Awfully glad I live in Minnesota (Dakota: house, tornado, earthquakes)

[icequeen2008]

After seeing how many of the eastern states have struggled with Irene I am so glad I live where I live. I will take blizzards and cold weather any day. Any opinions?

[audadvnc]

I live 4 blocks from the path of the May tornado. It still looks like hell along that stretch. I'd take a hurricane any day over tornado.

[cinnamon_toast]

I probably wouldn't risk living right on the coast... but inland? Sure. I grew up inland east coast and only experienced one hurricane in 20 years.

And hopefully I will never have to live in a frigid climate again, for the rest of my life!!

[GBCommenter]

I'd guess having your place trashed either way isn't great (sorry, Audadvnc...).

However, I wonder if there's more difficulty out east given the much higher population density? Not that desperate Midwesterners wouldn't cause problems, but seems like you have too many people in one spot and you have to worry about what all those people will do in a bad situation?

As far as the cold and blizzards, I'm of two minds. On one, I hate the cold and snow. On the other, it does go away and relative to a tornado or hurricane doesn't cause damage.

[Glenfield]

My west coast friends always say that they'd be terribly afraid of tornados if they lived here. If you have damage from a tornado, that's obviously a very bad deal, however, not every house in the area is affected by that storm. With a blizzard, you might get snowed in or lose power, but your house won't be wrecked. On the other hand, a hurricane (like a severe earthquake) affects everyone across a wide area. I'll take my chances living in a tornado belt. The counter argument is that earthquakes and hurricanes only happen once in a great while, whereas we get tornados every year. I'll still take the threat of tornados.

[StilltheSame]

As a South Floridian - hurricanes aren't that bad - you can plan and prepare. Blizzards - much the same. But these tornadoes? No way - these are a bad deal.

[northstar22]

I'll take tornadoes and blizzards over hurricanes. Minnesota is awesome.

[sholomar]

most hurricanes really aren't that destructive to those with a bit of common sense. Stay inland 20 miles, don't build on a known flood plain, and perhaps board up the windows if it's a bad one. I'd love to live on the east coast. The temperature profiles of some of those towns are great. Not brutally hot in the summer but not frigid in the winter either. I'm one of those weather nuts that would be out and about during the hurricane though. I'd be like 'bring it on' ... in reality you will only find really strong winds in a very small swath that's likely to be nearer to the coast. Yeah if you live in a city that's below sea level being held together with levys you may have a problem, or along the immediate coast....

I would have been out driving in this one.. there was only a very small area where winds were approaching powerful.. sustained winds of 40 mph is really not bad, that's a normal day out here in South Dakota. Stronger winds are confined to quite a narrow area with this one, and even then not much higher then about 75mph, which may knock some trees down in south dakota...

[shotz90s]

I'd like to experience a hurricane once in my life. Just to see the power of nature. I think the fear lies in what is unknown. When you grow up w/ tornadoes like I have you get a healthy respect for their power but truthfully I'm not all that afraid of them. That would probably change if my house was demolished. Hurricanes, since I've never experienced them, scare me but I've never been through one. A family friend lives in Florida and like Stockwiz said, off the coast you will most likely be OK. I've been the idiot twice now that has been standing in his driveway as a funnel cloud goes over LOL. I'd most likely be the same idiot during a hurricane. As far as cold and blizzards, -35º is still just the equivalent of a shot of caffeine for me.

[audadvnc]

OTOH, my old home town in NJ is under water right now, according to some of my old friends that live there. The "Venice of New Jersey" has its upsides and downsides.