First natural or national disaster you remember?

[bertha katzenengel]

Make your answer your subject line, plus "heard of" or "was there," then write your memories.

I'll start.

[bertha katzenengel]

1. Sylmar Earthquake, Feb. 9, 1971. Was there.

It was my mother's 30th birthday!

My little sister woke up and said, "Kim, quit shaking my bed."

[Shine]

18. Hey, that was MY first one too! We were living on Van Nuys Blvd

in North Hollywood. I was 7 and I was sleeping on the top bunk of our bed. I also thought it was my sister kicking the bed.

Too funny, huh?

:hi:

[Kutjara]

73. Same here! I was living in Sierra Madre.

It started off rumbling the house like big trucks did when they came up the hill, then got louder and more violent. When my 4' tall model of the Saturn V rocket fell off my bookshelf and beaned me on the head, it penetrated my 9 year old brain that this was no truck.

There was an old woman who lived further down the street that had a huge yard full of dogs (she took in strays). Those dogs were barking up a storm in the seconds before the quake. They woke me up long before I heard the "truck."

on edit: Now that I think about it, the RFK assassination was the first I remember. We were living in Baltimore and I remember my dad went down to the railway to watch the funeral train go by, while my mother and I watched on TV at home.

[EFerrari]

102. I remember an earthquake before the JFK assassination but

just barely. I remember my mom paying the rent, too. :shrug:

[petronius]

107. I was born two days later

With all that shaking, it was like I got dropped on my head before birth - some will argue I never fully recovered... :)

[slackmaster]

120. It made the hanging lamp over my breakfast table swing

I felt it big-time in San Diego.

[av8rdave]

2. Kennedy Assassination (heard of, obviously)

Came home from my usual 1/2 day of kindergarten (5 years old at the time) and my mom told me. Watched the tv coverage the rest of the day.

[hippywife]

39. Ditto on that, Dave.

For national disaster, anyway. Natural disaster would have been one of the many tornado episodes that seemed rampant in Ohio when I was growing up there as a kid.

[av8rdave]

87. What part of Ohio? I lived in the Youngstown area for 5 years growing up...

and I remember well how nasty the thunderstorms/tornados could be. Thank God I live in Texas now! lol

[hippywife]

95. Columbus and surrounding area.

Too funny about the Texas migration, I'm in Oklahoma now of all places. People back home were all worried about me moving into Tornado Alley but the week before our wedding (in Columbus) a tornado touched down briefly a couple of miles from my house.

Nice to meet a another damned Yankee from Ahia! :hi:

[av8rdave]

109. Nice to meet you as well. Ironically, I spend a lot of time in Columbus these days

The plane I fly lays over there a lot. Downtown Columbus is a great area!

[regnaD kciN]

75. Same here...

The principal came into our 2nd grade class and whispered something to the teacher. She broke the news to us a few minutes later, then everybody went to a school assembly. I don't recall if we were asked to pray for the late President (it would have been unconstitutional by then, but I don't think anyone was going to make a big deal about it that day).

It was a pretty scary time -- people kept wondering if "the Russians did it." My father said he didn't think they would have, because it would have meant war if they had been caught. Somehow, that didn't reassure me any.

For the next four days, regular television programming was pre-empted, with non-stop coverage of the assassination, the funeral, the murder of Oswald, etc. I was pretty upset about the usual kid's programming being taken off the air -- and, before you jump to the conclusion that I was a jaded kid who was more annoyed about missing Yogi Bear and Looney Tunes than I was upset at the killing of the President, it was actually more like the usual cartoons would have provided some familiarity and relief to a child who was already upset and frightened; but we didn't have that opportunity, and I had no escape from hearing about the killing over and over for days. I think it had somewhat of an effect on me over the next few years...I recall that my "make-believe" world for the next couple of years seemed to feature an unusual number of stories that included the sudden death of a leader, and the ensuing state funeral.

[av8rdave]

86. I know how you feel...I was pretty much the same way

A funny aside to a sad subject: One day, my Dad was in his basement workshop building cabinets for our kitchen. I was sitting at the bottom of the stairs watching him, but he didn't know I was there. He apparently miscut something and muttered "Well I'll be a son of a b&%$#." I'd never heard that before, and thought it sounded pretty cool. A little while later, I wandered upstairs to the kitchen where my Mom was doing something or another, and I repeated the phrase. I was truly amazed at how fast things happened! Needless to say, I was severely punished.

I mentioned that story to my Dad many years later, and he laughed and said he remembered it well. Shortly after I was imprisponed in my room, my Mom went to the basement to tell my Dad that Oswald had just been killed.

[spiderpig]

116. Me too.

Seventh grade math class over the PA. Then we went to art class where we had a radio and heard the coverage first-hand. I'll never forget it.

[Patiod]

138. I remember the TV going to all-funeral mode

I was bummed because Captain Kangaroo wasn't on, just pictures of a coffin in a round room (the Capital Rotunda).

I was three at the time.

[Art_from_Ark]

141. Rather than being bummed by the loss of my cartoons,

I was intrigued by the somber tones of the announcers and the mention of words like "caisson". A few years later, whenever we sang "As the Caissons Go Rolling Along" in elementary school music class, I always thought of the Kennedy funeral.

[terrya]

146. Same here.

Same situation.

I vividly remember watching Kennedy's funeral.

[LeftyMom]

3. The '86 flood. My neigborhood had street flooding

Our car stalled out on our street because of the high water but a neighbor with a 4x4 helped to get it out. Most of the newer areas in Sacramento have the houses raised up from the road quite a way, so it wasn't a threat to the house, but I was pretty scared because I was only five.

[bertha katzenengel]

5. being a Californian I feel I should remember hearing about this

except -- did it happen in, say, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, that year?

Dang. Scary. :hug:

[LeftyMom]

11. I was too young to remember, so I googled, and it was Feb of '86, so I was four.

It's not really news when Sacramento floods though. That year was bad, but we almost never have a winter with no flooding anywhere in the area.

http://www.safca.org/floodRisk/index.html

[Xithras]

30. Yeah, here's something to worry about....

If you look at the history of our region, the Sacramento/San Joaquin valleys average about one "historic flood" every 10 years. While we hit flood stage and some houses get inundated almost every winter, the last serious flood we had was in 1997. Statistically, we're due for another.

[LeftyMom]

32. I was figuring this year would be nasty

Instead, we hardly had any rain at all.

With a record like that, I think I have a career as a weatherbunny ahead of me. ;)

I always thought it was only me that found it funny that we have a "hundred year flood" every decade.

[XemaSab]

114. After having studied hydrology, I feel qualified to unequivocally state

that flood predictions are bullshit and we have NO IDEA what a 10 year, 100 year, or 500 year event looks like in this state. NO IDEA AT ALL. :scared:

If you live in Natomas, MOVE. :scared:

[Xithras]

126. Natomas? Ha!

My house sits 120 yards from the Stanislaus River. This house was built in 1998, because it's predecessor (which was slightly further down the property closer to the river) ended up floating to the Delta in 1500 tiny pieces. The previous owner took the insurance payout, paid off the mortgage, and bought further inland. They put the property up for sale for a song, figuring that only an idiot would buy it and that they'd necessarily have to sell it cheaply.

Say hello to the idiot :)

[XemaSab]

127. Hi, idiot!

:hi:

:P

j/k

[momophile]

92. I remember driving around afterwards seeing some of the

damage. It never reached our house in Sacramento.

[SteppingRazor]

4. Mt. St. Helens Eruption. Heard of.

I guess I was 3 years old at the time. I just remember it being on the news a whole lot. It's my earliest memory, other than stuff that happened to me personally. ... that, and John Lennon dying are the only thing Ireally remember on the news, until some of Reagan's idiocy a few years later.

[Omphaloskepsis]

13. Ditto...

I was also three at the time.. We had a thin layer of ash covering everything.

[VenusRising]

40. Same.

I was 4.

[petronius]

108. Me too - I seem to remember ash drifting as far down as So Cal

But I could be making that up...

[bertha katzenengel]

152. i was 17 or 18... i vaguely remember ash coming down...

i think. :shrug:

[huskerlaw]

6. A tornado hit my hometown. Heard of.

My sister and I were visiting my Dad and stepmom. We were in a hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah, watching the evening news when we saw a picture of our hometown, being torn to bits by a tornado.

My hometown a) was not in Utah and b) had a population of 500 people. It was extremely shocking to see it on TV. Especially since the rest of my family was home at the time.

I don't remember being horribly upset about it (I was only about 5), but my sister was absolutely freaked out about her cat.

Thankfully our house was basically untouched, and everyone in the town survived. Though some houses did not.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. The Cuban Missile Crisis

if we're counting political disasters.

I didn't know what it was about (I was in first grade), but we were sent home from school one day during it, and I remember all the adults being pretty tense.

If that doesn't qualify, then JFK's assassination.

A year later, a classmate's parents were killed in an airliner crash. Photo of it here (scroll down a bit): http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=N86504&distinct_entry=true

[Cobalt-60]

58. same here

My old man stampeded us down the stairs what seemed like every 15 minutes.
It was like that early Simpsons cartoon on Tracey Ullman show.

[bertha katzenengel]

76. hell, yeah, it qualifies - I'd say anything that terrifies the populace

is a national disaster. :scared:

[spiderpig]

118. Cuban Missile Crisis - oh yeah

I remember watching JFK's address with my parents. I was 11. My mother went off to her duplicate bridge game. When she came home, she said the bridge group said "We'll see you next week, if we're still here".

Never forgot it.

[RebelOne]

137. I was there, too and I lived in South Florida,

which should have been good reason to be terrified.

[Kat45]

8. Kennedy assassination. Heard it on the news and from neighbors.

[InternalDialogue]

9. Big Thompson flood in Estes Park, Colorado. Heard of it.

We had just moved from the Denver area to California and I recall hearing my parents talking about it. We moved back to Colorado two years later, and I learned more about it much later when I got old enough. (I was just eight when it happened.)

Sadly, my memory of hearing about the flood was that it must have been really "cool." But I was an eight-year-old boy, fascinated with disasters and all. Plus, that was the era of the made-for-TV-movie disaster epic: Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, Swarm. And when I first read through the book Jaws, my friends and I went out to the street and drew a chalk outline of how big the shark was supposed to be, so we could get a feeling for how big that was.

[momophile]

89. 1976, me too, heard of it

I guess my Aunt narrowly escaped it. I don't remember the news coverage, but I do remember driving up the canyon shortly thereafter and seeing the damage. Creepy for a 5 year old.

[AllegroRondo]

10. Iran embassy hostage crisis, 1980.

I just remember it taking up all of the media, and constant updates with "how many days". And the Reagan inauguration where they were finally freed. We watched the inauguration on TV in grade school, and my teacher was mad about it - "Now Carter will never get credit for getting them out of there!"

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. National: Robert Kennedy's assassination.

Natural: A tornado touchdown two miles from where my family lived in suburban Atlanta. I was about six at the time.

[Lilith Velkor]

14. Jonestown. Heard of.

I had just come home with chicken pox. Freaked me out a couple days later to find out it wasn't a fever dream.

[sniffa]

15. if the bLizzard of '78 counts, then that

if not, hurricane gLoria.

[BarenakedLady]

155. Me too, in Rhode Island

I remember having a blast even without electricity for two weeks. Walking ontop of the cars because the snow was so deep.

[sakabatou]

16. Loma Prietta '89 - Was there

[Arugula Latte]

31. Me too.

I was driving in Berkeley when it happened. My entire car tipped to the left.

[sakabatou]

48. I was asleep

[momophile]

90. I was in Sacramento and

have figured that I must have been either standing on the curb kissing my boyfriend or in my car driving home, because by the time I got home it had happened. I like to think I was kissing my boyfriend and didn't notice the ground moving.

[XemaSab]

115. Me too.

I honestly thought the house was going to come down on me. :(

[spiderpig]

117. I'd just gone to work at Oakland Airport

with baseball caps for the (airline) staff (the series was between the Giants and the A's). I was walking into the terminal when the ground teetered back and forth, the overhead signs shook, and the terminal windows bowed in and out. I knew it was big - just didn't know how far away it was.

When I went into the terminal, two of my coworkers were in the doorway to the backroom. One had run right out of her shoes - they remained at her ticketing position.

[mtnester]

17. Camille - caused devastation even way up here in Ohio

MASSIVE flooding

I was mightily impressed at age 9 that a hurricane was hitting Ohio.

[fudge stripe cookays]

53. We drove through the devastation in the south

on our move from Virginia to Texas when I was 4.

I was small, but I can still remember some of the buildings. Half of it was still standing, and the other half looked like a giant claw came up out of the ocean and took it back with it. Stayed with me for years.

[jobycom]

72. Camille, too. Was there, in Bay St. Louis, MS. I was four.

I remember watching television in the living room, and realizing my parents and grandparents, who lived in a trailer behind our house, were scared about something. The power went out. I don't remember what happened immediately after that, but I remember waking up in my parents' bed and seeing my parents and grandfather standing in the back doorway looking outside at the trailer. My parents say that's an accurate memory.

I remember riding around after the hurricane, and seeing ships blocking the highway, and debris everywhere. My nursery school was forced to hold classes in trailers. That same school was finally closed for good after Katrina. Beyond that, I was too young to remember much else.

Camille was the strongest Category Five hurricane to hit the US as a Category Five (others were Category Fives offshore, but had weakened by the time they hit land). It was much more powerful than Katrina at landfall, but was also much smaller, so the damage was limited to a narrower swath. Since Katrina was much larger, it took longer to pass over, so the hurricane force winds blew longer. Also, for several reasons that are still being debated, Katrina had a more massive storm surge, over a much wider area, so the damage Katrina caused was much worse. At least part of the surge was enhanced by the destruction of the wetlands in Louisiana over the last four decades. During Camille, there were barrier islands and wetlands along the Louisiana coast that dampened the surge, but by Katrina, these barrier islands and wetlands had been carved up and eroded by the oil industry, so the surge was not dampened as much.

The house I stayed in during Camille was on the corner of Highway 90 and Nicholson Avenue, behind a Gulf station my father owned. The water came up to the lot behind us from the Gulf, and the lot across the street from us from the back bay. By Katrina, the Gulf station had been replaced by an Exxon. That Exxon was completely under water during Katrina.

[slj0101]

98. The notes in the Jimi Hendrix "Woodstock" CD put a great spin on the effects of that storm.

Apparently, that's why Woodstock was such a rainy mess in the first place. I never knew that.

[Ikonoklast]

136. Remember Camille, too

I never thought that a hurricane could hit Ohio, but then it deluged for four days straight. Southern Ohio was floating.

[KitchenWitch]

19. I remember the MLK assassination

My mom was absolutely bereft with grief over it.

:cry:

[guitar man]

20. Hurricane Camille August 1969- Family involved.

I was 5 at the time and I remember my Dad and big brother heading out to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to find out what happened to my Grandparents and other family that lived there. My Grandparent's house was 3 blocks off the beach and was totally demolished. Fortunately, they had gone up to Jackson to ride the storm out with my aunt, but the phone lines weren't working and they couldn't call us.

I still remember the look on my Dad's face as they left, I've never seen such a worried look in my life.

[Chan790]

21. Challenger Explosion...watched it live on TV.

Ya know, back in the 80's when they used to break-in to regular programming and televise every launch on national news...until that one. After that they thought it wasn't such a good idea anymore.

[fizzgig]

29. that is one of my earliest memories

i was only 4 at the time, but i remember seeing it on tv. i don't know that i fully understood what was going on, but it made me so sad.

[Chan790]

52. I think I was 7 or 8.

which is unfortunately exactly old enough to understand. My brother, 2 years younger than me, watched it happen, watched the replay on the 5 o'clock news, and not only wasn't traumatized by it...he doesn't even remember it.

[LibraLiz1973]

My history teacher was one of the applicants

for the "teacher in space" program. She was so excited because she had met Krista. The launch took place during my history period and she got a tv for us to watch it. When it exploded, she screamed NO no no no no and started crying. It was really sad. We all sat there watching and hugging the teacher. She felt so terrible for her (Kristas) family- they were sitting there watching that.
Imagine what that felt like.

[Cabcere]

49. How awful for your teacher, and for the rest of you.

:( I can't imagine how upsetting that must have been for you all. :hug:

[bertha katzenengel]

78. oh, sweet jesus.

:hug:

[AwakeAtLast]

122. One of my teachers was, too!

She was my 2nd grade teacher, but I was in high school when it exploded. I cannot imagine their disbelief and shock. :cry:

[Cabcere]

50. I was born the day it happened

so I've literally been hearing about it all my life. Honestly, I can't remember I time when I didn't know about Christa McAuliffe and faulty O-rings. :eyes:

Kind of a funny story about that, though - my mom had gone to the dr. to get checked out and make sure she was really in labor, and the dr. said she was and that she should get to the hospital. So my mom walked out of the dr.'s office, and saw...my dad's butt hanging over the edge of the nurses' station. She went up to him and told him she was in labor and that they needed to get to the hospital, and my dad shushed her(!) and told her to wait(!!), because he had just heard on the radio that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded, and he wanted to hear the details about this breaking news. I always tell my mom that she's a better woman than I am, because I would've kicked his butt. :P They managed to get to the hospital on time, though, and I was born and everything worked out okay, and they're still happily married 21 years later. (In fact, their 25th wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of July.) :)

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

88. watched it too...

I was in 7th grade.

[KamaAina]

22. Tropical Storm Agnes '72. Was there.

Rode it out at home in Baltimore Co. Saw lots of TV coverage of "the ruins of Elkridge" and so forth. We never so much as lost power.

[BuelahWitch]

24. I was thinking of that one too

We weren't in the thick of it, in W. PA, but I remember our weatherman talking about "Hurricane Aggie."

[Dulcinea]

130. Was there too.

Western PA. The Allegheny River at our boat dock rose 30 feet overnight. I'll always remember seeing boats float by that weren't rescued in time.

[Lady Effingbroke]

23. Watergate - heard of.

I was very young (4 years old). I remember asking my father what a Watergate was. I thought it was some sort of flood or disaster; which it was.

[lizziegrace]

25. Xenia Tornado. Heard of.

We had just moved from Cincinnati to Dalla that year.

[fladonkey]

26. Okay....if this counts....

The Hungarian Revolution. I was in the first grade. My father showed me where Hungary was in the Atlas.

[Xithras]

27. 1983 Coalinga quake. 1986 Cali floods a close second.

My recollection of the Coalinga quake is actually rather shaky (;)) I was 8 or 9 at the time, and I remember my mother picking me up, running me through the heaving house, and throwing me in the bathtub. Other than that scene, I remember very little about it.

The 1986 floods were a different story. I was 12 at the time, and half my town was underwater as a nearby creek and the San Joaquin River overflowed their banks. The flood ran up our street and got 2 or three inches deep in the crawlspace under our house, but thankfully stopped before reaching the house itself. Our garage had a foot and a half of water in it, but otherwise we were ok. Many of my friends weren't so lucky. Several lost their homes completely, and quite a few others were living in hotels for months while repairs were done. The schools were closed for weeks while they replaced carpets and put in a new gym floor.

I have very vivid memories of driving to Merced, and the highway being almost like a "bridge" across the "sea". The road, normally 10-15 feet higher than the surrounding land, was only a foot or two above the water. A ribbon of asphalt across the water. In any other direction, only the occasional treetop, the ruined rooflines of submerged homes, and the bloated carcasses of dead livestock marred the unbroken 200 mile long lake that had overtaken the valley.

[Parche]

28. Alltime National Disaster

[mentalsolstice]

35. And we're still feeling the aftershocks! n/t

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

91. Part two was even worse! n/t

[Shell Beau]

33. Probably a tornado. We have them quite regularly in MS and

I remember as a child getting in the bathtub with pillows over our heads.

[YankeyMCC]

34. National Disaster: Reagan Elected

I was around during Watergate but to young to be aware of it enough to remember it now except of course as an event I learned about in school later on.

[mentalsolstice]

36. MLK & RFK

They're blended together in my mind, as I was only seven, and they were assassinated within months of each other.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Early 1950s. Saw a newspaper photo of a hurricane blowing the

steeple off the Old North Church in Boston.

My mom pointed it out to me because we had traveled there, although I was too young to remember.

The first big disastrous news event that I remember is the Hungarian Revolt of 1956, the footage of the people throwing Molotovs at Russian tanks, and later, of bedraggled looking people walking to the Austrian border with battered suitcases.

You guys upthread are YOUNG.

[marzipanni]

71. That was Hurricane Carol, in 1954

My family lived 12 miles west of Boston, and my brothers, the neighborhood kids, and I walked down the sidewalk leaning against the wind, after the worst of it had passed. Then we found a pond of rainwater that had formed in a small depression at the bottom of a hill, so of course we all waded in it.
This has a blurry photo of the leaning Old North Church steeple -
http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricanecarol.htm

[trof]

38. Pearl Harbor. Heard of.

OK, I was only 3 1/2 months old, but I remember hearing about it a lot.
;-)

[Zoigal]

45. Remember hearing

the radio announcements about Pearl Harbor being bombed...was twelve...

[bertha katzenengel]

81. Hey, Zoigal

You've been around a few months already, but welcome to DU! :hi: (I'm from Huntington Beach... soooo homesick, especially when I see other Californians)

[trof]

83. Welcome to DU.

:hi:

[RebelOne]

151. I was 4 years old.

My parents told me that Pearl Harbor was bombed and I thought Pearl Harbor was a girl.

[CatholicEdHead]

41. Was in Grand Forks flood of 1997

in North Dakota.

[Qanisqineq]

70. was in Fargo during flood of 1997

we didn't have it nearly as bad as GF though.

[gr8dane_daddy]

42. Bush elected governor of Texas over Ann...

Back in the 90's...

[Blue Diadem]

43. Palm Sunday tornados 1965,

Lots of tornado warnings that day, but I mostly remember the fear of my parents when they found out Point Place/North Toledo had been hit. My uncle lived there and my Dad went to try to find out if he and his family were ok. Naturally, he couldn't get into the area, the national guard was out and only residents were allowed in the area. It was a day or so before he found out his brother and his home were ok(slight damage) but several homes in his neighborhood were badly damaged or destroyed completely.

Here's a link with a few pictures of homes from an area close by.

http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/albums/1965_tornadoes/1965_tornadoes_albumPage02.html

I was only 9, but I can still remember watching the news and seeing a greyhound bus on it's side.

[smtpgirl]

44. The blizzard of 1966

and Hurricane Agnes in 1972 in the Washington DC area

The Vietnam War casualties on TV in the mid & late '60's

[LibraLiz1973]

46. John Lennons death. I heard it on the radio

I was young, but already a fan. I cried when they played Imagine over and over again.

[Xipe Totec]

hurricane beulah - was there

Way too much to put into a single post.

Some buildings near the Rio Grande flooded past the second story. People were trapped on the levies by water that broke through upstream and closed in behind them. Lost a dog swept away by the wind right in front of my eyes.

On, and on, and on....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Beulah

[carly denise pt deux]

47. Kent State Riot in 1970

I was just a kid, but remember seeing watching it on TV
Carly

[ashling]

51. Hurricane Carla

We had just moved from Galveston Tx to Houston when Carla hit Galveston. Some neighbors from Galveston came up and stayed with us. ! was about9 years old and remember filling the bathtub w/ water in case the water went out. A huge oak tree fell on our garage and the neighboring house. The eye went no to far from us.

[mark414]

54. the most vivid in my mind is the Oklahoma City Bombing

i was 10 years old at the time but not much before that really sticks out in my head...i remember writing letters to soldiers in the First Gulf War and going to welcome some home when they came back (some of my teacher's kids were over there)...

but i remember coming downstairs in the morning and turning on the TV and there it was, the first thing i saw - i remember when it broke that they found McVeigh and I remember sitting watching TV all day with my parents as more and more news kept breaking

the one that sticks the most is 9/11 obviously, i still remember every single detail of that day - in 40 years i'll still remember it and kids will ask me about it like my dad talks about 11/22/63

[u4ic]

55. FLQ October crisis - heard of

The televised news was always on in my house at 6pm.

I was 4 at the time.

[Rabrrrrrr]

56. The Star Wars Christmas Special

[Squeegee]

69. Oh the humanity!

It was so god-awful that I completely erased it from my memory. To this day, only regression therapy will allow me to remember that horrible, horrible night...

[Hayabusa]

57. Flood of '93

First one that I really remember. I only remember hearing about it on the news and seeing the destruction on TV. My mom went to help clean up a town, but I wasn't allowed to go along.

[rurallib]

59. Tornado rips through city park during 4th of July fireworks - was there

4 years old. Crowd of about 10,000 goes nuts. I get lost in the panic. What a memory.

[LostInAnomie]

60. Petersburg, IN Tornado

I was in second grade. My Dad and I watched the funnel cloud from the next town over.

[Jamastiene]

61. The radio announcer told that Elvis had died while my family

was on the way home from a shopping trip. My aunt pulled the car off the road, stopped, and both my mother and my aunt started crying and sobbing. I was 6 years old.

[GoneOffShore]

62. Hurricane Hazel - was there

1950's - We were all frightened.
thought the roof was going to come off the house.

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

93. Heard about it!

My aunt was born when it hit Delaware. October 15, 1954.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

106. also there for Hazel

It blew out my bedroom window, branches coming in, I was one scared shitless little kid.

It must have been a good storm, if I remember it after 50 years. The memories aren't real clear after 50 years, maybe never were real clear, just images and fear.

[grannylib]

63. JFK assasination. I was three and a half; Mom was listening to the

radio while she did something in the kitchen, and I remember hearing her kind of scream and start crying.

[LynzM]

64. Was there for Hurricane Gloria...

Living in Connecticut... I remember holing up in the basement for a couple days, filling buckets with water before-hand, my dad taking me out in the eye of the storm, and going outside after to find out how many trees were down... My parents did a pretty good job; I don't remember it being scary, just a lot of board (bored!) games.

[TheMightyFavog]

65. Barneveld, WI F5 Tornado June 5, 1984. 9 killed.

I remember seeing it on the news, the only thing left standing was the Water Tower.

[reyd reid reed]

66. I remember when Kennedy was assassinated.

I remember my parents talking about Cuba...but that might've been after the fact.

[auntAgonist]

67. 1979 Tornado hits Woodstock Ontario. Was there.

I had just driven by on the highway #401 minutes before the tornado ripped across the road leaving a path of destruction for miles.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-1713-11753/disasters_tragedies/tornadoes/clip5


Tornadoes generate the most headlines when they strike a city, but the vast majority of them occur in rural areas. On Aug. 7, 1979, a tornado in southwestern Ontario devastated city and country alike. Dairy farmers in the area were hit particularly hard. In this clip we meet a farmer who loses his wife, his farm, and hope — until local Mennonites show up unexpectedly to rebuild his barn.

-------
worst thing ever

:cry:

aA

[medeak]

68. Kennedy Assasination....remember Walter Conkrite tearing up

was home for lunch alone in 4th grade. Even then was a news addict. My Dad called home and asked me if I was ok. We were all devastated. Walked back to school and the teachers couldn't function.

[Left_Winger]

74. How about the first one I was in the middle of?

Being a SC native and lifelong resident there have been many hurricanes in my lifetime, but I have always moved out of the way when they came. However, in 1989 I was in the National Guard and my unit was mobilized because Hurricane Hugo was headed directly at our coastline; Charleston to be specific. The governor declared a mandatory evacuation and the majority of the people responded, but the NG units had to remain in the area and ride out the storm. The hurricane arrived around midnight with 135 mph winds with even stronger gusts. By dawn the storm had moved inland and we went to our assigned locations to begin securing the various parts of the city. I will never forget how eerie it was to be in a city which had been evacuated. The one thing which remains with me is not what I would have expected: the smell. The entire area had the aroma of a wet, moldy carpet (albeit with salt water).

[Rhythm]

77. I had a run-in with Hugo, too...

I grew up in Charlotte NC, and though we obviously didn't have it nearly as bad as y'all did on the coast, Hugo still slammed through as a Cat. 2, uprooted thousands of trees, destroyed homes, and had power out over most all of the city for about a week.

My daughter was about 8 months old then, and it was scary having to do without the modern conveniences until the utility services were restored.

I had to find a new job, too... the restaurant where i worked was destroyed by several falling trees.

[ThatsMyBarack]

79. Challenger Disaster 1986

I heard about it at lunch at school. My friend said, "Space Shuttle went KABLOOEE!!"

[Labors of Hercules]

134. My friend said exactly the same thing...

sitting in class, 6th grade.

[Rhythm]

80. Unless you count Watergate, it would be the Jonestown massacre in '78... heard of

I was about 11, and that was the first of several very not-boring years in the news.

[leftyclimber]

82. Mt. St. Helens eruption.

Watched it from Delta Park, across the river in Portland. My parents drove me and my brother up there specifically to see it.

I was eight.

[charlie and algernon]

84. Blizzard of 1993

dumped 3 feet of snow all over the mid-atlantic and we were off from school for a week!

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

94. The ice was the worse!

I had to replace my entire exhaust system on my car.

[slj0101]

100. That was the worst one I personally experienced.

I had to work that morning, and what was usually an easy 2 1/2 block walk took 45 minutes. I shoveled the walk outside the restaurant, and it was completely covered and then some by the time I was finished. We served one customer (some plowmen) before giving up and closing. It took just as long to walk home. Later that weekend the drifts completely covered my front door.

[charlie and algernon]

112. the drifting was the worst

snow drifts completely blocked off the entrance and exit ramps for the highway. they also completely blocked our front door too. My dad had to go out the back porch and trudge through the 3 feet of snow to get to the door to clear it out.

[Silver Swan]

85. 1953 Flint-Beecher tornado

Deadliest tornado in Michigan--116 dead, 844 injured.

I was barely seven, but I recall people talking about it.

[slj0101]

96. On a nationwide scale: The Mt. St. Helen's eruption in 1980.

I was six. I remember it being all over the news.

After the fact, I remember my sister showing me a magazine photo of an aerial view of a forest completely leveled by the eruption. Trees looked like matchsticks.

[Art_from_Ark]

144. Eleven years later, trees still looked like matchsticks

and Spirit Lake was still choked with dead trees

[datasuspect]

97. disco inferno of 1976

To my surprise one hundred storeys high
People getting loose now, getting down on the roof
Folks screaming, out of control
It was so entertaining when the boogie started to explode
I heard somebody say

(Burn baby burn) Disco Inferno
(Burn baby burn) Burn that mother down
(Burn baby burn) Disco Inferno
(Burn baby burn) Burn that mother down

Satisfaction came in a chain reaction
I couldn't get enough, so I had to self-destruct
The heat was on, rising to the top
Everybody is going strong, and that is when my spark got hot
I heard somebody say

(Burn baby burn) Disco Inferno
(Burn baby burn) Burn that mother down
(Burn baby burn) Disco Inferno
(Burn baby burn) Burn that mother down

Up above my head
I hear music in the air
That makes me know
There's a party somewhere

(Just can't stop) When my spark gets hot
(Just can't stop) When my spark gets hot

[Deja Q]

99. Iran hostage crisis...

[Blue-Jay]

101. The Xenia Tornado of 1974.

I was seven years old and lived a few miles north of there in Yellow Springs OH. It's impossible to imagine that level of devastation unless you see it for yourself. We hosted some friends for a while.

We moved a few more miles north after that (not tornado-related) and got hit again by a smaller tornado. It cracked our garage floor, and threw my swing set about 1/2 mile away.

In summation, tornados suck.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

103. Lubbock tornado , was there

05-11-70 (Sr year at TT). Windows busted out of my dorm. Friends hid under the their bathroom sink as the roof came off their apt. Most of the damage was to the east of campus. 26 people killed.
I'd heard about other tornados but that was my first.

[jpgray]

104. My birth

[Labors of Hercules]

135. Major disaster that one... rocked the world it did!

:toast:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

105. remove - repeated

[Breeze54]

110. This affected me the worst! - Rocket Fuel Plant Explosion- Nevada - May 1988

I remember JFK's assasination,(5th grade); The Great Northeast BlackOut, 1965; Nixon being elected (ugh).
But this blew up a mile away from me and I got thrown off a truck while 5 months pregnant,
from the ground shockwave. It was unreal and the whole area was under martial law for a week.
:scared:

................................

Rocket Fuel Plant Explosion- Nevada 1988

http://www.chemaxx.com/explosion1.htm


Click on photo to view explosion video
Video will download initially one frame at a time, then will play normal speed.

A rocket fuel (ammonium perchlorate) plant exploded in Nevada in May 1988.
A consortium of insurance companies sued the rocket fuel plant and others to recover
$77 million in damages to surrounding homes by the explosion shock wave.
Dr. Fox was a member of the expert team determining the events leading up to the explosion.
His work included site inspections, evidence gathering, cause & origin determination, as well
as fire simulation experiments.

This explosion is a classic example of how seemingly unrelated events connect together and lead
to catastrophe. This event began with the failure of the O-ring seals on the Challenger Space
Shuttle, which in turn led to the Challenger disaster in 1986. The Space Shuttle program was
then put on hold. However, one of the ingredients of the Shuttle’s solid rocket booster fuel,
ammonium perchlorate, continued to be produced at a steady pace.

Soon, all the normal aluminum storage bins for the perchlorate were full and additional storage
containers were needed. Instead of aluminum bins, polyethylene drums were used. Neither the
unconfined perchlorate nor polyethylene bins present much of a hazard alone, but together they
form a classic fuel + oxidizer scenario. Together, the polyethylene material and the perchlorate
burn something like a roman candle.

It is believed that welding sparks ignited one of the poly drums filled with ammonium perhlorate.
Since there were drums filled with ammonium perchlorate just about everywhere on the site, once
started, the initial fire was unstoppable. This growing fire heated the large (sealed) aluminum
bins filled with ammonium perchlorate. Once the aluminum bins began to explode, they spread the
fire to other parts of the plant where more poly drums and aluminum bins were stored. The final
explosion (seen in the video) was a football field sized area of aluminum bins stacked on top of
each other. The field was surrounded by the burning poly drums that provided the heat for the
explosion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster



The explosions

The first of two major explosions occurred in the drum storage area. The fire continued to spread
and reached the storage area for the filled aluminum shipping containers. This resulted in an even
larger, second major explosion, about four minutes later. Very little fuel remained after the second
explosion and the fire diminished rapidly, except for the flame plume created when the high pressure
natural gas line beneath the plant was ruptured in one of the explosions. The gas line was shut off
at 12:59 hours by the gas company at a valve about a mile away, eliminating the fuel for this fire.

All told, seven explosions occurred involving various containers of ammonium perchlorate, with the
two largest occurring in the drums and then the aluminum containers. These two explosions were
measured at 3.0 and 3.5 on the Richter scale by the National Earthquake Information Center in
Colorado, some 600 miles away. Over eight million pounds of perchlorate were consumed in the fire
and explosions. A crater estimated at 15 feet (4.5 m) deep and over 200 feet (60 m) wide was left
in the storage area.

.................

Freaked me totally out, not to mention hearing loss!

Video with sound QT Video
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/pepcon/pepcon1.mov

[Catshrink]

111. Alaskan Earthquake of '64. Felt it big time

and I was in Seattle. I don't remember any damage to our house, but I do remember my mother saying "it's an earthquake, get over here with me" and we all gathered with her under a door frame.


Of course, even greater, was the assassination of JFK the year before -- that I remember vividly.

[XemaSab]

113. Flooding in the Bay Area, 1982 and 1983. Was there.

I remember driving through flooded streets near our house. A lot of the local shopkeepers got flooded out. I would have been 5 at the time.

Other notable events and disasters were the Challenger disaster (heard about), Loma Prieta (was there), the Hills Fire (was in the Bay Area at the time), Oklahoma City (heard about), and the floods of 1996 (was in Sacramento at the time).

Of course we all remember September 11th. :(

[slackmaster]

119. JFK assassination 1963; Good Friday Earthquake, Alaska, 1964

I didn't feel the Alaska earthquake but the footage of the ground buckling and ships falling over scared the crap out of me.

Just over four years later I felt my first significant quake - the Borrego Mountain Earthquake. That did some damage in San Diego and left a HUGE impression on me. I've been concerned with survival ever since.

If you happen to be in San Diego when some kind of disaster strikes, you'd do well to be with me.

[WCGreen]

121. The Cuban Missile Crisis....

Kennedy went on the air right in the middle of my fifth Birthday..

The tone of the party changed drastically....

[AwakeAtLast]

123. An earthquake in Guatemala - mid '70s

I just remember my friends selling pencils to send the money raised to survivors. I may have been 6 or 7.

The second one was Jonestown.

[dropkickpa]

124. Hurricane David Florida 1979, was there

My first memory of weather can be bad. I remember my parents boarding up the windows and hearing "David is coming" and us sitting in the house, me wondering who was David.

Second big weather memory - Hurricane Alicia Houston 1983 - I remember looking outside at our sapling in the backyard and seeing it flat on the ground in one direction. When the eye was passing over us, me and my brothers went out back (REALLY made mum mad!) and then we went back inside and the same sapling was bent flat to the ground in the other direction as the eye was done passing over us.

My family was living in Louisville, KY in 1974 when a tornado ripped through town about 1/2 mi from where they lived (before I was born). My mom is terrified of tornados and hurricanes, and was ecstatic when they moved here to Pittsburgh, thinking she'll never again have to live through either. Of course, in 1998, the first tornado in 300 years touched down in the city (watched across the river by Pirates baseball fans waiting out a rain delay at 3 rivers stadium). She is still terrified of thunderstorms and such.

[bertha katzenengel]

153. "wondering who was David" - that's charming

:)

[dajoki]

125. JFK assassination, I remember...

the nuns taking us to church and our parents picking us up.

[femmocrat]

128. Hurricane Hazel, back in the 1950s.

[SPKrazy]

129. Vietnam War

Bobby Kennedy

MLK

Hurricane Camille

:shrug:

[bigwillq]

131. Hurricane Gloria

in 1985 or 1986

Challenger Disaster

[Vidar]

132. Probably JFK's death

[chieftain]

133. Ruskin Heights tornado. Was there in Kansas City when it

came roaring through my neighborhood .This May 20th is the 50th anniversary of a storm that killed 44 people while traveling over 70 miles on the ground. There will be a memorial service this year to commemorate the tragedy. My brothers, sister, neighbors plus mothers took shelter in the hallway of our basementless suburban tract house, saying the Rosary while being terrified out of our wits. The monster storm came within 4 blocks of our house. No one who was there will forget it.

[Burma Jones]

139. Hurricane Betsy (heard of) Hurricane Camille (was there)

Betsy was in 1965. We were living in Gary, IN. My Uncle lived outside of Houston at the time, in El Lago, very flood prone. He was visiting and had to hurry back. I remember dropping him off at O'Hare and wishing him well....Betsy ended up hitting New Orleans....

Four Years later, right before my tenth birthday, we were living in Metairie, LA, about a mile and a half south of Lake Pontchartrain. We had just moved there and my Dad was starting a Doctoral Program at Tulane. Hurricane Camille was churning away in the Gulf and folks were just going crazy about how power the storm was and how it could hit us directly and that we would get flooded worse than Betsy. Schwegmann's Grocery on Veteran's Highway was packed. There were cops EVERYWHERE. We boarded up the windows and waited to see where Camille would hit. Camille took an eastward turn, and we were spared the destruction that was suffered in Mississippi, but we still had 100+ mph winds and some significant flooding.

[UncleSepp]

140. Heard of Iran hostage crisis

I remember the hostages being in the plane, the guy who got beaten with a seat arm, and all the constant talk about the Ayatollah Khomeini.

[Art_from_Ark]

142. The first natural disaster I remember was Hurricane Camille (1969)

Although it was far away, the pictures they showed on TV were horrific.

The first local natural disaster I remember was, I believe, a year later-- the Springdale, Arkansas tornado. When that sucker came through, the midday sky became so dark that it was just like midnight outside. I was in a classroom, and we had to go through a tornado drill, just in case. After that, everyone just went to the windows and marvelled at the sight.

[enigmatic]

143. Bobby Kennedy getting assasinated

My mother and father and I were in a hotel room in Detroit, MI in 1968; my mother and I watched late night TV while my father slept. When the bulletins came in, my mother woke my father up and we watched...

[SKKY]

145. Heard of The Iranian Hostage Situation

[NMDemDist2]

147. JFK assassination-wasn't there, 2nd grade teacher burst into tears when the hall runner came in

it freaked us all out

[bleedingheart]

148. It was Hurricane Agnes...and it really messed up my grandma's

house.

[LynneSin]

158. I was pretty young when Agnes came around but I remember people making a big deal

First one I really remembered though was Three Mile Island. It was definately one of those instances where I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing and what time I found out about it moments

[bleedingheart]

160. I was really little and Agnes was terrifying for many reasons

the first was that my older sister was in charge of me while my parents were cleaning up at my grannies house....

I don't remember much...but what I remember was my mother being pissed off, my grannie's house being all torn apart because flood waters had gone up to the top of the ceiling on the first floor...and my evil sister watching me...bwahahaha...

Three Mile Island...I remember too and I was much older by that time..

[noonwitch]

149. A tornado my dad out-drove in 1968 or so (near Temperance, MI)

We lived in Temperance, MI, which is just north of Toledo, OH. We were on our way back from visiting friends at Harsens' Island, in Lake St. Clair, and as we were crossing Telegraph on Sterns RD, we could see the tornado in the distance. My mom begged my dad to pull over so we could get in the ditch-he didn't like that strategy, and said he could outdrive it. And he did.

I was about 4.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

150. Andraus Building fire, Feb 24, 1972. Heard of.

Only 16 people died (300 injured), but TV showed some of those falling to their deaths, live. It was a majorly shocking event.

[RebelOne]

154. Hurricane Cleo in 1964

August 27, 1964: Hurricane Cleo The warm Gulf Stream waters helped Cleo to restrengthen to a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall near Miami Beach on the afternoon of August 27. Sustained winds were 100 mph at landfall. The hurricane traveled north up the Miami strip, wreaking havoc along the way. Cleo exited Florida near St. Augustine. Cleo devastated the most densely populated area on the Gold coast and killed 217 people (most in the Caribbean). Damage totaled $198.5 million (1964 dollars). Cleo was the first of three hurricanes that would strike Florida that year.<3>


This was a very destructive storm because Miami was not prepared for it. The Hurricane Center said that it was only going to stay in the Atlantic Ocean and not make landfall. Then suddenly it turned and hit Miami.

[raccoon]

156. Hurricane Gracie, 09/29/1959. Was there.

I was a kid then, and me and all my siblings were sick when Gracie hit, from a virus or something. That morning it was raining and my mom took us to the doctor.

I remember every now and then, hearing a tree being uprooted from the ground when the hurricane winds blew it down. We were without power for three days.

It took ages for the mess to get cleaned up.

I guess I was too young and/or too sick to be really scared. :-)

[LynneSin]

157. I barely remember Agnes but the first I really remember would be TMI

I lived less than 15 miles from the plant. Our family would go water-skiing around it every summer.

[raccoon]

159. If you were born in the 1970's, the 1980 election will qualify for

your first national disaster. Or the inauguration in 1981. :evilgrin: