Everywhere has disasters . In the United States , this ranges from earthquake on the west coast , hurricane on the east coast , and tornadoes in - between . The only question is which one you’re able to stick out , and how you prepare for them .
surveil crack cocaine - harm in Tupelo , Mississippi on Tuesday , April 29 , 2014 . picture taking credit : AP / Thomas Graning
I originate up on the west seacoast of North America , home toearthquakes , landslides , droughts , andfires , but relatively few terrible storm . I know how to earthquake - proof my home base , and instruct immigrants to my city aboutduck ! cover ! hold on!I’ve sputter over fresh landslide bank deposit in a quest for scientific discipline , and debated the merits of leave - early evacuations versus train stay put - and - defend in battle urban - rural user interface fires . No disaster is a pleasant , welcome experience , but these are ones I understand how to prepare for and answer to , and I feel comfortable with my level of ongoing peril .
Clambering around the Mount Meager landslide in British Columia , August 2010 . Image credit : Mika McKinnon
What really freak me out , and what I openly receipt I am grateful is not a jeopardy in the space I call home , is dangerous storms like hurricane and tornadoes . I get that people who live where severe tempest are common knowwhat to do before and after a twister , but the random destruction of a tornado scares me . While predictor can recognize the sign of impending doom andput an entire region on high - qui vive , they ca n’t predict where a tornado will affect down , why it will destroy an entire community but for a smattering of houses , or reduce a home to debris yet go forth the private road unaffected .
dissimilar view on the destruction at Parkwood Meadows nbrhd in Vilonia.#ARtornado(Carlo Allegri / Reuters)pic.twitter.com / OXE2fWBbzM
— Tim Ballisty ( @IrishEagle)April 29 , 2014
When I swap tragedy - stories with hoi polloi on the other side of the continent , it ’s a frequent refrain thatCalifornians are crazyfor subsist somewhere that the terra firma could open up and gobble them without admonish . I can handle that risk of infection ( in part because the likelihood of a crevasse both open astray enough to bolt and snapping shut again is very small ) , but I find it terrify to dwell somewhere where the sky could attain down and destroy everything in a present moment . cataclysm are everywhere ; your only option is to beak live near the ones you understand well enough to mitigate .
I have a theory that people are most prosperous with the disasters they grew up with , the “ normal ” of their puerility that they learned about in school , but I have no evidence to test it . What disasters do you get hold least terrifying ? Are they the same ones you develop up with ? Has your perspective on tolerable natural hazards convert over metre ?
Tornado
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