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Baltimore area: nor'easters in the winter, occasionally tropical storms in the summer or early fall. We've been brushed by a number of tropical storms or category 1 hurricanes, but we've been spared major damage. Irene was a big scare that turned out to be not too bad around here, but then Lee snuck in and dumped 7 inches of rain. Quite a bit of localized flooding in that one. Sandy, which made such a big impact on the New York area, was nothing more than a big rainstorm here.
We've also had tornadoes, earthquakes, blizzards, and droughts; but they've not been bad enough or frequent enough to really worry about them, with a few notable exceptions (e.g. the crazy winter of 2009-10).
Boston area, mainly snowstorms. When a blizzard occurs, it can dump a lot of snow, and cause power outages. In the last few years, they've started closing schools early and urging businesses to shut down or close early, to keep cars off the streets and let the snow removal teams do their work. This has been working well, and the utility contractors have done a good job of restoring power when needed. Because of the killer blizzard that happened back in 1978, people take blizzard warnings much more seriously and heed the warnings not to be out driving around needlessly. And there is always a mad rush of people to the grocery store for provisions to tide them over 2-3 days. A few times we've gotten weird ice storms that coat everything in ice. Those are difficult to deal with because they weigh down power lines and we lose power. If you try to walk out to your car to chip away the ice, you risk falling because the ice is on everything.
Rainstorms may cause ponding on streets, or street floods, but it's unusual to have rivers overflow.
Have had occasional tornadoes, but those aren't common here. All in all, we don't get much in the way of natural disasters. We are on the water, so if another Irene or Sandy happened and made it up this way, we would be in trouble too.
In Buffalo, it is lake effect snow. There is usually one mega storm per year where 3 feet or more fall somewhere over the metro area, usually the southern suburbs or exurbs. This past year we had a 5 inch an hour storm that dropped 30 inches in about six hours. One day off of school, then back to normal. No tornadoes, rare flooding, no tropical systems, no landslides, no earthquakes, no wildfires, no extreme heat (has never even hit 100) and no extreme cold ( lake erie modifies cold airmasses)
I do want to point out flooding can occur anywhere in the US. Some areas are more prone, but a slow moving thunderstorm can wreak havoc in any place.
here near (burbs) Chicago, our main natural disaster fear is tornado's ...but the little talked about ticking time bomb is the new Madrid fault line down by St Louis.. It is way over do to let go and because of the soil and lack of bed rock in that area they say if it goes it really rocks n rolls like ocean waves ... So with that said I think about our old under ground lines and rotting over passes, water would be cut off, gas leaks every where and near me is the under ground air port fuel lines that go to Mid Way airport so i see masive fires and water cut off and with a lot of over passes collapsing help would be wayyyy slow to come...
the last time the new madrid let go was 1811 and 1812.... their wasn't much here back then but it was felt in New york...So think about it''
here is a quick vid about the madrid.. new midrid falt line activity videos - Yahoo Search Results
Yeah, I'd probably say for the Chicago area thunderstorms and tornadoes would be the biggest threats. As for the New Madrid Fault, we'd probably feel the tremors a little bit from such an earthquake, but I bet the impact would probably be greater for those living near the Mississippi River from Saint Louis to places south of there.
I remember a few years ago I was in the north suburbs of Chicago, and as I was leaving a thunderstorm and a brief tornado touched down just north of where I was! Luckily I didn't see any damage, but it was scary seeing the power go out while the tornado was going through, and also the winds and the tornado siren in the distance. Later I saw the damage on the news, and it was limited to a small geographic area of where I was and also in 1-2 other suburbs. I know one place I ate at years ago got severely destroyed during that tornado, and I don't know if they ever rebuilt or not.
Earthquakes- California cities (ex San Francisco & Low Angeles)
Hurricanes- coastal cities on the Gulf & Atlantic coasts (ex New Orleans, Miami, Tampa, Houston, Jacksonville, Hampton Roads Va, Wilmington NC, Mobile, Orlando)
Tornados- Great Plains cities (ex Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St Louis, Omaha, Tulsa, Dallas, Memphis, Indianapolis)
Blizzards- cities in the upper midwest and interior northeast (ex Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Boston)
Providence: nothing really, we sometimes get the weak remainder of tropical storms and hurricanes, but they are minimal. We may get the occasional blizzard or nor' easter, but I don,t consider a snowstorm a natural disaster
In Buffalo, it is lake effect snow. There is usually one mega storm per year where 3 feet or more fall somewhere over the metro area, usually the southern suburbs or exurbs. This past year we had a 5 inch an hour storm that dropped 30 inches in about six hours. One day off of school, then back to normal. No tornadoes, rare flooding, no tropical systems, no landslides, no earthquakes, no wildfires, no extreme heat (has never even hit 100) and no extreme cold ( lake erie modifies cold airmasses)
I do want to point out flooding can occur anywhere in the US. Some areas are more prone, but a slow moving thunderstorm can wreak havoc in any place.
Pretty much the same for Syracuse, but some may even question lake effect snow, as it is generally fluffy and easy to clear. It also is more prevalent in areas outside of these cities/immediate areas. There have been some blizzards, with a couple being pretty bad(1966 and 1993).
There has been maybe a couple of tremors, but no all out earthquakes. Maybe an occasional tornado, but they are very rare. Can get some flooding, but again, it is very minor or perhaps concentrated to one area.
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