Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler What natural disasters have you been a part of?

Isn't the K the old Reliant, I thought you had to be a grandmother to drive one of those

Well, thing is, let's just say that Ray changed one letter in his name a few years back... so he qualified for that statement!

In reply to:

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I don't remember the food smelling like that when she ate it.

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Well now there was the time my son's diaper left a major pile of the previous nights fruit dinner on the restaurant floor. The staff actually ran from us.

I'm going to ramble a bit. This may not have a point, but the Axiom community has always been great and I think I need to just babble a little.

It's been a while since my last post, and part of that is due to the fact that I live in Gallatin, Tennessee -- the city that was hit hardest by these tornadoes. I was incredibly lucky: Three streets up from me there are homes that have practically been vaporized. I didn't even lose a shingle. I have my health, my home is safe, my friends are safe, my pets are safe, and I lost nothing. There are an awful lot of people in this town who can't say the same. Nine people in this town have been laid to rest as a result of this tornado, and quite frankly it's incomprehensible to me that the number wasn't higher. I look around this town and I see the scope of the destruction and devastation and I can only marvel at the power of nature. The only thing that kept it from being worse, in my opinion, is that it came through at a little after 2 in the afternoon. If this had happened at 1 in the morning when people weren't at work, this would have been far worse.

Yeah, Gallatin is a 'burb of Nashville, but at the end of the day it's still just a small country town of 60,000. I've lived in the South all of my adult life (and a good deal before that), and I know what Southern storms can be like. They can get unbelievably violent and tornado warnings are just a fact of life, but I think there's a natural tendency to become complacent. Tornado weather has always spooked the hell out of me -- the sky gets green, the air gets heavy and still and you can just feel it. It is a physical, palpable thing in the air, and anyone who lives in tornado-prone areas knows what I'm talking about. But prior to last Friday I'd never witnessed what one is really capable of, and it is terrifying.

There are homes that have just been scraped off the face of the Earth. There were car dealerships that looked like a bomb had gone off two feet away -- cars were piled on top of each other. You know how even in the worst traffic accidents you've ever seen, you can always at least identify what was a car? I saw chunks of metal that were too big to be anything else except a car, but it was impossible to tell. There were enormous trees that had been uprooted and thrown dozens of yards from where they originally stood.

Webster's definition is as follows:

Awe: an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.

The power of a tornado is truly awesome, and I have a new and profound respect for what they're capable of. If you live in an area where these are occasional threats, please take them seriously. I guarantee that's exactly what I'll be doing from this point forward.

Earthquakes:
The "World Series" earthquake in San Francisco, the last big ones in Seattle and Los Angeles.

Mike, you ramble all you want. Thank God you and your loved ones are safe.

Like Ron White says, it's not THAT the wind is blowing, it's WHAT the wind is blowing.

I have kin in Kansas. I vividly remember visiting there when I was a kid and being scared spitless by the tornado warnings. I never really understood the notion of The Cellar before that.

I'm glad you're okay.

I've been lucky - dove under my desk during the relatively big earthquake in Seattle (the Nisqually quake) a few years ago. It went on for a really long time. I was pleased to not have wet myself, and that my wife and kids were safe.

Mike, I hadn't been following this thread because(fortunately)I had nothing personal to contribute. Reading of your experience, we're so happy and thank God that you and yours are safe.

Mike, I'm glad that you are okay.

I'm originally from New York City, and lived in Cincinnati for awhile. I've never ever been remotely close to a natural disaster in my life. There was a tornado near Cincinnati several years back, but the destruction there was nowhere near what it was here.

As you said, when I hear these tornado warnings, I will take them seriously from know on.

Mike, I thank the powers that be for your safety and well being. I live in the Northern tip of "Tornado Alley" and while I've never had one close enough to place me in danger, there have been a few devastating ones within 50 miles of me. In fact, the largest single tornado outbreak in U.S. history took place just south of me in Zenia, OH in 1974. 95 significant tornadoes, including 30 F4 and F5 tornadoes, over a 2 day period.

I know EXACTLY what you mean about the physical presence of the conditions that can spawn tornadoes. As you say, the sky and air take on qualities that set off some primitive, visceral alarm in our bodies that fills us with a sense of foreboding and fear. It's just flat out scary.

I am SO relieved to hear you came through this unscathed.

Mike, It's great to hear you and your family are safe, I agree with you that we all tend to get a little complacent.
I've seen an earthquake that did billions of dollars in damage, but years later I've almost let it slip my mind.
Thanks for your thoughts and helping me open my eyes again to what nature can do.
Now I better go help my wife put away the emergency stores I scoffed at her for buying last week.