Bonus points for man-made disaster preparedness tips.
Here in Seattle, the main scary natural disasters are earthquakes. We haven’t had a major one since 2001 or so, but supposedly there’s a massive one coming relatively soon.
The 2001 Nisqually earthquake was also a different mechanism event than the one that can cause a really large earthquake (intraslab vs subduction). The last major subduction earthquake in the region was centuries ago and these earthquakes can exceed Mw9.0. Luckily they are not very frequent but there are indications that Seattle’s due for one.
We also have to worry about Volcanos, mainly Mount Rainier. That fucker is likely going to wipe out Orting, Puyallup and Eastern Tacoma/Fife. I5 is going to be impacted in a few spots. The entire region will be reeling from that explosion for weeks, if not months.
None. Chicago doesn’t flood, have earthquakes, get wildfires, get hurricanes, get droughts. Tornados dissipate once they hit the urban heat bubble. It barely even blizzards here, once or twice a year at most.
True, we did burn down once. But now we’re very aggressive about fire safety and prevention.
Toronto is basically the same but we do get the occasional ice storm that can knock out power for a day or two.
I think I could really only live in Chicago, Toronto, or Minneapolis.
The Salt Lake Valley is expecting “the big one” (earthquake) anytime. There is a greater than 40% chance of a 6.75+ earthquake along the Wasatch fault within the next 50 years. 80% of Utah’s population lives along the front including the fault. Because the valley is an old lakebed, that means much of the ground would experience liquefaction. Approximately 140,000 buildings wouldn’t be ready for it. It’d be pretty bad. One source, but the best is a government report from years back detailing how bad it could be.
Soooo. They know it’s going to be bad. But they ain’t doing shit?
I think there have been mitigation efforts. I’m pretty sure I’d personally be fucked, given the age of the house I’m renting and its proximity to the fault, but a lot of people would be okay!
It seems like the best course of action would be to move, but of course that isn’t an option for everyone living there
When living out bush in Australia forrest fires and floods are a real threat. My prep was the tried and true method of “she’ll be right mate”.
It used to be blizzards in the DC area, but with global warming, I haven’t seen one since 2016. Hurricanes and tornadoes are rare, but do happen. I suspect hurricanes will become more common. I have rapid “go to bags” and some canned supplies. Generally, with hurricanes you get ample warning. We also have places to go in Appalachia (relatives), so we wouldn’t have to shelter.
Western Australia. Wildfires. I prepare by slathering myself in bbq sauce.
Most posters are talking about what natural disasters they experience and less about preparedness, so I’m going to take the preparedness angle:
- We have a go bag with medical supplies, very basic survival equipment, and non-perishable food.
- We have enough non-perishable food at home for my wife and I for about 3 months
- We have enough water for a week, and lifestraws to use local water supplies after that.
- We have basic survival things like hand crank chargers/radios, solar batteries, thermal blankets, etc.
- In the case of man made disaster (nuclear war) we have iodine pills.
My take on survival stuff is to be prepared but not be a prepper. Some folks take this way too far. I feel everyone who builds a bunker and has a years worth of food is going to have someone fall flat on their house and it won’t matter anyway. That being said, I want to have enough to comfortably survive a week-month, and then after that things would be so fucked that all bets are off anyway.
On #3 water filtration is often a very overlooked thing. I’ve got a Sawyer filter I set up inline with a hydration pack for when I go hiking. Water filters are so cheap and can have great shelf life, pretty much every one should have one.
So true
Got non perishable food for about a week at home.
-40 temperatures every few years. I live in an apartment so I’m not allowed to install a fireplace and can’t really make changes to the heating system. Got a heap of candles that could keep a small room above freezing for a day or two.
Excessive amounts of snow. 4WD and can work remotely.
Mainly we’re at risk from earth quake, flood, and wildfires. In general I keep a good stock of food, water, basic medical supplies and have a plan for evacuating if it come to that. For fire the main thing that is likely to affect me is smoke and I keep materials for making a Corsi-Rosenthal box.
Republican Governance. It is natural that it’ll be a disaster.
We just had a “once every 100-years” storm surge last fall. Many islands in the southern Danish archipelago were not properly prepared and saw their dikes flood (including my birthplace, and yes, I know others have so much worse conditions, but we are/were rather well protected here in the Baltic sea). There was some damage, not least to some endangered species habitats that the Copenhagen zoo was keeping, and many islands will have to seek an exception with the cultural preserverance agency to be allowed to repair their dikes.
On the bright side, the flood has seen to the fire and flood equipment being checked, meaning that we now have proper portable flood pumps. Even though they at first sent pumps too large to be loaded onto the ferry. Derp. :)
Hopefully this will not repeat for another 100 years, but many of us islanders are not so sure with global warming, so we might have to evacuate and give up the smaller islands within my lifetime if such floods become a common occurance.
And of course we could just replace our 200+ year old dirt and stone dikes and less old water locks with modern concrete and steel dikes, but I think we’ll have a hard time convincing the state to put in the required resources for a <10 people community. Even Ærø, one of the larger islands with a population of ~6000, has had problems with dike maintenance.
I guess my advice would be the normal stuff: keep some bottled water and long term food that can be eaten cold, keep a battery bank for your phone, blankets and a bucket, know how to get to your rooftop when in the attic (will hopefully never be necessary in the baltic sea), have a good pair of waders and a good flashlight. And of course, know how to quickly contact any other inhabitants in your local area if necessary.
Aside from the Big One (for which I’ve been meaning to make an emergency kit but keep putting off because reasons), we get really bad wildfires now on the west coast so before every summer I load up my inhaler and nasal spray, then I proceed to not go outside for 3 or 4 weeks because outside air bad. Thanks lungs. Thankfully I don’t live where the fires are normally happening, just in the vicinity. if I did, the above mentioned nonexistent emergency kit could be made fireproof and double up for preparedness.
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Wildfires and flooding here in northern Ontario. Can’t really prepare for these things… Just pack up and go when needed. Wildfire got real close to town last summer, and MNRF were beginning to setup sprinklers around town, but eventually the fire was taken care of. We were ready to pack up and go if the time came, but luckily never needed to.
Mostly tropical cyclones in Hong Kong. Not much has to be done when there’s one, except staying at home.
But last year we got hit by a 1-in-500-year rainstorm. Due to people not really expecting much damage from a storm, it caused a lot of damage.
