I guess the “worst” was a gigantic rain storm and the resulting flash flood in Badlands National Park. It wasn’t one of those where sections of roadway got washed away, but it was pretty damn impressive. Another time we were camping at Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument and a wind storm came through that ripped off big branches off of the cottonwood trees that surrounded our campsite. Now that was scary.
Alaska earthquake, 1964, magnitude 9.2. Our house was knocked off plumb and we had cracks in the yard. A block away it was massive devastation. Close enough for ya?
40 kilometres away from the epicentre of the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake. There was major damage to the buildings we were staying in, and several hundred people died. One of the closest brushes I’ve had with mortality, though at the age of 11 you don’t appreciate that as much. We were on a school trip, and thought the whole adventure of getting home was a blast.
A few hurricanes in MA but they’re usually pretty tame by the time they get here.
Snow storms but none that were bad enough for me to ever be trapped in my house.
The MA 2011 tornado was at EF 3 when it passed through my town. Luckily it avoided my neighborhood. It took out the exit we use to get off 84 and destroyed the body shop we were about to take our Jeep to (they just recently reopened). This one was actually luck. I was supposed to be right in its path exactly when it passed through but I chose to skip an appointment to take an online test (which ended up having its deadline pushed back because of the hurricane).
I’ve had lightening strike about 10’ away from me (I was in a car at a red light and the ringing in my ears and light flashes in my eyes didn’t go away for hours).
One hurricane in Florida.
When I was a kid I was playing football at the local park when it suddenly started pouring with rain. Then lightning struck one of a row of trees along the side of the pitch probably about 50 yards away.
I ran the mile home in about 90 seconds 
(bolding mine)
Twice?! :eek:
You win, IMHO.
I’d have to agree, thread winner here
Wonder if it was Thor, or Raiden? 
Lightening is amazing, isn’t it? I love when I am living somewhere with a deep screened in porch so I can watch storms with no glass blocking the fresh air and ozone! When I was 6 we were at one of the summer houses, the one in Canada watching a storm at night [I vividly remember seeing the sailboat silhouetted by the flashes!] and one of the trees about 15 feet or so from the house got hit and was almost entirely toothpickified by the shock of the sap being instantly turned to steam or whatever causes the explosion of a tree! We just heard the explosion and saw a hugely actinic light and felt a shockwave, which us kids enjoyed, but the adults were busy moving stuff away from the windows and trying to mop up the water that was being forced into the place through the window frames. [the summer house was built in the 1950s and this was in 1967 so it had the old school unopening picture windows with a thinner sash type opening window on each side. The place was effectively a huge open plan space of about 40’x40’ with a thinner 40’x15 back portion away from the water that was the kitchen, the upper stairwell and landing and bathroom. Everything else was effectively glass wall sort of. It was built as the first story above a 2 slip boat house and workshop]
Can I emphasize again how much I love to watch thunderstorms? 
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Canberra_bushfires
2003 bushfires in Canberra. I was actually south of the city on a friends farm with a group of people getting ready for a hike. From our position we could see three huge smoke plumes (SW, W and NW) of our location and we had charred gum leaves falling around us. We prepared the farm as best we could, and as several of our group were with the State Emergency Service and bushfire brigades we contacted the local bushfire unit and offered to help where we could. They had been fighting fires for nearly 20 days straight so we stood to with a skeleton crew while the rest got a solid nights sleep.
At one point during the night I was talking to the brigade captain and we watched the fire-front crest a mountain range about 6 miles away. He looked at me and said: “we`ll stop this one at the ocean”. :eek:
A weather change came through and saved our butts.
Got back home the next morning once the main highway reopened. I didn’t even know if I had a house, the last report I had heard before the phones and radio went out was that my suburb had been put on a high threat alert. It was still standing, lots of burned leaves about. Drove to my parents place - no power, no traffic lights, almost no traffic. There was a burned out car flipped on its roof a few blocks down from there place and the mountain they live near was completely burned. Took about 4 days to get power back on.
Kind of explains a few things …
I live in Burlington, so I wasn’t (directly) affected by Irene, other than having to find fun, new routes to the different hospitals I had to drive to for my job.
I’d say the next worse “recent” disaster, after Irene, is probably the ice storm of '98.
I was in high school at the time, and I remember we actually got sent home early the day it got REALLY bad. School canceled the next 2 or 3 days as well. My house lost power for maybe a day, but we lived in the center of town so it was restored quickly. Some of my friends were without power for weeks.
Hit twice? Could have been both.
A tornado tore up part of my home town in the night when I was a kid. Looking at Google Maps, it appears to have come about half a mile from the house I was in.
A couple. About 1/4 mile from where this tornado went through (look at the High Point EF3 one on this page). My house is 1/4 mile from a GIANT tree that got toppled and I’m only about 1 mile from the daycare center and the bus that got flipped. Also about 1/2 mile from the neighborhood that had 60 houses damaged.
Once when I was around 16, a buddy of mine, myself and our girlfriends were driving in his car when lightning hit a transformer right beside our car as we were driving. Sparks dropped down all over our car, as well. That was pretty freaky.
Felt the effects of this as well.
We also had a bad ice storm in the early 2000’s. No power for almost 2 weeks.
We’ve also had some bad effects from hurricanes here (Hugo probably the worst), but nothing like toward the coast.
I have three of note.
I was in Des Moines for the Flood of '93. Learned the phrase “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.” Though a friend and I took his truck and a load of empty garbage cans to get non-potable water to flush with, we weren’t animals. 2 weeks without running water sucked.
I was on a boy scout campout and a when a torando hit. We huddled in a steep gully while the tornado passed less than a 1/4 mile from us. Fortunatly, the sides of the gully protected us from the worst of the debris cloud and it didn’t flood much.
My family and I were driving through Nebraska and looking at some nasty dark clouds ahead of us. As we approached, I noticed a strange looking truck ahead of us. As we got closer to it I realized it was a storm chaser vehicle. We switched of from the sattalite radio to the local weather radio station just as the were starting a tornado warning that strached from mile marker 170-something to mile marker 187. Just as they said “mile marker 187” we passed mile marker 187. We were able to pull off at the next exit and take shelter in a truckstop’s shower wing hallway, but the tornado passed close enough that it shook the concrete walls of the building. We did manage to stay safe and there was no real damage to the building itself or the cars outside, but it had torn up most of the trees nearby. As we continued west after the all clear, we could see the path where the tornado has passed.
First tornado I was in was in LaPort TX in the 70s. I was home alone from school (4th grade) and was watching out the window on the opposite wall as it blew down our fence and took away our back patio furniture.
2nd, in east Texas while driving to Tyler. late 80s. While driving in a blinding T-storm, my car was blown off the road. When I got to town and the hotel, the news said a weak (F0 or F1) tornado had crossed the highway right at the spot I had almost crashed into.
3rd - 5th, in OKC, late 90s to this May. I have had 4 cars (2 in one storm) damaged by tornados and lost another one when we were pummeled by 4"+ hailstones.
From the 60s on, I have been in 13 named storms, tropical storms and hurricanes, 3 times seeing the eye. Somewhere in all my chromes, I have pics of an eye from the inside. It wasn’t a very good photo, tho.
Feb 9, 1971, we were living near the San Gabriel foothills. Look up Sylmar or San Fernando quake.
Had a wildfire destroy a house across the street from me in rural OK.
Was stuck in a blizzard several times while living in various Rocky Mountain locations.
Was locked in for several days several times by nearby floods in various states without being flooded myself.
Iced in for almost a week in a widespread storm.
Lightning struck my house twice, two different homes. felt very weird, had to replace certain electronic and electric items.
My p-row got tumped over in a bad wind.
Yeah, lightning is weird stuff. All I can do is really try to avoid #3.
I am a water baby & know the power of moving water so I am more cautious around flooding than most anything else.
Now that I am old, I practice avoidance.
I drove into a rainstorm that turned out to be a rain covered F1 twister. I think I just glanced it and it spun the car around and peeled off the racing stripe. I forgot to add that one to my list of near death experiences in this thread.
I also storm chased a tornado and actually would up within a half mile in front of one before I realized what it was and tore out of there.
Not sure what this was but I just rememered something from the summer of 2006 or so. The agency I work for was nearly finished moving to its headquarters and a satellite office, just the ones headed for the satellite office were left. We were in the southern building in this two building complex, the other building having already been vacated and undergoing remodelling. Got to work one morning; the fencing around the building had been knocked over and the construction trailer looked like it had gone through a shredder!
Glad I wasn’t at work during whatever did that.
mrAru’s subs surfaced twice into hurricanes - in 89 and 94 [Erin and Chris] storm belts not the eyes and it wasn’t for study, they surfaced to communicate and oops!
There were of course any number of occasions where his boats would put to sea to avoid weather conditions, it is much safer for submarines to be out making holes in the water instead of tied to a pier.
And we went through a hurricane in a cruise ship about 5 years back, the 40 and 50 foot waves made life interesting, but it wasn’t all that bad IMHO, but I don’t get motion sick and already went through the tail end of a hurricane in a sailboat on Lake Ontario [and slept through it <shrug>] The cruise ship is massive enough that the waves were not difficult, and it had stabilizers to even out the ride. It got tricky because we couldn’t use the elevator and I reverted to crutches instead of trying to get a couple of crew to schlep the wheelchair up or down. At least we were only 1 flight of stairs up from the dining room. Any further than that and I would have sent mrAru out to get me something to eat, or done room service.