We're next

[RgrF]

But once the tornado passes, if you're unlucky you're still in the midwest.

[MacArtist]

May through June last year was definitely tornado season for us. One storm spawned 3 tornadoes. Once they gave an all clear, another one popped out of the clouds.

Hopefully, this year is a quiet one.

[BigGuynRusty]

volcs0 wrote:
I like it here in the midwest - just tornadoes and ice storms to worry about.

Biggest quake in the USA was in the MidWest.
Info Snippet.:
"The New Madrid fault, which cuts through five states along the Mississippi River, ruptured with three of the most monstrous earthquakes ever during the winter of 1811-12. Legend has it the ground shook so violently that the Mississippi ran backward and folks as far off as Canada trembled.
So Midwesterners have to wonder: Will it ever happen again?
Seismologists long have warned that the New Madrid fault seems prone to tremendous tremors once every 500 years or so. The Midwest, in fact, is at bigger risk of a supersized quake than Los Angeles or San Francisco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey"
Linkinator.:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.c...e=19990524&slug=faul24

BGnR

[Paul F.]

I've read estimates of the strength of the New Madrid quake "in excess" of a 9.0... as in, changing land elevations measured in YARDS.

Seattle, also, has had 8.0+ earthquakes before us pasty-faced folk showed up.

My area, far-northern California, is also "overdue" for a modest quake. We've averaged a 5.5+ quake about every 9-10 years... it's been nearly 20.

I'll take earthquakes over hurricanes and tornado's though...
Damaging earthquakes only happen every few decades. BAD ones once or twice a century or so.
You hurricane and tornado folks get 'em every single freakin' year.

[Racer X]

That New Madrid one left river boats high and dry hundreds of yards from the newly redirected river bed.

And thanks Paul, for bring up Seattle's impending doom. Half of Downtown Seattle is built on landfill, that will likely undergo liquifaction. The entire Cascade mountain range is somewhere between dormant and active. Jy ex GF's dad was on the USGS team that investigated the range back in 1973. He was the lone disenting geologist when it came to the report. He filed a minority report, warning of Mt St Helens, and indicated several others that were likely as well. He said St Helens would go within a decade. It did 7 years later. Several others, according to him, were very likely to let go within a 100 years. We are 1/3 of the way there.

[vision63]

You prepare for the worst, but you can't worry about them. I was back in L.A. for just "2" days when the Northridge Quake happened. That wasn't as scary as the '71 Sylmar Quake. I was just a boy then though. That quake lasted a long time.

[(vikm)]

Never been at the center of a major quake but have had some minor ones and felt larger ones from elsewhere. Every one of them has actually been "kinda fun". Like I said, they were all more like a gentle shift back and forth and none were what anyone with experience would call violent. I certainly feel for those that have had to deal with the large ones but as someone that grew up back east, it was just another "this is a little different" moment for us and luckily wasn't terrifying.

[kap]

When the Northridge one struck I was living near Vandenburg Air Force base. I thought, "Darn, must they launch a missile this early in the morning?!!".

[Doc]

(vikm) wrote:
Never been at the center of a major quake but have had some minor ones and felt larger ones from elsewhere. Every one of them has actually been "kinda fun". Like I said, they were all more like a gentle shift back and forth and none were what anyone with experience would call violent. I certainly feel for those that have had to deal with the large ones but as someone that grew up back east, it was just another "this is a little different" moment for us and luckily wasn't terrifying.

I remember...

Standing under a doorway during a "shifter" and watching the doorway deform from a rectangle into a sloping parallelogram.

Driving a car at night during a long "bouncer" and feeling the road drop out from under me.

Out hiking on a mountaintop during a "slider" and feeling my feet dragged in different directions as the earth ripped itself apart.

Waking up during a "roller" and feeling my bed slam against the wall a few times.

Yeah. Fun.

After the fact.

When I knew that I wasn't going to die from it.

[RgrF]

I was living about a mile from the epicenter and asleep (as were most others) at the onset of the Northridge 'quake. I was awake immediately and while my wife was groggily asking WTF, there was never a question in my mind what was happening.

I was in a king size waterbed and literally could not get out of that bed until the first rollers were done with us.