Joys of Geography

[telosphilos]

I live in the USA and I rather like it here. The USA is a country of natrual disasters. The cold truth is they happen all the time in this country. There are big ones like what we are currently seeing and there are little ones that never make the international news like the wildfires out west. I've mostly lived in the east and south of the

Comments

tornados, blizzards and volcanos!

[alchemia]

Tornado alley also extends into part of Illinois, i'm on the cusp of it. a few tornados are year are not uncommon here, and we've had some bad ones. The interior of the house is used if you do not have a basement. if you have a house here yoou usually have a basement and thats the place to go.

Living here you can almost FEEL when conditions are right for a tornado. Also, yu don't always have much if anywarning- if the tornado forms over/near your town, boom, you're sort of the warning for the next town over. We sometimes get microbursts too that aren't tornados, they just come straight down of the air and latten things like the proverbial hand of g*d. We get it down to getting the family/pets into the basement as FAST as you can- becuase sometimes you literally have no time.

Blizzards aren't just difficult driving around in- an ill prepared city can be shut down for days, or a prepared one but faced with a very strong blizzard can be shut down for days. alot of people die,and it is often thepoor and disabled. if youre on medicaid for instance, your prescriptions wont be filled until 24 hrs before you run out. If that coincides with a blizzard, you get forced off your meds for days. If ambulances cant reach you because of the snow--- well you see the problem. And then there's heat or lack there of. Either b/c peopel can't afford it, or because theutils go out (or last major snowstorm in the 90's knocked out electric, gas and phone for over 3 days where we lived, and we were snowed in with no way to get t stores etc - it was worse elsewhere). you always hear cases on the news of ppl who die b/c of the cold or medical things, but its just mentioned in passing and people i think dont really think about it untilthey are in the situation where they realise how precarious things can be

One thing you didn't mention was Volcanos (northwest and hawaii). Look at Mt Ranier and the towns that have sprung up around that area. most peopple think volcano = lava and this is true andcan be a deadly horrible disaster (eg Mt St Helens). However, people don't often think of Lahars, which can move faster and flow more "liquidy". Ranier can easily produce another Lahar- its produced many and Pugent Sound area which has been built up very quickly, withhundreds of thousands of residents, is in fact on a lahar. They're also in a alley with limitted exit routes. they're 'plan' is to 'go to high ground'- butthat means going up the sides of valleys- finding a tall building will not work. That also means you need to have access to a car ASAP. and can you imagine the traffic- that won't be running from hurricane that you've daysnotice for, Thepeople of Orting will be lucky to have THIRTY MINUTES TO EVACUATE. Many towns are between orting and Pugent sound - if it reaches PS, they'll be luckyto have had 45-60 minutes to get out. Its not going to happen.

i cant imagine that. I can deal w. tornados and having a couple minutes noticeand hunkering down in the basement, becuase you still have a good chance to survive. There is NO hunkering down when a 30-ft wall of scalding hot mud is crashing toward you.

Re: tornados, blizzards and volcanos!

[telosphilos]

Tornado alley is defined as just those four states, stupid as that sounds. I've actually seen more tornados elsewhere, mostly because I was inside when the sirens went off in Texas. In reality, I can't think of a single place here that doesn't get the occasional tornado.

Blizzards are dangerous for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I haven't lived in the north of the country since I was a young child so I have forgotten a number of things about them. Thanks for bringing those points up.

You are quite right, I forgot all about the volcanos which is very silly of me since I used to live right next to five dormant volcanos in Albuquerque. I knew I was forgetting something major that happens regularly. Pretty much with a volcano, if its going to go you are most likely screwed. I would not want to contend with a volcano, I'll take the rest of the country instead. *shudder*

Re: tornados, blizzards and volcanos!

[alchemia]

did they change it or something when i was in hs, in earth science class, i remember they had a map with a big red sort of a rectable across the middle, covering mainly those states but extending into a few others, andthat was what waslabelled as T.A. i they've changed it i didnt know. our teacher used to like to scare us w. things like our proximity to the new madrid fault line, microbursts that can just come out of nowhere and squish you and survivor tales of what its like to be struck by lightening, etc..

yeh, i figure, all things cnsidered, its not too bad here. i personalyl can deal with blizzards. im not afraid rely of tornados. (i do worry about Bugland and meds ia medicaid though). i wouldnt mind earthquakes, if i lived on a *farm* but i would never live in a city near a fault line.

Re: tornados, blizzards and volcanos!

[telosphilos]

I think they did because I remember that big trapazoid thing too. I looked it up again just for this post and that is what I found. They called that small part tornado alley and the rest a regular tornado zone. My source could be wrong, the other still makes more sense to me.

I think you have a very legit worry about his meds. He needs them. Medicaid isn't that great a system at providing for its patrons. I've read a few of his rants on the subject.

I'll live wherever we need to to keep the family afloat. We have things worked out so that I don't have to work and can do all the things with the kiddo. Being aware of the hazards that come with living some place is only sensible.