Have you ever experienced a disaster?

Yes, I’ve been in multiple huge earthquakes (including one in which I lost my home), multiple hurricanes, tornadoes, and two large fires (also in which I lost a home.)

Remind me not to visit any of R1's homes. (Sorry R1, couldn't resist. Sorry for your losses!)

My basement flooded when I was a kid.

There northern Gulf of Mexico gets hurricanes fairly often. Been through a couple of those.

My house was flooded with waist deep water. I felt like saying "Will the life boats be seated according to class?"

Multiple huge earthquakes, multiple hurricanes, multiple tornadoes and two large fires?

I hope your name is Jan.

I crawled out of the house during the '94 Northridge Quake and faced the rest of the neighbors and my family in our pajamas. Fortunately we didn't have more damage than things falling off shelves and dust. I was at work in retail during the '89 San Francisco area quake and a lot of shelves broke and product fell, maybe 15-20% was broken or damaged. That was a strong one.

I was in Hawthorne during the LA riots of April 92 and had to drive home, I was at a boyfriend's house but my mom told me to get my ass home so I dodged looters starting a fire and had to run a traffic light in order to evade a mob of people running down the street at Marine and Hawthorne Blvd and escape onto the 405.

Sandy

My house caught fire and the upstairs burned. The rest was damaged from the fire department.

Starlight Express

[quote] Fortunately we didn't have more damage than things falling off shelves and dust.

So the “crawling out of the house”was just to add some drama?

R11 re: Northridge Quake: it was at 4:30:55 a.m. PST. Everyone was bleary eyed and my mom made it down the hallway first, traveling by braille. No one ran out. None of the lights were on. I was struggling to be awake. I don't think it registered what had happened really until hours later.

Does 9/11 at the WTC count?

Earthquake, fire destroyed my apartment, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Alicia, which tore the roof of my house.

Yes, lost two houses to two hurricanes. Wouldn't wish that nightmare on anyone

Florida?

9/11

I saw Carrie on Broadway.

I saw Cats.

Yes, two floods at the Russian River in the '90s.

Not buying the Marine and Hawthorne part, r7.

Shooting counts?

89 earthquake. Only lost one glass, but the devastation was palpable in the air.

Superstorm Sandy - stranded for a little bit and then displaced for six months.

An old friend’s pussy

Hurricane Gloria

Yes, a landslide destroyed our house while we were in it.

R21 it's 100% true, Hawthorne still is an iffy area and can be bad in some parts. It was worse then. Lawndale is better but still iffy.

9/11

this is awful. also, r1 needs to move, pronto.

Yes, I was living in Taichung ,Taiwan in 1999.

There was a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, and the epicenter was about 25 miles away. It killed about 2400 people and you could drive around town later and see all these apartment buildings where floors had just pancaked. There were aftershocks for weeks where you'd look at the plate glass of buildings or shops and they would undulate in waves like The Matrix, and my heart rate would shoot way the fuck up. And for months the parks were filled with tents where newly homeless families were now living. Anyway, that was about it for me and Taiwan, I got the fuck out a couple of months later

never forget. The world hates us and wants us dead.

Marine and Hawthorne is in Lawndale, r28. That particular area isn't iffy.

My cleaning lady flushed a tampon down the primary suite toilet and it backed up and overflowed the next time I flushed.

^Did you tip her extra for that?

No natural disasters, thank The Goddess. But I was swept out to sea once while swimming. It became increasingly alarming. Finally I thought, “Okay… I’m really far out. I’ll swallow my pride and call for help.”

Then my next thought was, [italic]“No one can hear you!”

One word...Vesuvius.

r7, I was working at the Neiman's during the Loma Prieta earthquake, and at the time, the building was mocked for being built on rollers. We just had incidental damage (housewares on the top floor all fell down) and when we walked out on Stockton, the sidewalks and street were covered in shattered glass- all the windows had blown out from Saks across the street. I lived in Oakland, and had to spend the night with a friend in S.F. I remember looking out their window, and S.F. was completely dark, save for fires dotting the landscape.

I was also lucky enough to be in West Hollywood during the Northridge earthquake- no damage, but no power for maybe 3 days. Driving in the valley after really brought home how serious it was.

Both times, when you felt an aftershock, your nervous system would immediately kick up.

OMG r36! Did you survive?

In 1974 when my mother took me to see Mame. I still have PTSD.

This was a family disaster that happened back in the mid 70s. My grandparents lived in Savannah, Ga. and they also owned the plantation about 50 miles away (no slaves ever worked on it, by the way, so don't start), which included a magnificent colonial mansion built in the early 1800s. After both my grandparents died their oldest son wanted to buy the rest of the children out as he wanted to move there and live in the mansion. The sale was finalized and he started massive renovations to the house. One evening someone set an old school about 5 miles away on fire and burned it to the ground. Renovations on the house were progressing well and about 5 weeks later someone set the mansion on fire and burned it to the ground. The authorities said it had definite signs of being the same person who burned the school house. To this date no one has ever been caught.

It was especially tragic for my mother as she had so many fond memories of summers & weekends at that wonderful place.

they also owned the plantation (my grandfather grew up on).

Left that out by accident.

Yes, 2017 Sonoma County wildfires that burnt many buildings and businesses down. I fled that night with my life; the winds were blowing, branches in the roadway, smoke so thick you couldn't drive very fast.

It was scary as hell.

Were the people mentioning 9/11 actually in the towers, or within a few blocks?

Nope, just lived in CA and traveled extensively around the country.

That was for R6 ^

Oh, and I lived two blocks from WTC during 9/11. Lol I guess I’ve been in a lot of “disasters.”

I had a car land in my second story bedroom one night.

Fun R47!

[quote]Have you ever experienced a disaster? I mean a REAL disaster

Nixon elected, 1968 and 1972

Reagan elected, 1980 and 1984

Bush elected 1988

Bush coup 2000 and 2004

Trump coup 2016, attempted coup 2020, ongoing treason since then.

Natural disaster, yeah. I was in that 1998 tornado that hit Nashville. Hurricane Gloria in MA too.

I volunteered in Missouri after the Midwest flooding in 1993. It was heartbreaking.

Popping Sam Smith’s cherry.

OP here. I always think I would rather have my house burn to the ground rather than flood. It sounds crazy, but I would rather have everything turn to ashes than have to see everything wet and covered in mud and sewage. Although the chances of perishing in a fire are probably greater--but I have a window in my bedroom that is low to the ground, and I would make that my exit - assuming I wasn't overcome by smoke while asleep!! But cleaning up after a flood, I think, is just beyond my comprehension.

On the evening news tonight, they interviewed the woman with the blown off roof - she was a very sweet looking woman, maybe in her early 70s. She said she didn't realize her roof had blown off until her neighbor across the street called her and told her - (it was a two story house). She was very chipper, and said, "well, now we have two swimming pools and a skylight!" God bless her -

Menopause.

Does a DAYSaster count?

I lived through Covid 2020-2023. A HUGE disaster.

[quote]r39 OMG! Did you survive?

I DID! I am not communicating from beyond the (watery) grave.

I know how to basically swim because I grew up on a coastline, but the problem on this day was large waves were breaking quite close to each other, far out into the ocean. (I didn’t see this when I went in.) So there were lines and lines of crashing waves I had to duck under, and each time I was being pulled further out. When I would come up for air between the waves it was like being in a gray green valley. Then I’d have to dive under the next tall wave that was bearing down.

I didn’t know it, but I was also being swept down the beach, where gradually the waves were smaller and further apart, and I could make it inland.

Everything but the sea turtles snapping at your rear end.

Blizzard of 78. Was strange to see all these armed National Guardsmen patrolling the usually quiet neighborhoods. Spent the first night in a truck stuck in the snow on Route 128. Does that count? Wasn't really a personal disaster. I mean my house wasn't wrecked or anything. Got a lot of exercise, driving was not allowed.

Hurricane Ike. 5 ft of water in the house.

I had to listen to Taylor Swift once!

R28 is a drama queen. I grew up in Hawthorne —I drove home from downtown during the riots and you’ve greatly exaggerated anything that happened. There was nothing major about the those nights that took place in Hawthorne, or Lawndale—much less on Hawthorne Blvd or Marine Ave.

Had my cock shat upon my first time topping.

Still scarred.

Northridge Earthquake. It was scary as hell and that was not even a 7 on the rictor scale. If an 8 or 8.5 hits that is going to be a fucking disaster.

Hair disasters.

Hurricane Carol, August 1954

Twister tore the half the roof off our house when I was ten. Miraculously, no other major damage to the house. The shed out back ended up as debris a few houses down the street, but the lawnmower stayed put on the concrete slab. A crew of Amish men replaced the roof a week later and Dad bought a prefab shed.

I saw "Mame" when it opened.

Not since the Iroquois Theatre disaster....

Weepy shit cock is pussy cock, as my grandmother used to say.

Not me, but as a kid I lived in an area to which a lot of refugees from Cyclone Tracy were evacuated, after it nearly completely wiped out Darwin on Christmas Eve in 1974. "Decimated" means "wiped out a tenth of", but this left less than 20% of Darwin's houses standing, and killed 66 people. One day I sat behind a couple of younger kids on the bus who I realised were among these refugees. They were talking about the cyclone and how scary it was. One of them said:

"We sat in the bathroom all night and sang Christmas carols to keep our spirits up."

"What did you sing?"

"Oh, you know, Silent Night."

Not making it up.

My cousins lived in Darwin until Cyclone Tracey. They happened to be out of town when it hit. When they came back their house was gone.

Ishtar.

R39, what a stupid question!!!

Hawthorne, Lawndale, Carson. Wilmington, all horrible neighborhoods, national guard needs to take over those cities.

Yes, 70s men's fashion 😳

OP I'm 62 and experienced the disaster of AIDS, with my personal experience from 1988 to 1994 when friends, lovers, and loved ones died.

Did the deed with a woman and it was a tsunami. Shit was like hurricane season.

I’ve seen Kaia Gerber “act.”

Does that count?

Yes. Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was the worst hurricane I’ve been through. I just retired from over 35 years in healthcare in 2023.

2005 I was on the Hurricane team at the hospital I worked at.

When it reached a Cat 3 they called a Code Gray and my team(A) went to work. Then it became a Cat 4. We got through Katrina and that was short lived. The Levees broke. And soon we were surrounded by over 20 Ft of water. Inside and outside the hospital.

Nothing and I mean nothing prepared us for that disaster. It was really horrific.

Almost as bad as me taking care of Covid patients for three years.

PTSD from Katrina and Covid.

R73 is triple AAA. Authentic American Asshole.

R47 how exactly did that happen?

@r78, I was living on the beach in Destin, Florida and watched the storm surge pass my house on the way to NO. There's no way to describe what a mountain of water looks like as it rolls by on it it's way to destroy a city. What an experience 😳

Hurricane Agnes, AIDS, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irma...

Walked into a night ambush sprung on my group of friends by some more local unfriendly tough guys. Fucking incoming tracers all over the place. No one got as much as a scratch. Not a miracle but really fucking close.

Looks like R31 made the right decision.

Poor old firefighters had to hang off that building in your pic, R84 to rescue numbers of people from inside. The whole thing could have come down.

Three hurricanes. Power off for days. Trees down all over the place, many of them large cottonwoods. One of them fell on my father's car.

A tornado and without power for over a week.

Tropical Storm Allison, in Houston. Bitch lasted over 2 weeks, dumping enormous amounts of rain and flooding everywhere and everything. It came over once, circled backed to the gulf, reformed, and came back again. My community received about 32 inches of rain, some including 8 in one terrible night. About 50 people died.

I saw Lucille Ball in Mame in 1974.

Hurricane Gilbert back in 1988. I was camping in Mexico (I'm a Brit) and had no idea it was coming or what to do (pre mobile phones/internet). Fire in the London Underground, but still too traumatised to talk about that and I have the ongoing problem of being a Londoner who can't go down there (or anywhere underground at all, ever). Plane crash, in a private plane. Knew it was coming for a long time. Totalled my car once, and had to be cut out of it. My mother always said if it was going to happen to anyone it was going to happen to me. I tend to stay home a lot these days!