Gulf Coast States

AGDee · #1 08-28-2008, 06:40 AM

I've actually given a lot of thought about where I'd want to live related to which natural disasters are prevalent there. I know that's odd, but I grew up with a horrific phobia of tornadoes which has calmed down with my exposure (via the news) to hurricanes and earthquakes. This is how I rank them (worst to least worse)

1. Earthquakes: You have no notice and they devastate a huge area including much of the infrastructure (think San Francisco during the World Series in .. was it 89? 90?) Newer buildings are supposed to be earthquake proof, but since you don't know when it's coming, you don't know where you'll be so there is no way to even try to be safe.
2. Hurricanes: They can devastate a huge area but you have a lot of time to get out. If you ride it out though, there is a dilemma. They spawn tornadoes, but if you go to a good tornado shelter area in your house, you risk being flooded out. The combination of flooding and tornadoes makes it more scary. To keep safe from tornadoes, you go low, to keep safe from flooding, you go high. I don't think I'd choose to live too close to the coast, as beautiful as it is.
3. Tornadoes: They are devastating to a much smaller area, you usually have a little bit of warning to get to a sheltered area. The big difference though is the first part. In Michigan at least, when there is a tornado, it might hit houses along a mile path, but the hotels two miles away are unscathed so there is somewhere you can go if your house is destroyed. We also have basements in Michigan, so they are much less scary. I think they'd be more scary to me if I didn't have an underground shelter. If I lived in a place without an underground shelter, I'd build a safe room or I wouldn't choose to live there.
4. Flooding: I think that I would choose not to live so close to a high risk flooding area to make this one a problem. It is certainly devastating and it does seem to happen pretty quickly. I think if I lived along the Mississippi where they have been completely flooded out more than a couple times in the last decade, I'd move. The places in California that have mudslides, I'd avoid. Shoot, I'd avoid California because of the earthquake thing anyway.
5. Snow Storms: These seem like no big deal to me. They hardly ever damage your home and in places where they are frequent, we have snow plows and stuff to deal with it. We've never been "snowed in" for more than a day and it's been no big deal. It's more of a daily hassle of a few inches every day that makes driving annoying and stressful but there's relatively little damage.

So where is the ideal place to live based on this? I dunno. The mountains in North Carolina?

ETA: I'm getting really bad vibes on the Gustav thing ... not like it's the media over-hyping it, but like it's really not going to be good.

epchick · #2 08-28-2008, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGDee

So where is the ideal place to live based on this? I dunno. The mountains in North Carolina?

El Paso....lol. In my lifetime, we've only had 1 tornado scare, back in 1998 (from what I remember), but the tornado never touched down. We have experienced "flooding" but that's only because we barely have any storm drains, and the drainage in the city is CRAPPY. Can't get hurricanes because we are far from the water, and by the time the storm gets anywhere near here, it's pretty much a thunderstorm. Snow storms, in the desert? Not really gonna happen. And we aren't on a fault line.

SWTXBelle · #3 08-28-2008, 04:00 PM

But . . .it's El Paso.

epchick · #4 08-28-2008, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

But . . .it's El Paso.

Hey Hey Hey, watch it now!

But you're right! lol

SWTXBelle · #5 08-28-2008, 04:08 PM

Well, you do have your very own Marty Robbins song!

ComradesTrue · #6 08-28-2008, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

But . . .it's El Paso.

Giggle. That was my thought.

FWIW- my 94 year old great-aunt has lived in EP her whole life. She has not a single living relative in EP anymore, but no one can convince her to move. She thinks it is the best place on earth and loves the brown mountains!

So.. we all take turns flying in from all corners of the country to check on her and keep her company periodically. Nothing like a nice "vacation" to El Paso! (but the food is good...)

epchick · #7 08-29-2008, 12:18 AM

A friend of mine is in law school in New Orleans, and she just sent a myspace bulletin that said that the school was going to be closed for tomorrow (and maybe longer) and that there is a mandatory evacuation.

I'm not sure if the whole city is evacuating, or if it was just the school.

AGDee · #8 08-29-2008, 06:44 AM

New Orleans is ready to evacuate and they are doing a lot more than they did with Katrina. They have said there will be NO shelters within the city and they have a whole program to get people out who need assistance, don't have transportation, etc. They have moved food and water into Louisiana already. Seems like they did, indeed, learn from their mistakes so hopefully, even if the levees don't hold, there won't be loss of life. I read an article trying to analyze whether the levees are ready for this and the gist of was that they are NOT ready.

ETA: Some evacuations are actually beginning. This website has details: http://www.nola.com/

AGDee · #9 08-28-2008, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epchick

El Paso....lol. In my lifetime, we've only had 1 tornado scare, back in 1998 (from what I remember), but the tornado never touched down. We have experienced "flooding" but that's only because we barely have any storm drains, and the drainage in the city is CRAPPY. Can't get hurricanes because we are far from the water, and by the time the storm gets anywhere near here, it's pretty much a thunderstorm. Snow storms, in the desert? Not really gonna happen. And we aren't on a fault line.

Alright, we're moving 300,000,000 people in.. ready?

epchick · #10 08-28-2008, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGDee

Alright, we're moving 300,000,000 people in.. ready?

maybe we'll finally get a Six Flags!! lol

Quote:

FWIW- my 94 year old great-aunt has lived in EP her whole life. She has not a single living relative in EP anymore, but no one can convince her to move. She thinks it is the best place on earth and loves the brown mountains!

As much as I want to move away, El Paso has a certain charm about it. It's like our own little bubble in the desert.

ComradesTrue · #11 08-28-2008, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGDee

So where is the ideal place to live based on this? I dunno. The mountains in North Carolina?

Excellent suggestion. But shhhh!

PinkRose1098 · #12 08-28-2008, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AGDee

So where is the ideal place to live based on this? I dunno. The mountains in North Carolina?

Maybe but I don't want to have to navigate a mountain road in an ice storm. How about Southwest Virginia? Roanoke is lovely. Its location in a valley shields you from most of the really bad weather.

I like growing up in Birmingham because I could sit in my bed and night and watch the lightning and thunderstorms roll in (my windows faced west) and we didn't get horrible weather in the winter. You would get the yucky winter rain and maybe an occasional freezing rain storm but once it got into the Carolinas it was a few inches of ice. No thank you. I'll take a light freezing rain and power to ice on the trees and power lines and no power for a few days.