http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/images/live/94/187870.jpg
75 acres of land around my home burned down on Saturday.  This is typical for the beach grass surrounding us- it's a nature preserve and a few days of dry air can bring some bad flames (although this time they say it's arson).
What natural disasters are typical for your area?  Are you pestered by earthquakes or tornados?  And why don't you move?
We'll get through 4 or 5 fires a year here.

Where I'm living now, we've had some flooding from the heavy rains of the past two weeks...but nothing too serious...


I have lived through many typhoons though...and an 8.2 earthquake!  :o

The only natural disasters I've experienced are earthquakes, the biggest of which I experienced 12 years ago (6.7 Richter magnitude). Earthquakes are typical for California, given that the San Andreas Fault runs through the state.

Why don't we move? Because we enjoy living near the ocean. :) And our foundations are in the state of California.

I was in a flood in the 70s. I was a little kid and thought it was fun, but my parents were less amused. The water stopped six inches from our house.

I was driving in Fairfax during a rainstorm once and someone comes on the radio, IF YOU'RE DRIVING IN FAIRFAX PULL OVER! PULL OVER RIGHT NOW! TORNADOES! THERE ARE TORNADOES EVERYWHERE!! WE'RE NOT KIDDING!!!" but I just kept driving and everything was fine.

I live right on top of the biggest fault line in North America. The New Madrid fault line.
We tend to get earthquakes most day's actually, but a lot of them are hardly noticeable.

I've sat through two large earthquakes, one of which shook a lamp off the table in the house.

When the New Madrid fault finally goes big time, I'll be dead for sure.
Last time it went, a large part the Mississippi river flowed backwards.

From what Geologists say, when it goes, Memphis and St. Louis won't exist.

We get Tornado's all the time.
Over the weekend we were under a warning 24/7

Why don't I move?

Actually I am  ;D

Minor earthquakes are about as exciting as it gets.  The occasional really heavy snowfall (the last of these being over ten years ago).

That's why I like Britain!

The Great Storm of 1987.

Blizzard of '78

http://www.myweatherdata.com/mwd/pics/bliz78/pic4.jpg

Of course we get floods and terrible snow here...but inmy neck of the woods the fires are the most dangerous thing and it happens annually...whydon't we move?  great town, great beach, and preserved land in a land infested with contractors.

NEWS FLASH!!!!
Who started huge brushfire in Great Kills?
Investigators think blaze was deliberately set and are seeking your help
Monday, March 13, 2006
By DOUG AUER
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

Fire marshals believe a five-alarm brush fire that burned through 75 acres of Great Kills Park and endangered nearby homes was set deliberately.

"It does appear to be incendiary and intentionally set," said Assistant Chief Fire Marshal Richard McCahey about Saturday's blaze. "Several smaller fires were apparently set early on, which led to the larger fire."
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Flames were first reported at about 4:58 p.m. in various spots a few hundred feet east of the Buffalo Street entrance to the park. By 7:27 p.m., the blaze had escalated into a five-alarm inferno.

FDNY officials said the fire was bound by Buffalo on the west, and spread to an area situated between Brook Avenue and Grayson Street on the north and Riga Street and Merkel Place on the south, all in Oakwood.

McCahey said that fire marshals will be ringing doorbells today and tomorrow, asking residents if they noticed any suspicious persons or activity prior to the fire.

McCahey said that when the blaze began, fire marshals were in the area looking into a previous tip.

"We got a complaint from an unidentified neighbor who saw kids setting fires in the vicinity of Buffalo Street earlier in the week," said McCahey. "So we already had two squads investigating before it hit a second alarm."

More than 50 fire vehicles and an estimated 230 firefighters responded -- beating back the burning brush for nearly five hours before finally bringing the blaze under control at about 8:52 p.m. The last of the smoldering embers were extinguished by 9:40 p.m.

"It was a nasty brush fire," said one firefighter who declined to be named. "It was one area, but it covered a lot of ground where the cattails were high."

Some residents evacuated the area, while others defied Police and Fire Department orders, using garden hoses to assist in the fight.