rain I can accept but lightning gives me the willies. But to answer your question: No. Never have. This far inland all we get is the rain from them, and I have yet to be on the coast when one comes through. The closest to the real deal I have been was in Florida in 1998 or 9 when we were headed from Sarasota to Orlando and one was crossing the state at roughly that time. Beaucoup rain, moderate winds, couldn’t see more than 20-30’ ahead on I-4, but I was more worried about traffic than the storm.