Forgot about those.
Bought myself a big K’Nex toy on my way home and was waiting for a bus outside the store when the snow started. Spent the week putting the toy together.
True that the derecho wasn’t so bad in other areas. Some nearby stores got power back before we did so we picked up a couple bags of ice and kept the fridge cool with them. Only lost a pack of lunch meat.
One mild earthquake
Within half a mile of tornados twice–once while driving on the interstate
Flew out of Bonaire a week before a hurricane took out the docs I’d just been diving off of
Was in Moscow when it got so hot that half the city lost power.
Did it catch you?
I live in New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy was quite an event.
Nope we turned 90[sup]o[/sup] to it’s apparent heading. It seemed to turn after us but was falling behind.
I hope this doesn’t seem insensitive, but I keep thinking of this chasing you, and it is giving me fits of giggles.
Carry on.
That’s him! The little fucker. Ruined a good fishing spot. 
A few tornados hit relatively close to my house(s) while I was living in Miami.
One of those summers, it rained for 16h every day. On the clock, 7:45 to 23:45. Swiss-made rain, man… except for the day the Uni was closed due to a hurricane warning, which was beautifully sunny. We later found out that we’d been in the eye of the storm. Whatever, it still was sunny and beautiful, and the campus empty except for graduate students.
The year I was living in Philly, a blizzard hit the area just in time for President’s Day; my own company told people to not try coming in unless they were sure it would be safe. I lived 6 blocks away from our office on Liberty Mall so I went in, walking down the middle of snow-filled, barely-passable Market. A couple of days later my brother called me, angrily asking how come I hadn’t told them I was “being published”. UhwhawherehowEIN? I’d seen the article about the blizzard in our local newspaper which mistakenly said that since it was a national holiday, many businesses would have been closed anyway so it wasn’t so bad as in any other day; I’d written to the editor explaining the difference between an American “federal holiday” and a Spanish “national holiday”, and my letter had been published - but hey, they don’t let you know in advance 
Also forgot about the 5.3 that hit while I was at work.
I had a funnel cloud pass directly over my head a few years ago. I heard the tornado sirens go off, and like a fool I ran outside to look for it. I looked up and there it was, right over my head. Talk about an “oh shit” moment. I don’t go outside when the sirens go off anymore.
Hm, some blizzard in 1966 shut down the southern tier of western NY state for a couple weeks - it wouldn’t normally have been that bad but my brother had the mother of a case of pneumonia - my mom had to pack him in the big tub in snow until someone could bring the doctor and his bag of meds in on a snowmobile. [old 1890s bathtub, the kind that is about 7 feet long and 2 feet deep. I miss practically swimming in that tub:(]
In 1982/83 winter, I decided to drive from Rochester NY to Springfield OH. When I started out it was mostly clear with a few little flurries. 4 hours later into the 2 hour drive to the Pennsylvania/Ohio border it became rather murkily clear that I was definitely in a storm. 13 hours later in the 6 hour drive to Springfield I finally managed to get to Charlie’s apartment. For pretty much the entire drive between Cleveland and Springfield the only people I saw were cops and snowplows. Who knew a 74 mustang could effectively plow snow with the front bumper …
[luckily I drove with chains, a shovel and a couple of emergency valve kits - cylinder and ton sizes - as weight.] I got stuck there for the entire week instead of just spending a weekend as the storm shut the east coast down.
Summer, 1986 Hurricane Charlie. I went to work in the morning as usual, figuring they would be probably telling us to clear out as we had no trucks available to rent out, my condo [Chesapeake House, mouth of the Lynnhaven Inlet in Va Beach] had been told to pack up and evacuate. My bosses told me I had to work the normal day. [Bullshit.] I loaded my cash drawer and days paperwork in the safe, locked up and left after calling them and telling them there was no way in hell I was going to sit there with the parking lot under a foot of water while my BF evacuated up to Dillwyn. Oddly enough I didn’t lose my job. :dubious: Sliding door on the condo got hit by some debris [up on the 6th floor oceanside] and some furniture got ruined. Renters insurance rocks.
Hurricane Hugo - Sept 1989, mrAru had leave to visit his sister so we planned to drive. As we were getting ready to leave the sub called and told him he had to give up leave and they were pulling out in 8 hours:smack: so I evacuated myself to a friend up in Richmonds place for a few days.
So we try again. Off we set driving into the sunset. So we get to whichever pass it is over the mountains into California from Utah [Donner?] and look at the time and decide not to try and hit San Francisco to do one of my bucket list things of driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. We would head back and do it in combination with a drive down the PCH to LA. October 17th was a really bad day for trying to do San Francisco:smack: The visit to his family was nice, it is wonderful to actually have a mother-in-law that I actually get along with. Next on the visit list is his father and step-monster. Over the Grapevine we go, through a touch of wildfire :eek: though Disneyland is a blast. On the way home we stop in Lafayette Louisianna and get some absolutely killer cracklings, and then head to New Orleans. We have to change our destination because the KOA we were planning to stay in had 6 inches of standing water and more was pouring down - some tropical storm or another was centered over NO, so we stayed in a hotel instead of trying to swim in our sleep. We headed home from there - who knew that Nashville has a radio station that plays nothing but Elvis … and managing to not crunch into the back end of a 20 car pile up in South Carolina we made it home safely. We refer to it as the Natural Disaster Tour of 1989.
Hurricane Beryl in 1994 took out the electricity in Ct for a couple of weeks where we were. Same with Bertha in 96. Floyd in 99. Gordon in 2000. Screw it, I am tired of discussing hurricanes and the shitty ability for Connecticut to keep electricity flowing to the house. 
And I am tired of bitching about the blizzards and not even blizzards that knock out the power to Connecticut. Assholes at CL&P neglected basic maintenance on the rural eastern CT lines for the past 15 years and cut the manpower on the repair crews.
Oh, and one Pennsic I was camping with Bloodguard on the Serengetti when a tornsdo touched down around 1000 feet or so away.
Sandy dropped the neighbours’ tree on top of my car last year, maybe half an hour after I got home from work. Fortunately, the only damage to my house was a broken slat and a little scuffed paint on the porch railing.
Our apartment building in Hoboken was surrounded by about 2-3 feet of water during Hurricane Sandy.
I was 5 when a huge blizzard hit here, right on Thanksgiving of 1950. Luckily, we were expecting quite a few guests, who all had to cancel. So we had plenty to eat during the several days of being housebound. There were snow drifts up to our 2nd-floor windows, and I remember my father pushing out the front door and tunneling through to the street. We lived on a quiet side street, and only one lane was plowed, with mountains of snow on either side. We kids would climb up to the top and slide down into the street. For the kids, it was an adventure. Glad I wasn’t an adult then.
Back in the mid-80s I was in a hurricane that struck Long Island. I had an apartment right on the beach, and was the only person in the building not to evacuate (I didn’t want to leave my cats alone, and they were terrified). Though the building was constructed of concrete blocks, it shook in the high winds. The storm removed much of the boardwalk, and all the sand from the beach was blown inward. People went out afterwards to collect fish and other seafood from what used to be the beach. But the most amazing thing was when the eye past over the area, there were monarch butterflies in it.
Which “god” do you mean? The Judeo-Christian chap, Thor, Cthulu, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Raiden, The Holy Burrito, Nuggan, Offler, Blind Io, The Great Green Arkleseziure? Zeus? Athena?
Closest extreme physical natural events I have been close to were a direct lightning strike on one of our pine trees (probably Thor or Raiden) and the most recent Maine Earthquake
Just go with the one with the surname Damn.
You know those Hurricane Andrew photos that show block after block of homes that have been completely demolished? That’s where I lived, and my family decided to ride out the storm in our house.
All these posts are morbidly, wonderfully fascinating and I could comment on every one, but…Monarch butterflies? In the eye of a hurricane? I’ll never forget that image.
5.2 quake in which I thought the Russians were bombing us.
A few blizzards, one where I had to be rescued by a cowboy.
Heatwave! Killed about 1700 people and I was living without air conditioning. Hosed myself frequently.
A tornado where I just stood and drooled and said “Is there a problem? I think there’s a problem. Something’s happening.”
Another tornado which I was too drunk to notice.
I had a tornado scare while driving home from work once. It wasn’t that close to me, but it sure as hell felt like it, and I was terrified.
Oh, and Hurricane Irene dropped a tree on my house. It ripped off the gutters and bent the eaves but the roof held, thank goodness.