Monday, October 29

California Wildfires & Other Natural Disasters

For the past week or so, I’ve been watch lots of coverage of the California wildfires. At one time, over 500,000 people were evacuated and there were several fires raging in California. It was horrible to see people and animals displaced while homes, businesses and land burned to the ground.

Fortunately, the situation is now much more under control and aid is pouring in to the affected areas.

In 1992, it was my first day of kindergarten and my family had just moved to Ocala, Florida from Nashville. We went to school and the entire campus was closed. There I stood—in my first day dress (something very floral!) and hair in a bow—while my parents looked for someone to ask about why school was closed. We found a Red Cross worker who told us a hurricane was coming and we needed to seek shelter. We’d never been through, nor paid much attention, to hurricanes while living in Tennessee. By the time the hurricane had passed, we had a tree in our bathroom, no electricity for weeks and glass blown out in our kitchen. That was Hurricane Andrew.

Every part of the country deals with extreme weather and none is worse than the other. But at least with new technology, lives are being saved and people are one-step ahead of disaster.

So, have you survived a natural disaster or know someone who has? Share your story!

10 comments:

Lauren Baratz-Logsted said...

A plane I was in was hit by lightning once - does that count?

Jessica Burkhart said...

Yikes! Definitely!

Alyson Noel said...

I'm a native Californian-- which means I've had my share! Thanks for your post on the fires, it's just tragic to see so much destruction all around. . .

Wendy Toliver said...

A major blizzard in Denver, a hurricane/flood in Houston (we got to float down the streets in boats), a tornado hit the parking lot of my office building in Salt Lake City (I was at lunch), earthquakes in Eden, Utah and Valdez, Alaska, lightning struck the tree about four feet from the side of our house in Denver, and a mountain lion growled at me while on a hike in Idaho. I know the last one isn't exactly a "natural disaster" but it happened in nature and could've been a disaster. :)
My prayers to those affected by the CA fires.

Sara Hantz said...

I haven't been in a disaster, but the place we live now was totally destroyed in an earthquake in the 1930s and everywhere was rebuilt - hence it being all Art Deco. The earhquake turned everything upside down, so what was a sandy beach was overturned as is now all pebbles.

Gerb said...

My husband's uncle and family live in Escondito and were evacuated during the fires. All they could do was call the house each day to see if the answering machine was alive, which meant their house was still standing. They were able to return last week, which is a blessing for them, but so many other people were not as fortunate.

I've managed to avoid any major catastrophes myself... we had typhoons and earthquakes while we were in Japan, but fortunately, neither were severe enough to cause more than minor damage and some inconvenience.

Wendy's tornado experience is probably the most freakish mentioned here so far... in Salt Lake Valley, surrounded by mountains that limit the movement of the air, tornadoes aren't supposed to happen. That was the first, yes? You must be a magnet, Wendy... hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, lightning strikes, blizzards... remind me to steer clear of Eden. ; )

Lauren, what happened to the plane when it was hit by lightning? Did you have to emergency land? I can't imagine how scary that must have been.

May we all stay disaster free for a long, long time!

Gerb

Amanda Ashby said...

I've never been in a natural disaster, but my 5 year old son manages to make our house look one pretty much everyday!!!

Wendy Toliver said...

You're right, Gerb. That tornado in Salt Lake City was the first ever here. And for it to happen in the parking lot below my office was just crazy! I was actually driving back from lunch, listening to a CD (otherwise I would've heard on the radio) and my husband called to see if I was okay. Then I looked up and saw it! Needless to say, I didn't have to go back to work that day!

Aimlesswriter said...

I live in Eden. (NJ) Nothing ever happens here. Hurricanes occasionally come up the coast but we're protected from the worst of it by the island of Manhatten. Every couple of years there are reports of a possible tornado that no one really saw. We get too much rain for those major fires. (nickname: the Garden state for a reason)...face it. NJ is boring. (Please just hope I don't jinx it with this post!)

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