Earthquakes, Tornadoes, or Hurricanes? (house, to live, woman, picture)

[Rwarky]

Which of the following natural disasters scares your the most: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, or Hurricanes?

[Sonnenwende]

Depends on the intensity. If we are talking the worst possible scenario, then they all equally scare the crap out of me. If you are asking which one I would pick in a place to live, I think tornados just because I grew up with the threat of them and am more familiar with what to do in case of.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Probably earthquakes.
Tornadoes you get *some* warning (if it's not occurring at 2am), hurricanes plenty of warning.
We had an earthquake here a few months ago. First one I've had in many years. What a disconcerting feeling.
But yes, it does depend on intensity--and proximity. They're all plenty scary.

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

I was in the eye of Hurricane Rita in 2005 for about 7-8 hours and it was VERY scary. A 110 foot pine fell and missed my mothers by inches. The house shook, pictures fell off the wall. It is only by the grace of God that we are alive today, I never want to go through that again. We thought we were escaping it but it turned and came after us

[MoMark]

I am frightened of tornadoes, but I feel I have a fighting chance with them. I've never been through a hurricane, and since we know where they're going to strike in advance, I wouldn't stick around for one. But earthquakes are a whole different thing. I went through the Loma Prieta Earthquake while at work in San Francisco in Oct. 1989. I was in the Stonestown Galleria, a long elegant mall. I looked straight down the middle galleria and the building was actually sidewinding so far that stores down the line would go in and out of sight as the earthquake rolled the building. The sound that comes with metal crunching, glass breaking, just that grinding sound...terrifying. I was next to a Herbert Braun salon and everything got tossed and there was a woman with perm solution in her hair and no top on and all the hairdressers ran out of the store and left her (I always wondered what her hair must have eventually looked like!!). The escalators heaved out from their moorings and jumped ten feet, people were screaming and running. I was terrified and didn't really know what to do so I curled up in a ball on the floor with my arms and hands protecting my head and watched the carpet fibers while thinking: "Wouldn't you know it I had to be in San Francisco for a major earthquake..D A M N!". With earthquakes they are never the same and some, like the Loma Prieta earthquake, heave and lurch back and forth, then you get the sideways motions and it's like being on a rowboat in a rough sea. But others, like the Northridge Earthquake are really insidious because in that earthquake, the force propelled up, not sideways. People were actually tossed into the air briefly and the force thrust upward. That is unimaginable to me. I've been in many others as well and they by far are the scariest natural phenomena I've ever experienced.

[SandyCo]

MoMark, I agree. I don't have any experience with tornadoes or hurricanes, but I have been through a few earthquakes (Sylmar, 1971; Landers, 1992; Northridge, 1994). Sylmar and Northridge were both "thrust" faults, which as you said, means that the force is propelled upwards. This creates a very rocky, rough motion! The Landers earthquake was more of a "roller", which was far easier to take even though the magnitude was a little worse.

I don't like earthquakes because:

1. They occur without warning
2. They have aftershocks, which also occur without warning.

I'd like to move from L.A. for many reasons, and this is definitely one of them.

[Racelady88]

Gotta go with earthquakes. They happen with no warning and you are not safe anywhere.

I went through the 2004 & 2005 hurricane seasons in Florida and have seen small tornadoes over the years. You can't evacuate from an earthquake, and you most definitely do not want to be in a basement for one.

[vpcats]

Originally Posted by Rwarky

Which of the following natural disasters scares your the most: Earthquakes, Tornadoes, or Hurricanes?

I have never been through a tornado, nor do I want to just from seeing pictures. I have been in a couple of earthquakes and as much as I was actually very far from the epicenter, I know I would not have wanted to be any closer. Years later, I'm back in NY and even the tremor from the subways made me freeze sometimes and it was like deja-vu.
Hurricanes are not very nice either but of all the evils, I think hurricanes are the ones you can prepare for the most. I was not in Florida when Andrew hit but I was here for Katrina and Wilma and it's not a pretty picture either.

[Steve-o]

Earthquakes offer no warning and can level an entire city in minutes. Hurricanes are long lived and bring flooding which can also drown entire large cities. Tornadoes are sporadic, and most of the time do little damage, and offer good warning signs. Of all 3, Id pick earthquakes as the scariest and tornadoes as the least.

[christina0001]

Earthquakes scare me the most, for all the reasons steve-o mentions. Hurricanes and tornadoes, at least you generally know they are coming.