Natural disaster experiences?

Submitted by In2restingFacts on October 10, 2025
Has anyone lived through, been affected by, or otherwise experienced a natural disaster? Feel free to talk about it here.

My only experience with one was when a tornado hit my old town in Texas in March 2022, a couple months before I moved. It was part of a larger outbreak across Texas that day that I don’t think took any lives, luckily. Though my town was located very much in the storm-ridden Tornado Alley part of central Texas, we hadn’t seen a tornado in something like 76 years. It was pretty scary, I think it was an EF2. I’d been following the Weather Channel’s live coverage of the outbreak, when they announced that a funnel cloud and formed and touched down near the interstate in my town a few miles away. My family turned on the local news as they started tracking it. It hit a shopping center we frequently passed, flipping several cars, damaging a Chili’s, and ripping the wall out of a bank. It continued on, mostly through the woods, and my brother and I started freaking out as it went closer towards our neighborhood. My dad moved the car from the driveway into the garage, and we all went into the laundry room, the only windowless room in the general center of our house’s ground floor (the soil is too rocky for basements in central TX). The tornado hit a waterpark resort about 10 minutes from our house, and came within a half-mile or so of our house. We were freaking out, my dad was trying to calm us down, but then the news said that it shifted direction and started moving to the east. It tracked into the town over, hitting little else along the way. It continued for maybe 20 more minutes before taking out a Doppler radar station and dissipating. Some power lines were down and there was some other damage, but we were otherwise fine. It was pretty cool in retrospect.

34 Comments
+4
Level 77
Oct 10, 2025
Where I live I've gone through your average California earthquakes, snow storms, and flooding, but the closest calls I've had are with wildfires, had to evacuate my home two times, once during the 2014 King Fire and another during the 2021 Caldor Fire.
+3
Level 27
Oct 11, 2025
oh jeez, that sounds terrible! wildfires are such a scary and particularly devastating disaster. glad you were alright. did you ever lose your home?
+1
Level 77
Oct 11, 2025
Nah, luckily neither fires came my way, not that scary for me at least though, kinda used to them in the Sierra Nevada
+1
Level 27
Oct 11, 2025
that’s good. this past summer we had hella wildfires here in utah, among other random structure and vehicle fires. i think this was the worst year on record here, it’s been a bit spooky
+3
Level 65
Oct 11, 2025
I live in Kangarooland and once I slept through an earthquake. Those don't happen too often in my area. Everyone I knew woke up and experienced it but I just slept through it like the hibernating creature I am

(this is completely goofy compared to everything else in this comment section, but it did say any experiences)

+4
Level 71
Oct 11, 2025
Hey, I remember in 2021 (before you can to Kangarooland?) there was a huge earthquake, and because no one knew what was happening, my family kept thinking that another family member was shaking the house...
+3
Level 65
Oct 11, 2025
That got me wheeze laughing help-
+2
Level 56
Oct 11, 2025
I havent experienced any natural disasters

But when i was in singapore, we were in class, and there was an earthquake in malaysia (or indonesia maybe ) and it was so strong that we felt it in singapore, so the classroom started shaking so we all went under our tables while the teacher was asking the teacher next door what was happening and we all (but not me) thought we were gonna die but it was really nothing

+1
Level 51
Oct 11, 2025
I live in Scotland when there isn't really much natural disasters but there was storm darragh in 2024 and the power went out in my house for 40 minutes
+9
Level 27
Oct 11, 2025
darragh is the most scottish-sounding word i can imagine
+1
Level 87
Oct 13, 2025
Sounds very Irish to me.
+1
Level 57
Oct 24, 2025
Darragh 'The Menace' Ennis is an Irish Chaser on the ITV programme 'The Chase'
+2
Level 61
Oct 11, 2025
The only real natural disaster I have seen where I live was a tropical storm that hit a few years ago and a very small earthquake that I didn't even feel (some people saw plates shaking). As far as I know, there were several tornadoes in my county like 2 or 3 years ago but none of them hit my town (actually very sad because I have always wanted to see a tornado)
+3
Level 75
Oct 11, 2025
Hurricane Sandy
+1
Level 27
Oct 11, 2025
were you in New York?
+2
Level 75
Oct 11, 2025
New Jersey
+4
Level 27
Oct 11, 2025
oh i’m so sorry you had to go through that, living in new jersey sounds terrible
+4
Level 78
Oct 11, 2025
Earthquakes with magnitude around 5,5 and 6,3 in Central Croatia in 2020. Since fair share of our infrastructure is not accustomed to stronger earthquakes, it was quite the deal with 8 casualties.
+4
Level 27
Oct 11, 2025
oh wow i didn’t even know croatia had earthquakes like that
+2
Level 78
Oct 15, 2025
Not very frequently, but they sometimes occur. I experienced earthquakes with magnitude about 3,5 Richter scale every 2-3 years until the activity in 2020 increased. Italy, Romania, Albania and Greece also experienced stronger earthquakes since mid-20th century.
+5
Level 76
Oct 11, 2025
Here in Kansas, I have experienced some tornadoes. Tornado Alley at its finest.
+3
Level 27
Oct 12, 2025
ah, tell me then, how was the Emerald City, Dorothy?
+3
Level 76
Oct 12, 2025
Ah, well for starters I met some interesting people like a scarecrow, a tin man, and a lion. Then I met this wizard guy who told me I had powers and then some witch kidnapped me but then I threw some water at her and she melted.

Then I returned home. So, that's cool I guess.

+3
Level 71
Oct 11, 2025
Oh, and Kangarooland has a lot of heatwaves... Once school was cancelled because of a slight risk of bushfire.
+2
Level 27
Oct 12, 2025
if school was cancelled because of possible fire risk where i live we'd probably lose about a month of school a year XD
+2
Level 71
Oct 12, 2025
I think it was either 'extreme' or 'catastrophic' on the fire risk scale...
+3
Level 61
Oct 11, 2025
I've survived four hurricanes and three tornadoes (I used to live in Florida, so...).

Technically an earthquake as well, but it was a small tremor and doesn't really count. Also lots of hail and thunderstorms

+2
Level 27
Oct 12, 2025
idk why people even live in florida anymore. aside from all the other reasons, the natural disasters alone seem like too much to tolerate
+6
Level 15
Oct 12, 2025
I lived in Christchurch during the 2011 earthquakes. Both the 7.1 and the 6.3, not to mention the literally hundreds of aftershocks for weeks after each of the biggies
+4
Level 27
Oct 12, 2025
yikes
+4
Level 15
Oct 12, 2025
Yep
+3
Level 55
Oct 12, 2025
Extreme floods and sometimes earthquakes are pretty common here.
+2
Level 22
Oct 15, 2025
Personally, I don't think I've experienced more than one storm with hailstones 8 cm in diameter. My house, garden, and car suffered significant damage. This was in 2022 in the south of France.

I'm not even talking about the heatwave anymore, 40°C (104°F) is reached every year now...

(I'm using a translator).

+2
Level 27
Oct 15, 2025
oh wow that sucks, i’m sorry about your garden :(

hail is crazy