when i was three years old, my family picked up and left sunny southern california and moved to this house in springfield, illinois for my dad's work. my parents had only ever lived in egypt and los angeles, so it's no surprise that it only took one winter for them to decide that snow and ice were not for them. as we prepared to make the move back to california, the people of springfield expressed their alarm at the idea. weren't we afraid of earthquakes?
i ask this of the midwest - how in the name of all natural disasters are earthquakes scarier than tornadoes!?
this is actually a debate i've been having with andrew (who grew up in iowa, where tornadoes are a thing) since shortly after i moved here. i firmly believe that tornadoes are way scarier and more destructive than earthquakes. the typical earthquake causes you to wake up wondering why your picture frames are slightly askew on the wall, whereas the typical tornado picks you and your picture frames up off the ground and carries you to a different state. yesterday i expressed my disappointment at having lived in the midwest for almost a year and a half and not having seen a tornado. it was my belief that they happened all the time and that surely by now i would have experienced one. in fact, the day i moved here my connecting flight out of las vegas was grounded for several hours because of a tornado watch in chicago. do i possess some kind of tornado repellant quality? andrew's response shocked me - in 26 years, he has never once actually laid eyes on a tornado. at that moment i considered the argument automatically won. in case any doubt still existed, i consulted wikipedia for some data.
in the year 2011, there have been no earthquake related casualties in the united states. there have been approximately 550 tornado related casualties, 159 of which occurred during the may 22 joplin, missouri tornado. granted, this is atypical - there have been more tornado related deaths this year than in the last ten combined. in fact, 2011 has been the deadliest tornado year since 1936. the deadliest earthquake in california history (the 1906 san francisco earthquake, 7.9) was devastating not because of the quake itself but the fires that followed it. the two deadliest in my lifetime, the 1989 loma prieta (7.1) and the 1994 northridge (6.7), killed 63 and 33 people respectively. following the northridge earthquake, massive changes were made to building codes and existing structures were retrofitted to reduce the destruction caused by future quakes.
(please note: this discussion is limited to california earthquakes. earthquakes everywhere else in the world, yeah, fine, they're totally terrifying. take for example the 9.0 that hit japan in march. way scarier than a tornado.)
in the process of compiling all of this hideously depressing data, i also discovered that there is a natural phenomenon called a fire whirl, which looks like something out of a harry potter movie. it is literally a vortex of flame. they are very rarely captured on film, in fact a google image search for "fire whirl" turned up no results that weren't disappointing. i did, however, find a video.
what are your thoughts, internets? are tornadoes scarier than earthquakes?
i agree that tornadoes are scarier. maybe it is the fear of the unknown, but i have only felt the smaller earthquakes in california, which has made them somewhat novel. oh, it feels like a roller coaster...neat. or when i was in trinidad there was an earthquake and a couple of us just rolled over and went to sleep. either way, despite their relative destructive scarcity, i don't think i'd want to chance either :P
ReplyDeleteHave I told you the story of how my mom's family (in Grand Rapids) went to a school dance in and returned home to discover that their garage had been ripped off by a tornado?
ReplyDeleteTornadoes win.
just the garage? no big deal.
ReplyDeleteI have never experienced a full on tornado in my years of living in Chicago and Central Illinois - I have had to head to the basement more times than I can count because the sirens went off and it was tornado like weather. I think that all the times we midwesterners have experienced strong storms that only minimally damaged property and didn't kill anyone is the equivalent to your earthquake experience of things falling off the walls. Living in the city of Chicago and being terrified of a Joplin caliber tornado is like living in California and being terrified of an earthquake like the one in Japan - it's a whole different animal, especially for you Gnat, who does not leave the city limits. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think Hurricanes trump all.
fair point - i actually do have memories of being in preschool and having to file down to the basement when the sirens went off. still - chicago to joplin mo is one state, not the entire pacific ocean...
ReplyDeleteThe buildings and atmosphere around the city make it REALLY difficult for a tornado to form there. Also my sister used to have such a fear of tornadoes that she would puke and freak out every time the sirens went off. Makes for a really long spring and summer when you live in Iowa... and no we have never seen a funnel cloud or had significant damage (other than like, falling trees).
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, Japan did quite well with their 9.0 earthquake. The following tsunami however did a lot more damage. Those are terrifying.
ReplyDeleteI've been through 2 or 3 major (mag7+) earthquakes and hundreds of mag6 or less, I honestly don't remember because they aren't that memorable.
The 2 most terrifying natural events in my life were both wildfires. The Oakland fire and the San Diego Fire, which was additionally scary because those fires came with 80-100mph winds.
The fact that you know someone who went 26 years in the midwest without seeing a tornado though does dampen my fear of tornadoes. I was under the impression that one could expect to see one once or twice a year.
to be fair, he has been very very very close to tornadoes... he was just underground at the time so he never actually laid eyes on one. i feel like that makes them MORE scary. something about unknown danger.
ReplyDeletei actually missed both big california earthquakes of my lifetime... during the '89 we were in northridge but by the time the '94 hit we had made it to nor cal. i was in LA for the '87, apparently my mom grabbed me from a crib and dove under the dining room table.