Why do we?

[azsnowman]

After watching the destruction from Hurricane Charley and the deaths associated with it I got to wondering about something.....WHY do we put ourselves in the path of Mother Natures furry? Why do we live where we do? Take for instance, me......I live in the one of the most fire prone areas in the West now due to #1. The never ending drought. #2. The massive beetle kill. We know the dangers and yet, we're still here. NOW.....in our case, this fire danger we live with day to day CAN and WILL be rectified in the coming years, thanks to the Bush Admin, the forests are FINALLY getting thinned but....those who live in the hurricane, tornado prone areas, are at the Mercy of Mother Nature. I realize that hurricane season lasts only but a few months and the benefits of living in these areas FAR outweigh the season.

I know there's a basic, simple answer here BUT......I believe there's more to it than just the obvious. I remember back in May when WildFire season started, I had posted an article stating that this was going to be another killer season and a member asked me why I stayed here, I replied with an obvious answer, because I love it up here. So......is there more to it?

Dennis

[Windsong]

Hi Dennis,

I kind of landed in harms way when my husband of 20 years decided we should come and live in paradise. So, we moved to FL in 90, and took up life on the beach. After 25 years of being married, my husband found him a beach bunny. Needless to say, he's history.

So...here I am...In "paradise". NOT. The heat and humidity are tough on me, and I could care less about being on an island near the ocean. Cant remember the last time I actually went to the beach.

I stay because I made a commitment to my sons to stay long enough for them to finish school and get settled in college. They adapted to life here quite nicely and this IS their home. They were 8 and 2 when we moved here.

Two more years to go and I am selling everything and relocating to a four-season state (not sure which) and getting out of this sauna. I will miss the friends I have made, but will not miss Florida at all. It's always too hot and humid to do anything much for about 9 months out of the year. Give me a good old fashioned blizzard ANY DAY.

Denise

[GalvestonDuck]

Where can we live where there is absolutely no risk of either hurricane or earthquake or wildfire or avalanche or tornado or flood or mudslide or ice storm? There is no answer. And if there was, and we ALL moved there to be safe from Mother Nature, we'd be overcrowded, hungry, fighting crime left and right, and a perfect target for a WMD attack.

[azskyman]

In part, Dennis, Kathy and I chose Phoenix over Florida because of her near-death experience with that F4 tornado back in 1967. Not many folks in the world have been in the throat of an F4 tornado and live to tell about it.

When we decided to leave the Midwest, she made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with tornado chasing from our back porch or the threat of hurricanes just to get a view of the ocean out the front window.

Combine that with the fact that all four of us in my family had been in car accidents as the result of our "black ice" winters, and the list grew pretty short.

Those were the defensive reasons for the move here. On the "offense," is the reality that we are happier people when we have sunshine. 317 days of it here each year (in spite of 110+ heat) has been good for our psyche. I never get tired of the sunrises and sunsets here.

Finally, as a lifelong weatherwatcher, I still find plenty of interesting stuff to watch. The horizon lights up with evening after evening of beautiful storms...sometimes in the distance, sometimes nearby, during the monsoon.

This will be our home "for the duration," and we're very glad to be here.

Steve and Kathy in Scottsdale, Arizona

[Stephanie]

There's really no GOOD area to live in that will keep you safe and sound from Mother Nature's fury. The best thing to do is be very familiar with the weather that your region is known for and learn how to live with it.

I for one would miss the "four seasons". I love paradise, but would miss the Currier & Ives feeling of the holidays and the potential blizzard or two that comes my way. NJ and the rest of the MidAtlantic and NE states can have just as much heat & humidity as our neighbors to the south and we have beaches to cool us off. I don't need to live in tornado-alley because apparently, I can do some tornado chasing around here as well.

We are fortunate enough here to have equal parts of each season, when the calendar pretty much says it's supposed to start and finish. I woudln't miss it for the world!

[coriolis]

Well....the biggest threat here is floods. And if you live on higher ground out of the flood plain you don't have to worry about that. The mountains pretty much prevent tornados. I guess there's always lightning and ice storms, but that's about it.

[Windsong]

Where can we live where there is absolutely no risk of either hurricane or earthquake or wildfire or avalanche or tornado or flood or mudslide or ice storm? There is no answer. And if there was, and we ALL moved there to be safe from Mother Nature, we'd be overcrowded, hungry, fighting crime left and right, and a perfect target for a WMD attack.

How true. Seems like every area has it's drawbacks. Between ice and snow, tornados, landslides, volcanos (a rarity, but remember Mt. St. Helens) and all the other stuff...Utopia eludes us.

We all have our struggles with nature.

[NWIASpotter]

I think that everybody on this board has the right idea, there is no place that has no problems with mother nature. Living in Iowa we have our 4 seasons all having different risks. From the cold blizzards and ice storms, to the tornadoes (which everybody in this area was reminded of) and our fair share of floods, droughts, and even minor earthquakes in some areas of the midwest. Basically everybody lives in their area for some reason or the other. I live here, well because I'm only 17 and I live where my parents live, and they grew up here and still love it. Given that they have talked about moving to warmer places during the winter, and then it gets to summer and then were glad we don't live in those areas that we want to move to during the winter. Basically, you have to learn to get along with nature, she's the boss!!

[nystate]

Just going along with what everyone else is saying; no place is really safe. Jefferson County in Upstate New York is typically pretty safe in the spring and summer since Lake Ontario tends to kill severe t-storms before they can reach land. Winter is another story. Extremely heavy snow squalls of up to 8 inches/hour make it very dangerous for motorists here. It can be sunny in one spot, and 15-20 miles down the road it can be a whiteout. I can remember about three or four 15-20 car pileups on I-81 this winter alone because of this problem. The extreme cold temperatures often glaze the bridges over with ice as well. I can remember in the 2002-2003 winter there were two 10-15 car pileups on each side of an interstate bridge right next to each other because of the ice and fog obscuring the bridge. One driver, in his twenties, dashed over a guardrail to avoid getting hit by crashing cars. Little did he know that there was not soft grass on the other side of the rail, but a 30 foot drop into the freezing cold Black River. The temperature at the time he went into the water was about -20F. Thankfully, he was rescued and survived.

There is no real safe place to live. Each place has its tornadoes, severe t-storms, hurricanes, snowstorms, ice storms, mudslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. The only real way to cope with your areas hazards is to be educated about them so that you can know what to do when a severe event occurs.

[JQ Public]

Being here i've been through tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, ice, flood, heat, etc but i stay here b/c i love it here. Heck (best case scenario) i'll even settle down here after i see the world. You've gotta be prepared for anything when you live here. I think in the 21 years i've been here the varying weather also keeps me here. I like seeing all four seasons.

[Miss Mary]

We here in the Midwest have the threat of tornadoes. But living on the east side of Cincinnati now for 15 years, as opposed to the western side of the city, it seems as if we safer over here. Don't ask me to explain that well but sightings come and go and seem to just go right over this side of the city. The west side? Been hit a few times, specifically in 1974. Blue Ash (northern suburb) was badly hit at about 5 a.m., a few years ago. I've asked a few people on this side of town if one has ever touched down, and natives over here say no, never. But I still head to the basement when that siren goes off. Must be the 'west-sider' in me coming out....BTW, Cincinnati has this eastside-westside 'war' going on and has had for decades.

I will say what Charley taught me, are a few things I hope to implement in the coming months:

1. To finally clear out junk we just don't need. My husband Jim has been after me for years to do just that. His angle - when we sell someday, this nasty job will have been done. My mother has dumped so much stuff on us, instead of giving it to Goodwill, and I being the good daughter back then, said oh sure we'll take it. I quit saying that about 5 years ago, opening all the bags and boxes she has by her front door as you leave. I stop and say let's go thru this stuff mom. She gets so mad at me when I won't take a sweater than would look so much better on an 80 year old woman than one my age. To give one example. Or a chipped tea pot - this is worth money Mary....bla bla bla. So one by one I want to start opening those closet doors and asking everyone - is this something you will wear or want someday? If not, it goes.

2. Keep all of our insurance papers in one place. Keep pictures of each room in this house in that same place. Be able to grab these documents in case of a disaster.

3. Begin stocking up again on bottled water. I started to just prior to our invasion of Iraq. Then we started drinking the gallon jugs. I'm going back to buying one each tiime I grocery shop.

4. Keep non-perishable foods on hand again.

I probably won't be as prepared as you are Linda for a Hurricane down where you live (I was quite impressed with what you posted the other day) but I just want to be prepared for whatever can happen here.

Mary

[azsnowman]

From what I've read so far, seems like I'm about the only HALF SAFE one. We don't deal with tornadoes, hurricanes per si'....yeah, once in a blue moon we'll catch the left over moisture from a tropical system that steams up the Gulf of Baja, but very rarely, blizzards are VERY rare, no ice storms, I guess that's the reason this mountain top has been discovered and is growing like a WEED!

Dennis

[streetsoldier]

Here, we are subject to tornadoes, heavy rains, flooding; and the ever-present New Madrid fault line. In winter, we get ice storms, albeit little snow on average; but our pollen count is always VERY high, humidity so thick one has to cut the air to get to the car, and the locals are...uh..."they ain't no disskrahbin' em".

[opera ghost]

I got stuck here. My parents relocated to Houston when I was 11 (from the piney woods of Texas... where there was no frost, no fires, no tornados... I can't think of one disaster there other than no population) so my dad could go back to college.

I graduated high school and my parents told me I had to stay in Houston if I wanted to go to college and recieve some help. So I stayed. And 6 years later I'm still stuck here with half a degree trying to finish out college locally so I get to keep all my credits. Now I'm married and my husband is in the same boat.

We dream of moving to Wyoming or Washington state... living in the mountains or the northwest coast. Houston is too hot- too humid and too smoggy to stay here. But until we have our degrees the job options are harder to come by... so we stay. It would be worth any disasters to live someplace so beautiful and cold... after living in this hot swampy place.