What natural disaster did you survive?

Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Alhambra, Whittier earthquake in 87 or was it 86? Either way the Los Angeles basin shut down.  All the phones were turned off and no one could call their family to see if they were ok.  That experience and the anxiety of not knowing how everyone was inspired me to become a first responder.  I took a 6 week class at my local fire department to achieve that. As a first responder I would be able to move fairly freely through the city incase of another disaster.  I was in the epicenter when it struck, in a brick building.  I couldn't get out fast enough only to find the earth moving, rolling.  Very strange experience when the ground has always been firm and then to feel it move so much. 
My condo was severely damaged.  All my kitchen cupboards fell down and I had to use a flat tire thing to jack them back up until I could get them repaired. Part of my fence was down as well. I used my car radio to find out was was going on.  This post was edited by Art Lover at May 30, 2021 10:09 PM MDT

Dang...my first wife measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. That's a real disaster.

Hurricane Sandy.

I've never been directly in a natural disaster, but I was close to a tornado in 2012.  It was a funnel when it went over my house.  It became an F2 tornado two kilometres from my house.

 

  During the first months of COVID19 when the scares of shortages caused people to panic and hoard supplies, the grocery store nearest to my house ran critically low on loaves of wheat sandwich bread. They then set a limit of two loaves per household per shopping trip, and required shoppers to fill out an online form providing full name, DOB, POB, SSN, copy of birth certificate, blood type, copy of dental X-Rays, DNA swab report, tear-duct readout, biological parents’ full biographical data, photo of first pet’s favorite toy, and proof of financial solvency or government assistance payments.
  Luckily, three days after I bought my two loaves, the entire management team was arrested and the program was dismantled; it turns out they were stockpiling wheat bread by the truckload to create fake demand by withholding supply. The shelves were restocked within hours of the paddy wagon taking away the suspects, emergency diverted.
  Now, the district attorney’s office has already contacted me to see if I’m willing to be a paid expert witness if trial testimony becomes necessary. My field of expertise is in the ways sandwich-deprivility can drive people bonkers, and the real-life hardships involved in not being able to get products needed for making them.
  It’s an attractive offer and it pays quite well, but I’m not sure I’ll be available. The trial dates coincide with the protests in Melbourne for Vegemite shipments being brought to America on a wider scale than they already are, and I simply have to be there for that: I’m the West Coast Sub-Chairman for Throwing Tomatoes at the Aussies, you know.  At the same time, I haven’t visited the Melbourne chapter of The Harem for quite some time . . . (sigh), decisions decisions.



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Paddy wagon? Seriously? This post was edited by Element 99 at May 31, 2021 11:11 AM MDT