Have you ever seen a tornado? Or felt a proper earthquake?

[CiaoBe]

Both fascinate me.
I felt a TINY earthquake in the UK many years ago. Woke me up from a sleep and felt the wardrobes shake.

Thought it was a dream till next day but I can't imagine what a proper earthquake feels like. To have the actual earth move under you.

Also I have a morbid fascination with tornados. They terrify me but I would absolutely love to see one in real life.

Yes an earthquake in Crete magnitude of 6- just googled it and it has a name - the 2021 arkalachori earthquake

we were in a nice hotel but the whole hotel moved very quickly - and all the bottles came of the bar. The hotel was otherwise ok. But in the town a lot of buildings came down sadly (apparently 1000s).

It was biggest earthquake for many decades apparently - and I felt nervous when the locals were nervous

for me - the worst thing was the aftershocks - it felt like there were a 100 over the next few days - I especially felt them at night, some magnitude of 4, some more - I was in bed with everything shaking, my husband and toddler sleeping - but I was awake checking the internet constantly for aftershock and earthquake predictions - it wasn’t the most relaxing holiday for me

Yes, both, many times.

We had a tornado when we were at our caravan in 2005, it passed right through the caravan site & then we had thunder & lightning straight after. Exh got a big electric shock off the side of our caravan & the morning after, had a massive heart attack, I'll never know if it was anything to do with the shock he got. The tornado proved we had done a good job at putting up our awning, it never moved an inch where other ones got torn to bits.

We had a mini earthquake once in the middle of the night, woke up with the bed shaking for maybe 20 seconds, frightened the life out of me.

I live in Texas and I've experienced small earthquakes, hurricanes Ike and Harvey, many tropical storms and several tornadoes. As a matter of fact, a Cat 1 tornado touched down a mile from my home a few days ago. It destroyed a car repair shop, a bar and a few other businesses. Thankfully, it happened at 2:30am and no one was hurt.

The 4.8 one the other week in NJ/NY. As fun as it was, I still wake up in the middle of the night slightly stressed that we're going to get hit by a much bigger one.

I used to live in Chile so we felt small earthquakes regularly; you genuinely stop being at all bothered by them. A 4 or 5 you might say, "ooh, did you feel that?"

We did have one big one, 8+, that seemed to go on a long time. We were sat watching TV and watched the lamp dance across the living room floor and felt the whole house shake terribly. We were on the ground floor, though, so nowhere near as strongly-felt as if you're up in a high building as they literally sway from side to side!!

Not scary, though, as the building codes there are v strict and everything is built to withstand at least an 8.something quake. The building doesn't have to be habitable afterwards, but it has to remain standing! Incredible engineering! I remember this was not long after the devastating earthquake in Nepal where thousands died and were injured; nobody really gets hurt in an earthquake in Chile unless they have a heart attack or something falls off a shelf onto them or whatever.

We did drills at school for earthquakes (get under tables in the middle of the room, away from windows) and you don't place a bed under a window, either.

Big earthquake but we were quite far from the epicenter. Everyone in the restaurant kept eating and acted like it was a normal occurrence as I stared at the lights swinging. It was normal for them. DH was completely oblivious! Another one at night again pretty mild but we were on the 49th floor again DH completely oblivious. I had to google local
earthquakes for him to believe me

I've been in both.

Luckily neither were particularly bad but it wasn't an experience I'd want to repeat.

Will add earthquake was also Greece and tornado was in france!

A 7.5 Richter scale earthquake once. I was upstairs, and suddenly there was an odd roaring and the room shifted and rolled back and forth, as if it were in heavy seas. Houses aren't built to do that! Things flew from shelves and across the room. I've never trusted the stability of the ground since.

I was in the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 with two toddlers. It was a fucking nightmare. The earthquake, the aftershocks, the sheer number of killed and harmed people, the liquifaction, the panic, everything stopped working, water became undrinkable. Some traumatized woman battered the car we were in when we were queuing for petrol. I think I probably have some PTSD about the whole thing.

I had always teased my husband about the amount of EQ supplies he kept just in case we had a big one in Hawke's Bay and then the Chch EQ struck and I realised just how much water/food etc you might need. I am so sorry you had to go through that, especially with two toddlers.

I've seen one tornado on the Cambridgeshire Fens about 10 years ago. It whipped up all the fen dust and looked very impressive. I wasn't "in" it though.

I've experienced numerous earthquakes and tremors.
1st was one in Wales whilst living in Cheshire in the mid-80s.
Then lots whilst living in Papua New Guinea. The ones that used to worry me were when I was in Popendetta - there was a dormant volcano there and the only way out of the area was by plane. I used to stay in an old wooden guesthouse and the whole thing shook like it was going to fall down.

In another we were in an office block and watched the one next door sway from side to side, that was scary.
An aftershock of the Kos one about 6 years ago, we'd got a late deal (probably due to people cancelling holidays after the main quake). Ds1 & I were lying by the pool and there was an small shock. He asked what it was and insaid an earthquake and he didn't believe me, then people around us started talking about it.
And a couple more in the UK over the years.

Ive felt two earthquakes. One in the 80s and one in the late 90s. Very mild but obvious for those few moments.

Used to live in Cyprus and we got lots of earthquakes, mostly pretty small in the 3 to 4 magnitude range, usually didn’t cause much comment except to pick up anything that had fallen over. Had one larger one, don’t remember the magnitude but it did make the house shake quite a bit! Having to teach the kids earthquake drill was interesting!

never seen a tornado, but have seen several ‘waterspouts’ which are like small tornados out to sea.

Two earthquakes. One in Bali the other in the UK, West Midlands.

A 6.2 earthquake whilst on holiday in Kos. Really loud sound, thought a plane was coming down, then everything shook, was hanging onto the bed. Loads of aftershocks over the next few days. Bloody scary.

I'm in the south of Italy so lots of little tremors which go largely unnoticed.
The two bigger ones I've felt were in 2002 when to the north of us, one flattened a primary school the day before a public holiday, so the day after, nobody would have been there.
And one a couple of years ago which made a huge crack down the external walls of the school I work at.

It's a strange feeling. It takes a nanosecond for it to to sink in that things are shaking. The cat always knew a split second before we did. I remember the aftershocks from the first one I mentioned the following day, and the cat would suddenly sit bolt upright, heckles raised, and I'd think here we go, then the doors and windows would start rattling again.

Hugs to all those affected. ❤️

I'm in NZ and earthquakes happen here all the time. My lights tinkle at 4.5 so I tend not to bother getting up off the couch unless that is happening. Some start slow and others come with a bang. Some are silent and sometimes you can hear them coming.

But I've been in two huge ones and it's truely terrifying. We live near the beach and our house bounces. The whole hide under a door or table is impossible in a big one as you cannot stand or walk. And if that trauma isn't enough you get aftershocks for days so you are totally on edge and because everything is swaying all the time you get a sea sickness type feeling

Woken up by a 7.3 earthquake when on holiday in Eilat in 1995. It was around 6am and we were woken by the bed shaking vigorously from side to side by several inches that seemed to last a long time, but probably just a couple of minutes. Not only was it the shaking, it was the noise, like thunder, as things were breaking in the hotel, other rooms, i.e. mirrors falling off the walls, windows/balcony doors breaking, etc. The hotel pool was sloshing around with mini waves soaking the garden/sun bathing areas around it and flooding the reception/restaurant. Our first thought was that it was a plane crash as our hotel was very close to the airport runway.

We evacuated during/after the main shock, but there were many aftershocks, both immediately afterwards as we were getting out and then standing outside for a couple of hours, and then subsequently throughout the day and the next couple of days. A day or two later, we were in the hotel lift and there was an aftershock and the whole lift was swinging, banging into the lift shaft. That caused me to suffer in lifts and toilet cubicles for years after with a kind of swaying feeling when in a small confined space.

Looking around the resort, there was lots of damage. Including some very large glass panels from hotel and shopping centre atriums that had crashed down, hotels/buildings with large cracks in their walls, some roads/pavements with cracks, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Gulf_of_Aqaba_earthquake

I was camping in France in 1977 when we had a bad storm one night. The following morning we were just thinking about getting up when we could tell from the sudden darkness that something bad was going to happen. A tornado ripped up through the field. Our flysheet was ripped off and the rain came through the cotton inner. Fortunately, we had the presence of mind to shove our clothes into our sleeping bags. We held on to a tent pole each and prayed (neither of us is religious).

When the wind died down we emerged to view the wreckage of the campsite. Our little ridge tent was one of the few left standing. The tornado had picked up the two ton marquee and flown it up the field, and all the frame tents had been flattened.

In 1986 we were in Bishop, California the day after an earthquake. That night the aftershocks occurred every 20 minutes. We got no sleep at all and left at first light. The noise was horrific. It sounded like someone was rolling cannon balls above us. The TV nearly fell on the floor due to the aftershocks being so powerful.

I don't think I have ever been so scared. It was made worse by the TV presenters warning of the big earthquake to come.

Earthquakes. Twice when I was young and living in California.

Such an odd sensation to feel the ground moving!

Earthquake yes.

Seaspouts yes.

2003 Earthquake in NZ. The large mirror on the wall opposite the bed came unfixed from the wall (4 large bolts) and collapsed onto the bed falling between the 2 of us.

We had only visited the Earthquake simulator at Wellington two days previously, so knew exactly what to do.

Have also watched Tornados birthing in Tornado Alley. Fascinating !!

A few earthquakes, yes. I lived in California. Thankfully, no big ones. Oddly, they felt more like an explosion or a vibration than what I imagined from films (buildings swaying). Once I was in a basement and I heard it more than felt it. It was odd, but not as frightening as I thought.

I also used to live in a very tornado prone area growing up and had so much anxiety about tornadoes. We did have them nearby, but never close enough that I saw one or had to take cover. They are scary though and truly unpredictable.