The Awesome Power of Nature, Sometimes Terrifying, Sometimes Deadly

[Gunslinger808]

Around here it's the heat.
Every year we have countless people ignore it and end up as just another statistic.
Back when I did search and rescue, it always seemed to be tourist and poor planners that just couldn't figure it takes more than one bottle of water to survive an 8 mile hike on a 110° day.
Even on improved trails we'd end up either taking up a big wheel or calling in a helicopter, and that was of course just for the ones we found alive.

Throw in the idiot treasure hunters looking for the Lost Dutchman, and we were called out almost every night during the summer.

Not even going to talk about all the illegals that die every year trying to cross the desert.

 

[Farmer17]

I've been driving down the highway several times during tornado season in OK listening to the radio and the announcer will say there's a bad one coming our way and I turn on my emergency flashers and start flashing my bright beams. I remember doing this during the two F5 tornadoes that hit Moore and South OKC and I would pass people and they would not even look over at me and were clueless about the danger they were about to encounter. Many out of state drivers were killed driving down the highway and I always wondered if it was any of the people I tried to warn.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r2X8odaUtg[/ame]

 

[DeathGrip]

Farmer, I remember something they said about there being Moore between OKC and Norman.

I got that from a friend that was from Moore but stationed at Ft. Sill when I was there.

I'm always reminded of him when I see this videos storm. We lost contact after the service and that was many years before this storm.

 

[snowman]

This discussion makes me glad I'm not the adventuresome type. Caution isn't my middle name, but it could be. Suits me just fine. I recall when my TV worked I would see programs or commercials in which someone would walk out and stand near the edge of a cliff -my legs would start to tingle and get weak and I would have to look away.

From time to time some fellows here confess their fear of spiders, snakes, and etc. The above is my confession for the day; has kept me alive and safe many times, which I find preferable to a man card.

Regards,
Andy

 

[LVSteve]

Nature is bigger than you.

^ This x1000.

When I came to Nevada I listened carefully to the advice about being prepared in the desert. The penny dropped pretty quickly that the desert is just like the sea. If you go taking liberties, you'll get hurt...if you're lucky.

 

[bigwheelzip]

The risks that Nature presents to me suddenly, with no warning, at locations I've previously felt safe occupying, have left the strongest impression.
While in Los Angeles for work, 2 earthquakes struck, the Northridge and Bear Lake quakes. The Northridge quake struck while I was at work, 5 stories up an office building. Framed pictures on the walls started rocking, then ripples started moving across the concrete floor and suspended ceiling simultaneously. Then computer monitors started bouncing off desks to the floor as ceiling tiles came down. After it ended, we discovered a crack in the buildings concrete central core that ran vertically through 3 floors.
Another time that Nature visited me while at work was when a tornado swept through Georgia's Alvin Vogtle nuclear power station one night while it was under construction. We had just enough warning to shelter in the tornado-proof Auxillary building.
Some of us waited in the building's doorway for the twister's arrival. The construction site was brightly lit but beyond the lights was an inky abyss. The steamy night suddenly chilled dramatically. The quiet was broken by what sounded like a train. A huge brown wall of swirling dirt appeared in the lights, moving toward us. It was studded with recognizable debris. I remember seeing 4x8 sheets of plywood and hardhats mixed with the spinning dirt cloud, before we retreated indoors to safety.

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[raljr1]

There is nothing man can build that Mother Nature cannot destroy. I used to manage a company that built generator enclosures able to withstand 200 MPH winds. We would sometimes joke that the generator would be running, but there would be nothing left around it....and then only if there wasn't a natural gas explosion caused by the natural disaster. Then the generato might be gone as well.

 

[steelslaver]

It is estimated that Mount St Helen's eruption had the power of 500 Atomic bombs.

Its was a pimple compared to the Yellowstone caldera.

 

[7tenz]

Around here, if we get "red flag" warnings it means that idiots shouldn't try to announce the gender of their baby using pyrotechnics.

That one is blocking out the sun and irritating my eyes as I write. I'm about 40 miles away from it.

 

[7tenz]

The risks that Nature presents to me suddenly, with no warning, at locations I've previously felt safe occupying, have left the strongest impression.
While in Los Angeles for work, 2 earthquakes struck, the Northridge and Bear Lake quakes. The Northridge quake struck while I was at work, 5 stories up an office building. Framed pictures on the walls started rocking, then ripples started moving across the concrete floor and suspended ceiling simultaneously. Then computer monitors started bouncing off desks to the floor as ceiling tiles came down. After it ended, we discovered a crack in the buildings concrete central core that ran vertically through 3 floors.
Another time that Nature visited me while at work was when a tornado swept through Georgia's Alvin Vogtle nuclear power station one night while it was under construction. We had just enough warning to shelter in the tornado-proof Auxillary building.
Some of us waited in the building's doorway for the twister's arrival. The construction site was brightly lit but beyond the lights was an inky abyss. The steamy night suddenly chilled dramatically. The quiet was broken by what sounded like a train. A huge brown wall of swirling dirt appeared in the lights, moving toward us. It was studded with recognizable debris. I remember seeing 4x8 sheets of plywood and hardhats mixed with the spinning dirt cloud, before we retreated indoors to safety.

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I remember the Northridge quake. At the time I thought is was just an aftershock of Landers which shook noticeably worse from where I live. You were working in an office at 4am? I was just waking up getting ready to crawl out of bed when it hit.

 

[walkin jack]

The risks that Nature presents to me suddenly, with no warning, at locations I've previously felt safe occupying, have left the strongest impression.
While in Los Angeles for work, 2 earthquakes struck, the Northridge and Bear Lake quakes. The Northridge quake struck while I was at work, 5 stories up an office building. Framed pictures on the walls started rocking, then ripples started moving across the concrete floor and suspended ceiling simultaneously. Then computer monitors started bouncing off desks to the floor as ceiling tiles came down. After it ended, we discovered a crack in the buildings concrete central core that ran vertically through 3 floors.
Another time that Nature visited me while at work was when a tornado swept through Georgia's Alvin Vogtle nuclear power station one night while it was under construction. We had just enough warning to shelter in the tornado-proof Auxillary building.
Some of us waited in the building's doorway for the twister's arrival. The construction site was brightly lit but beyond the lights was an inky abyss. The steamy night suddenly chilled dramatically. The quiet was broken by what sounded like a train. A huge brown wall of swirling dirt appeared in the lights, moving toward us. It was studded with recognizable debris. I remember seeing 4x8 sheets of plywood and hardhats mixed with the spinning dirt cloud, before we retreated indoors to safety.

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You can sometimes have enough time to prepare for disaster...but not always.

You can sometimes take steps to protect yourself/property...but not always.

You can sometimes survive Mother Natures wrath...but not always.

You can run but you can't hide...not always.

 

[bigwheelzip]

You were working in an office at 4am?

One of the quirks of temp contract employment, or job shopping, is working night or graveyard shifts when a company is behind schedule. Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo had a bunch of us nightstalkers from out of town, laying out components of telecom satellites.
Learned that earthquakes feel much worse the higher up you are in a building.



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[JS Esq.]

Then of course there is the number who die in HOT cars. The numbers will amaze you!.

The Washington Post did a fascinating, horrifying, heartbreaking story on this a number of years ago. It's worth reading, but be warned, really tough.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...e0fe3a-f580-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html

 

[ameridaddy]

One of my coworkers, Bob, was a self-confident guy, perhaps a bit too cocky, who would usually tell you "I know that" if we tried to inform him of something.
One overcast, windy late summer day, I was in Hatteras Seashore park with family and friends. We went to the beach and as the ocean came into view as we crested the dune, I didn't like what I saw. The waves were medium size, maybe 5', but they were running 45 degrees to the beach and the crests were very close together. I told my family and friends we're not going in the water today. At that point, I'd been going to the ocean for about 50 years, seen Northeasters, hurricanes, been caught in a rip tide, seen big sharks, swam in 20' waves, rode out hurricanes, so I had plenty of experience, but I did not like that water that day and no way I'd have gone in, not even knee deep.
After I returned to work, I heard a few weeks later that Bob had drowned on the Outer Banks, and when I looked up the accident report, he drowned about a mile from where we refused to go in on that same day. You can be as manly and cocky as you want, but Mother Nature doesn't care.

 

[Jack Flash]

... You can be as manly and cocky as you want, but Mother Nature doesn't care.

That's for sure. Your post reminds me a little of a short story by Jack London, "To Build a Fire". It's a good read about a strong cocky young man in the Yukon Territory. It doesn't go well for him.

 

[pharmer]

Right this minute there's a "Zap-Boom" thunderstorm outside. Last shot seemed like it was inside. Joe

 

[JS Esq.]

One of my coworkers, Bob, was a self-confident guy, perhaps a bit too cocky, who would usually tell you "I know that" if we tried to inform him of something.
One overcast, windy late summer day, I was in Hatteras Seashore park with family and friends. We went to the beach and as the ocean came into view as we crested the dune, I didn't like what I saw. The waves were medium size, maybe 5', but they were running 45 degrees to the beach and the crests were very close together. I told my family and friends we're not going in the water today. At that point, I'd been going to the ocean for about 50 years, seen Northeasters, hurricanes, been caught in a rip tide, seen big sharks, swam in 20' waves, rode out hurricanes, so I had plenty of experience, but I did not like that water that day and no way I'd have gone in, not even knee deep.
After I returned to work, I heard a few weeks later that Bob had drowned on the Outer Banks, and when I looked up the accident report, he drowned about a mile from where we refused to go in on that same day. You can be as manly and cocky as you want, but Mother Nature doesn't care.

We were vacationing in the OBX a handful of years ago when there was a topical storm a few hundred miles off shore. It was producing some nice waves so I grabbed the boogie board and went out. I'm a very strong swimmer - swam competitively when younger, still swim for exercise, SCUBA diver, etc.

Rode the first wave in - maybe 3 foot crest - and it felt like the spin cycle in a washing machine. Crawled out on my hands and knees and didn't go back in the water for a couple days. I've surfed bigger waves, but there was a power behind that one I've not experienced before.

 

[ameridaddy]

... I've surfed bigger waves, but there was a power behind that one I've not experienced before.

There's a reason that area is called the Graveyard of the Atlantic. I marveled at stories of the US Lifesaving Service, the predecessor to the Coast Guard, and their hair-raising storm rescues in that surf with pulling boats.
"The Blue Book says we've got to go out and it doesn't say a damn thing about having to come back." -Patrick H. Etheridge, Keeper 1891-1909, Cape Hatteras Life-Saving Station.

 

[Farmer17]

When we were in Los Cabos a year ago in January it had one of the most beautiful beaches but there was no swimming allowed because of the undertow. There were signs everywhere on the beach saying how dangerous the undertow was and many people have been killed there and to stay away from the water. I'm a good swimmer and waded a little into the ocean and it scared the heck out of me, that undertow was amazingly strong and I could have been sucked out to sea easily! A little later I saw many adults and their children ignoring the signs and playing in the ocean and just wondered if it might be someones last day alive.