# Your experiences with natural disasters **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615 "2025-08-30T20:39:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/81 "2025-09-06T18:34:41Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > > [@Chefguy](#): > > > > We actually heard the blast over 200 miles away. > > I was in Seattle (so between Whidbey and Mt. St. Helens) at the time, and the family joke is that it’s my fault. I was playing upstairs and my dad asked what I did. It wasn’t me. 🙂 Which reminds me … This isn’t a _natural_ disaster but I was living in Las Vegas when this little oopsie happened: > **[PEPCON disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster)** > > On May 4, 1988, a fire followed by several explosions occurred at the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) chemical plant in Henderson, Nevada, United States. The disaster caused two fatalities, 372 injuries, and an estimated $100 million of damage. A large portion of the Las Vegas Valley within a 10-mile (16 km) radius of the plant was affected and several agencies activated disaster plans. > The PEPCON plant, located in Henderson, Nevada, 10 miles (16 km) from Las Vega... My new wife had been living with me for only a month-ish after our marriage, and I was home from work for lunch (really). Sitting at my dining table facing a sliding glass door that was on the side of my house away from the blast. We heard a boom, the door glass flexed inwards so much I was sure I was about to get a faceful as it shattered, then as it flexed back outwards a second much larger boom. Somehow the glass survived. But it was _real_ eye-catching. I was in USAF at the time, the base wasn’t far away, and I thought “Oh shit, we’ve had a crash; … with munitions”. I clamber up on the roof of my house to get a look around. Nothing in that direction. Then I turn around the other way and see about what you see in that wiki pic. I was ~12 miles from the explosion. It was a big’un; real big. Although this wiki list says it’s well down the list of all-time manmade greats. > **[Largest artificial non-nuclear explosions | Largest accidental artificial non-nuclear explosions by magnitude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions#Largest_accidental_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions_by_magnitude)** > > These yields are approximated by the amount of the explosive material and its properties. They are rough estimates and are not authoritative. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/82 "2025-09-06T21:30:31Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > I was in Seattle (so between Whidbey and Mt. St. Helens) at the time, and the family joke is that it’s my fault. I was playing upstairs and my dad asked what I did. It wasn’t me. Funny. I thought my kids were in the bedroom, kicking the wall. They were mystified when I yelled at them. Then we got in the car and the radio was on, talking about the volcano erupting. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/83 "2025-09-07T00:20:07Z")
The heavy rainfall in January 1969 caused much flooding here in Southern California. We were warned by the police that we might have to evacuate as a nearby creek was close to overflowing. Fortunately, we didn’t have to but downstream the floodwaters took out a couple of garages. I have been through several large earthquakes over the years with the worst being the San Fernando quake (1971, 6.5 magnitude, about 60 deaths, over $500 million in damages) and the Northridge earthquake (1994, 6.7 magnitude, 65 deaths, estimates of damage range from $13 to 50 billion). I both cases I was over 50 miles away from the epicenter so there was no damage in my area. The shaking from these early morning quakes was pretty intense and made me wake up and get out of bed. About 6 hours before the Northridge quake I drove under the 10 freeway bridge at Fairfax Ave. The nearby La Cieniga Blvd. and Washington Street bridges collapsed when the earthquake struck. I was was in the Northridge area several days after the quake and was shocked at the level of destruction. The strongest quake I’ve experienced was the Landers earthquake at 7.3. Because the epicenter was way out in the desert there were only a few deaths and the shaking at my home wasn’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![X.L.Lent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a5b964/32.png) [@X.L.Lent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X.L.Lent)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/84 "2025-09-07T00:32:53Z")
Just remembered one more. The Whittier Narrows quake (1987, 5.9 magnitude, 8 deaths, over $200 million in damage) did no damage in my area. At the time, I was working in downtown L.A. and saw many slightly damaged buildings as I approached my workplace. Our building sustained some damage with several tiles falling off the exterior walls and a few broken display windows. Later that morning word came that they found a gas leak in the building and we were sent home for the rest of the day. I think this has been the only time I have been directly affected by a natural disaster. | | | --- | | | ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/85 "2025-09-07T01:02:35Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Hurricane path prediction is not very good 5 days out. Unless you have a Sharpie. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/86 "2025-09-07T01:33:20Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Although exacerbated by poor politics and planning, I think the [Texas Deep Freeze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Texas_power_crisis) would count as a natural disaster. At our house, the temps were below freezing for 5 days, which is almost unheard of in this region. Even running at max, our (electric) furnace could only maintain 55 degrees or so. > > We’re preppers, so we came through with only minor problems. I think the triple whammy of losing electricity, water, and then natural gas overwhelmed almost everyone else. Two of our friends had whole-house generators which failed when the gas ran out, leaving them with no source of heat. This region is mostly un-walkable surburbia, so with iced over streets and no tire chains, few could get out and forage for water or some sort of heat. We checked on our two elderly neighbors and they were doing fine. > > Once the streets were more usable, I drove around some just to see what happened. Apparently, a lot of those with lifted trucks discovered their Bro-Dozers aren’t ideal for ice. It seemed like every ditch had one of two of these machines in it. > > When this happened, my wife was recovering from the flu, and I was dealing a previous injury and walking with a cane. Thankfully we didn’t need to evacuate or do much strenuous labor. Looking through my journal, I’d noted on several days the malaise and depressing feelings of watching the temperatures stay below freezing for such a long time. The feeling of being trapped in my house began to surface after a week. These were elements of natural disasters I hadn’t thought about. The mental problems from these could be almost as bad as the deprivation. I wonder if some have actual PTSD from these experiences. It seems likely. I’m from Corpus Christi and I remember it well. I was extremely lucky in that my home did not lose power. Most of Corpus did lose power at one time or another during the event, but we were spared. What I remember most is the damage to vulnerable plants / trees. One of the nursing homes I work at is named Palma Real, which wasn’t just a euphemistic name as other nursing homes tend to have. There were several royal palms that I estimate were 40 to 50 feet tall. None of them survived. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/87 "2025-09-07T04:08:06Z")
have you forgotten the May 16 one that hit St Louis? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2025, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/88 "2025-09-07T17:55:27Z")
No, I just didn’t regard it as significant since the Joplin tornado was so much worse and it was the example I was thinking of. I suppose if the twisters that went through St. Louis and its burbs that day had been F5s, the death toll would have been in the mid-to-high three digits. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/89 "2025-09-10T20:57:55Z")
I’ve lived in North Carolina my whole life and I’ve been through three major hurricanes. **Hugo, 1989** : My oldest sister was in college near the coast and she was expecting to get the hurricane. Instead, the rest of us, who lived near Charlotte, got the storm. I remember sitting on the front porch with my mom and my older sister making fun of the idiots driving past our house. I saw a tree in the church yard across the street spin around and uproot itself. We were without power for three weeks and had to go to my grandparent’s house in Kannapolis to take showers. **Floyd, 1999** : I was a sophomore at ECU so I was aware of the school’s unofficial hurricane policy: PARTY! We had our usual hurricane party when the store hit and prepared to go back to the regular routine. I was at a theater with my then-boyfriend the next day when the power went out. The movie we were watching was _Stir of Echos_, so I was relieved it stopped right when it started getting gross. We went back to the dorm where the power was out. The girls on my floor were having an ice cream social because our RA wanted to get the ice cream out of her freezer before it melted. The next day the officials told us to get the heck out of dodge because the dams on the Tar River were bursting. It was the first time ECU ever shut down for a hurricane. We didn’t have class for about three-four weeks. **Helene, 2024** : By this point I’m starting to think the hurricanes are following me. Most of us in western NC didn’t take the hurricane seriously because the states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are supposed to take the wind out of these storms before they get to us. We did not notice just how freakin’ big the storm was. My neighborhood was only without power for about a week and a half this time, but getting the internet and cell service took a bit longer. This storm was actually worse than the other two because we don’t get hurricanes on this side of the state. The flooding went down a lot quicker than on the east side of NC, but other than that the whole place was a mess that’s still being cleaned up. Now that we’re approaching the one-year anniversary of Helene, all of us WNC-ers are getting PTSD flashbacks. We’re all very leery of high winds and heavy rain now. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/90 "2025-09-10T21:58:45Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > **Floyd, 1999** : I was a sophomore at NC State when that happened. The storm didn’t really majorly impact Raleigh, except for the fact that one of my processors\* was in the National Guard and was sent to help with the flooding in the east. So his class was canceled for like three weeks. \*Well, probably an adjunct, not a full professor. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615/91 "2025-09-15T05:32:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I was living in Las Vegas when this little oopsie happened: Me too! A friend of mine (and maybe a friend of yours too. Radio DJ) had an old Chevy Van, and it partially collapsed the roof. He lived out in what was then far South West. Like Boulder south of Trop. I only had a convertible at the time, and bikes, so didn’t suffer any damage. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-experiences-with-natural-disasters/1022615.md?page=4)