# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about tsunamis including what causes them such as earthquakes, where they occur, why they are dangerous, and what happens during a tsunami event.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is a tsunami?
A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water. With typical waves, water flows in circles, but with a tsunami, water flows straight. This is why tsunamis cause so much damage!

How are tsunamis generated?
Tsunamis are generated by any large, impulsive displacement of the sea level. The most common cause of a tsunami is sea floor uplift associated with an earthquake. Tsunamis are also triggered by landslides into or under the water surface, and can be generated by volcanic activity and meteorite impacts.

How often do tsunamis occur?
On the average, two tsunamis occur per year throughout the world which inflict damage near the source. Approximately every 15 years a destructive, ocean-wide tsunami occurs.

Can strike-slip (horizontal motion) earthquakes trigger tsunamis?
Yes, approximately 10-15% of damaging tsunamis are triggered by strike-slip earthquakes. This type of earthquake is less likely to trigger a tsunami than one with vertical motion. The waves are likely generated by associated landslides or motion of a sloping bathymetric feature. Tsunamis generated by strike-slip earthquakes normally affect regions near the source only.

What does the word "tsunami" mean?
Tsunami (soo-NAH-mee) is a Japanese word meaning harbor wave.

How fast do tsunamis travel?
Tsunami velocity depends on the depth of water through which it travels. Velocity equals the square root of the product of the water depth times the acceleration of gravity. Tsunamis travel approximately 475 mph in 15,000 feet of water. In 100 feet of water the velocity drops to about 40 mph.

Did you know...A tsunami travels from the central Aleutian Islands to Hawaii in about 5 hours and to California in about 6 hours, or from the Portugal coast to North Carolina in about 8.5 hours.

How big is a tsunami?
Tsunamis range in size from inches to over a hundred feet. In deep water (greater than 600 feet), tsunamis are rarely over 3 feet and are not normally noticed by ships due to their long period or time between crests. As tsunamis propagate into shallow water, the wave height can increase by over 10 times. Tsunami heights vary greatly along a coast. The waves can be amplified by shoreline and sea floor features. A large tsunami can flood low-lying coastal land over a mile from the coast.

What does a tsunami look like when it reaches shore?
Normally, a tsunami appears as a rapidly advancing or receding tide. In some cases, a wall of water or series of breaking waves may form.

How is a tsunami different from a wind-generated wave?
Wind-generated waves usually have periods or time between crests between 5 and 15 seconds. Tsunami periods normally range from 5 to 60 minutes. Also, wind-generated waves break as they shoal and lose energy offshore. Tsunamis act more like a flooding wave. A twenty foot tsunami is a twenty foot rise in sea level.

What are nature's signs that a tsunami may be imminent?
There are a few signs like hard ground shaking for 20+ seconds near the coast or a sudden sea level withdrawal. Tsunamis may be accompanied by loud, booming noises.

Can earthquakes and tsunamis be predicted?
No, earthquakes cannot be predicted. Once an earthquake has occurred, the arrival time of a tsunami, if generated, can be determined accurately. There is not normally enough time to accurately predict tsunami heights near the source. Away from the source, tsunami wave heights can be estimated based on mathematical tsunami models and observed wave heights.

Aerial video of the tsunami that devastated Japan on March 11, 2011.

Click Here to see an animation of an earthquake and the resulting tsunami. It's great for kids, because they get to see how it actually happens!
What are some of the most damaging tsunamis?

Japan: Major tsunami in 2011 generated in the Pacific Ocean.

Asia: Asian tsunami in 2004 generated in the Indian Ocean.

Alaska: Major tsunamis were generated along the Alaskan coast in 1946, 1957, 1958, 1964, and 1965. Many other locally generated tsunamis occurred prior to those dates.

US/Canada West Coast: Tsunamis were generated locally in 1812, 1873, 1878, 1927, 1930, 1946 and 1949. The west coast was also impacted by tsunamis generated in other regions in 1877, 1946, 1952, 1957, 1960, 1964, 1975, 2006, and 2010.

US/Canada Atlantic Coast: Tsunamis were recorded in 1755, 1884, 1886, and 1929.

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands experienced damaging tsunamis in 1867 and 1918.

Click Here for the NOAA/National Geophysical Data Center tsunami catalog.

TSUNAMI WARNING- A tsunami warning indicates that a tsunami may be imminent and that coastal locations in the warned area should prepare for flooding. The initial warning is typically based solely on seismic information. After the tsunami is recorded on sea level gages, the warning will be cancelled, restricted, expanded, or downgraded to an advisory. Warnings indicate that flooding up to the maximum expected limit is possible and residents should follow their local emergency management instructions. Warnings are issued when the earthquake information or tsunami forecasts indicate that a wave over 1 meter in amplitude is expected, possible, or ongoing.

TSUNAMI ADVISORY- A tsunami advisory indicates a tsunami which may produce strong currents and is dangerous to those in or very near the water is expected. Large inundations are not expected in areas under advisory status. Advisories will be cancelled, extended, or upgraded to a warning depending on the event severity. Advisories are issued when the tsunami forecast is in the range of 0.3 to 1 meter, or an observed tsunami is in the range of 0.5 to 1.0 meters.

TSUNAMI WATCH- A tsunami watch is an early alert issued to areas which may later be impacted by a tsunami. Tsunami impact is normally at least three hours away for regions within a tsunami watch. The watch will either be upgraded to a warning or advisory in subsequent messages or cancelled depending on the severity of the tsunami. People within a watch area should stay alert for further information regarding tsunami threat.

CREST - The top of a wave.

FJORD - A narrow sea inlet between cliffs or steep slopes.

SURGE - A large wave or billow.

TROUGH - The lowest point between waves.

Click Here to get the latest tsunami warning information from the NWS.

PLAN FOR A TSUNAMI: Have a disaster plan. Know whether you're at risk for danger. Plan an evacuation route. Prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, canned food and a can opener, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing and written instructions on how to turn off electricity, gas, and water.

DURING A TSUNAMI: Follow the instructions issued by local authorities. You will probably want to evacuate immediately. Get to higher ground and as far inland as you can.

AFTER A TSUNAMI: Help injured or trapped people. Stay out of a building if water remains around it. Tsunami waters can cause buildings to sink, floors to crack, or walls to collapse. When re-entering homes, use extreme caution. Check for gas leaks. Open windows and doors to help dry things out. Look for fire hazards.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about tsunamis. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on tracking a tsunami.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on tsunamis and how they devastating effects they may cause in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is a tsunami? A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Severe Weather 101

Flood Basics

What is flooding?

Flooding is an overflowing of water onto land that is normally dry. Floods can happen during heavy rains, when ocean waves come on shore, when snow melts quickly, or when dams or levees break. Damaging flooding may happen with only a few inches of water, or it may cover a house to the rooftop. Floods can occur within minutes or over a long period, and may last days, weeks, or longer. Floods are the most common and widespread of all weather-related natural disasters.

Flash floods are the most dangerous kind of floods, because they combine the destructive power of a flood with incredible speed. Flash floods occur when heavy rainfall exceeds the ability of the ground to absorb it. They also occur when water fills normally dry creeks or streams or enough water accumulates for streams to overtop their banks, causing rapid rises of water in a short amount of time. They can happen within minutes of the causative rainfall, limiting the time available to warn and protect the public.

Where and when do floods occur?

Flooding occurs in every U.S. state and territory, and is a threat experienced anywhere in the world that receives rain. In the U.S. floods kill more people each year than tornadoes, hurricanes or lightning.

What areas are at risk from flash floods?

Densely populated areas are at a high risk for flash floods. The construction of buildings, highways, driveways, and parking lots increases runoff by reducing the amount of rain absorbed by the ground. This runoff increases the flash flood potential.

Sometimes, streams through cities and towns are routed underground into storm drains. During heavy rain, the storm drains can become overwhelmed or plugged by debris and flood the roads and buildings nearby.Low spots, such as underpasses, underground parking garages, basements, and low water crossings can become death traps.

Areas near rivers are at risk from floods. Embankments, known as levees, are often built along rivers and are used to prevent high water from flooding bordering land. In 1993, many levees failed along the Mississippi River, resulting in devastating floods. The city of New Orleans experienced massive devastating flooding days after Hurricane Katrina came onshore in 2005 due to the failure of levees designed to protect the city.

Dam failures can send a sudden destructive surge of water downstream. In 1889 a dam break upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, released a 30-40 foot wall of water that killed 2200 people within minutes.

Mountains and steep hills produce rapid runoff, which causes streams to rise quickly. Rocks and shallow, clayey soils do not allow much water to infiltrate into the ground. Saturated soils can also lead to rapid flash flooding.Camping or recreating along streams or rivers can be a risk if there are thunderstorms in the area. A creek only 6 inches deep in mountainous areas can swell to a 10-foot deep raging river in less than an hour if a thunderstorm lingers over an area for an extended period of time. Sometimes the thunderstorms that produce the heavy rainfall may happen well upstream from the impacted area, making it harder to recognize a dangerous situation.

Very intense rainfall can produce flooding even on dry soil. In the West, mostcanyons, small streams and dry arroyos are not easily recognizable as a source of danger. The causative rainfall can occur upstream of the canyon, and hikers can be trapped by rapidly rising water. Floodwaters can carry fast-moving debris that pose significant risks to life.

Additional high-risk locations includerecent burn areas in mountains, and urban areas from pavement and roofs which enhance runoff.

Ice jams and snowmelt can help cause flash floods. A deep snowpack increases runoff produced by melting snow. Heavy spring rains falling on melting snowpack can produce flash flooding. Melting snowpack may also contribute to floods produced by ice jams on creeks and rivers. Thick layers of ice often form on streams and rivers during the winter. Melting snow and/or warm rain running into the streams may lift and break this ice, allowing large chunks of ice to jam against bridges or other structures. This causes the water to rapidly rise behind the ice jam. If the water is suddenly released, serious flash flooding could occur downstream. Huge chunks of ice can be pushed onto the shore and through houses and buildings.

National Weather Service Messaging Terminology

FLASH FLOOD WATCH or FLOOD WATCH

Flash flooding or flooding is possible within the designated watch area - be alert.

FLASH FLOOD WARNING or FLOOD WARNING

Flash flooding or flooding has been reported or is imminent - take necessary precautions at once! Get to higher ground!

Turn around, don't drown! Most fatalities in the US from flash flooding are from vehicles driving into flooded roadways.

URBAN and SMALL STREAM ADVISORY

Flooding of small streams, streets and low-lying areas, such as railroad underpasses and urban storm drains is occurring.

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT or FLOOD STATEMENT

Follow-up information regarding a flash flood/flood event.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Basic information about flooding, from the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
They can speed across the ocean as fast as a jet plane, swallow up islands and wipe out villages.

But what causes tsuamis...? Join National Geographic Kids and dive into our tsunami facts to find out!

What causes a tsunami?

Meaning " great harbour wave" in Japanese, tsunamis are sometimes called "tidal waves" but their strength has nothing to do with the tides. About four out of five tsunamis happen within the Ring Of Fire, a zone in the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently take place.

Giant slabs of the Earth's crust, called tectonic plates, grind together. Sometimes, though, the plates get stuck, the pressure builds up and they suddenly slam into a new position. This causes an earthquake. If an earthquake lifts or drops part of the ocean floor, the water above rises and starts spreading across the ocean, causing a tsunami. Underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions can also displace water (cause water to spread across the ocean) and may lead to a tsunami.

How big is a tsunami?

Out in the open ocean, tsunami waves are only about one-metre high because the water is deep. However, as the water becomes shallow, the waves slow down and begin to grow. They can rise 35m or higher - that's the same as a 10-floor block of flats! However, the scariest thing about a tsunami is its wavelength, as this determines how far inland it can travel. Whereas a large wave caused by a storm might have a wavelength of up to 150m, a tsunami could reach up to a fearsome 1,000km!

How fast is a tsunami?

A normal wind wave travels at about 90kmh, but a tsunami can race across the ocean at an incredible 970kmh! Sometimes, before a tsunami hits, there is a huge vacuum effect, sucking water from harbours and beaches. People can see the ocean floor littered with flopping fish and other sea animals. Then a wave blasts onto the shore minutes later, then another and another for two hours or more. There may also be up to one hour between each wave.

Can you predict when a tsunami is coming?

To save lives, scientists established the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, based in Hawaii, in the USA. Its network of detectors can track quakes that may cause a tsunami. These waves can race from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other in less than a day, so people need to be warned in time to head for higher ground!

What do you think of these tsunami facts? Let us know by leaving a comment, below!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tsunami facts: check out the mighty wave! - National Geographic Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Check out these epic tsunami facts from National Geographic Kids! How do tsunamis form? And how big are they? Find out all about them in our tsunami facts...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most floods take hours or even days to develop, giving residents time to prepare or evacuate. Others generate quickly and with little warning. So-called flash floods can be extremely dangerous, instantly turning a babbling brook or even a dry wash into rushing rapids that sweep everything in their path downstream.

Climate change is increasing the risk of floods worldwide, particularly in coastal and low-lying areas, because of its role in extreme weather events and rising seas. The increase in temperatures that accompanies global warming can contribute to hurricanes that move more slowly and drop more rain, funneling moisture into atmospheric rivers like the ones that led to heavy rains and flooding in California in early 2019.

Meanwhile, melting glaciers and other factors are contributing to a rise in sea levels that has created long-term, chronic flooding risks for places ranging from Venice, Italy to the Marshall Islands. More than 670 U.S. communities will face repeated flooding by the end of this century, according to a 2017 analysis; it's happening in more than 90 coastal communities already.

Impacts of flooding

Floods cause more than $40 billion in damage worldwide annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the U.S., losses average close to $8 billion a year. Death tolls have increased in recent decades to more than 100 people a year. In China's Yellow River Valley some of the world's worst floods have killed millions of people.

When floodwaters recede, affected areas are often blanketed in silt and mud. The water and landscape can be contaminated with hazardous materials such as sharp debris, pesticides, fuel, and untreated sewage. Potentially dangerous mold blooms can quickly overwhelm water-soaked structures.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Learn about how floods happen and the damage they cause

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get facts and information about floods and flooding from National Geographic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A flood happens when water overflows or soaks land that is normally dry. There are few places on Earth where people don't need to be concerned about flooding.

Subjects

Ecology, Earth Science, Geology, Engineering, Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography, World History

A flood happens when water overflows or soaks land that is normally dry. There are few places on Earth where people don't need to be concerned about flooding. Generally, floods take hours or even days to develop, giving residents time to prepare or evacuate. Sometimes, floods develop quickly and with little warning.

A flood can develop in a many ways. The most common is when rivers or streams overflow their banks. These floods are called riverine floods. Heavy rain, a broken dam or levee, rapid icemelt in the mountains, or even a beaver dam in a vulnerable spot can overwhelm a river and send it spreading over nearby land. The land surrounding a river is called a flood plain.

Coastal flooding, also called estuarine flooding, happens when a large storm or tsunami causes the sea to rush inland.

Floods are the second-most widespread natural disaster on Earth, after wildfires. All 50 states of the United States are vulnerable to flooding.

Effects of Floods

When floodwaters recede, affected areas are often blanketed in silt and mud. This sediment can be full of nutrients, benefiting farmers and agribusinesses in the area. Famously fertile flood plains like the Mississippi River valley in the American Midwest, the Nile River valley in Egypt, and the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East have supported agriculture for thousands of years. Yearly flooding has left millions of tons of nutrient-rich soil behind.

However, floods have enormous destructive power. When a river overflows its banks or the sea moves inland, many structures are unable to withstand the force of the water. Bridges, houses, trees, and cars can be picked up and carried off. Floods erode soil, taking it from under a building's foundation, causing the building to crack and tumble. Severe flooding in Bangladesh in July 2007 led to more than a million homes being damaged or destroyed.

Floods can cause even more damage when their waters recede. The water and landscape can be contaminated with hazardous materials, such as sharp debris, pesticides, fuel, and untreated sewage. Potentially dangerous mold can quickly overwhelm water-soaked structures.

As flood water spreads, it carries disease. Flood victims can be left for weeks without clean water for drinking or hygiene. This can lead to outbreaks of deadly diseases like typhoid, malaria, hepatitis A, and cholera. This happened in 2000, as hundreds of people in Mozambique fled to refugee camps after the Limpopo River flooded their homes. They soon fell ill and died from cholera, which is spread by unsanitary conditions, and malaria, spread by mosquitoes that thrived on the swollen river banks.

In the United States, floods are responsible for an average of nearly 100 deaths every year, and cause about $7.5 billion in damage.

China's Yellow River valley has seen some of the world's worst floods in the past 100 years. The 1931 Yellow River flood is one of the most devastating natural disasters ever recorded-almost a million people drowned, and even more were left homeless.

Natural Causes of Floods

Floods occur naturally. They are part of the water cycle, and the environment is adapted to flooding. Wetlands along river banks, lakes, and estuaries absorb flood waters. Wetland vegetation, such as trees, grasses, and sedges, slow the speed of flood waters and more evenly distribute their energy. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the wetlands along the Mississippi River once stored at least 60 days of flood water. (Today, Mississippi wetlands store only 12 days of flood water. Most wetlands have been filled or drained.)

Floods can also devastate an environment. The most vulnerable regions are those that experience frequent floods and those that have not flooded for many years. In the first case, the environment does not have time to recover between floods. In the second case, the environment may not be able to adapt to flood conditions.

In August 2010, Pakistan experienced some of the worst floods of the century. The annual monsoon, on which Pakistani farmers and consumers rely, was unusually strong. Tons of water drenched the nation. The Indus River burst its banks. Because the river flows almost directly through the narrow country, almost all of Pakistan was affected by flooding.

Millions of Pakistanis lost their homes, and almost 2,000 died in the floods. The province of Punjab, the country's agricultural center, was particularly devastated. Rice, wheat, and corn crops were destroyed. The impact of the floods continued long after the monsoon dwindled and the Indus subsided. Pakistanis experienced food shortages, power outages, and loss of infrastructure. Outbreaks of cholera and malaria developed near resettlement camps. Experts estimated that the rebuilding effort would cost up to $15 billion.

Sometimes, floods are triggered by other natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis. In January 2011, a major earthquake struck off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The quake triggered a massive tsunami, its crest reaching as high as 40 meters (131 feet). The tsunami crashed more than 10 kilometers (six miles) inland, flooding homes, businesses, schools, parks, hospitals, and the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant. A dam holding a reservoir burst, triggering another flood that destroyed homes.

Rain that accompanies hurricanes and cyclones can quickly flood coastal areas. The rise in sea level that occurs during these storms is called a storm surge. A storm surge is a type of coastal flood. They can be devastating. The storm surge that accompanied the 1970 Bhola cyclone flooded the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta in India and Bangladesh. More than 500,000 people were killed, and twice that number were left homeless.

The strong winds associated with hurricanes and cyclones can also whip up and move huge amounts of water, forcing a storm surge far inland. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina brought huge amounts of wind and rain to the Gulf Coast of the United States. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, was particularly hard-hit. The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused some of the city's levees to break. Levees protect New Orleans from the Mississippi River. The river rushed in and flooded entire neighborhoods. Hundreds of people drowned, and the storm did more than $100 billion in damage.

Artificial Causes of Floods

Floods can also have artificial sources. Many man-made floods are intentional and controlled.

Rice farmers, for instance, rely on flooded fields. Rice is a semi-aquatic crop-it grows in water. After rice seedlings are planted, farmers flood their fields, called rice paddies, in about 15 to 25 centimeters (six to 10 inches) of water. Rice paddies must be carefully engineered to allow controlled flooding. Strong dikes or levees, as well as regulated channels for irrigation, are required.

Sometimes, engineers flood an area to restore an ecosystem. In 2008, the U.S.'s Grand Canyon was deliberately flooded. Water was released from dams on the Colorado River, which runs through the Grand Canyon. In 20 minutes, enough water was released from a dam at Lake Powell, Utah, to fill up the Empire State Building. Hydrologists, engineers, and environmentalists hoped that flooding the canyon would help redistribute sediment-which had been blocked up by dams-and create sandbars. Sandbars provide a wildlife habitat, often serving as a shallow bridge for animals such as beavers and bighorn sheep to cross from one side of the river to the other.

Dams control the natural flood plains of lakes and rivers. Hydrologists may intentionally flood areas to prevent damage to the dam or increase the water supply for agriculture, industry, or consumer use.

Engineers may also intentionally flood areas to prevent the possibility of worse flooding. When heavy rains caused the Souris River to flood in 2011, for example, the water level nearly reached the top of the Alameda Reservoir in Oxbow, Saskatchewan, Canada. Faced with the prospect of catastrophic flooding if the entire dam broke, engineers chose to release huge amounts of water. The reservoir remained intact, but the release contributed to massive floods in both Saskatchewan and the U.S. city of Minot, North Dakota.

Not all man-made floods are intentional, however. The natural banks of rivers and streams shrink as people develop land nearby. River banks are valuable real estate for housing, businesses, and industry. From Shanghai, China, to San Antonio, Texas, U.S., rivers are the sites of busy urban areas. In rural areas, factories use river currents to distribute runoff. To accommodate such development, river banks are paved with hard, non-porous materials. Soils and plants are replaced with concrete and asphalt, which can't absorb water. An unusual amount of rain can cause these rivers to quickly overrun their concrete banks.

Australia is conducting an investigation of Brisbane's development decisions after the Brisbane River overran its banks and flooded the country's capital in 2011. Streets, downtown business districts, and bridges were destroyed. Water reached the third row of seats in the city's rugby stadium. The flood waters were high enough at two meters (six feet) that bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) were spotted swimming up major streets.

Concrete banks also increase the amount of runoff flowing to nearby bodies of water. This increases the risk of coastal flooding. Venice, Italy, for instance, is frequently flooded as tides from the Adriatic Sea seep into the heavily developed islands on which the city rests.

Hydrologists, engineers, and city planners constantly work to reduce flood damage. Shrubs and plants create buffers to prevent runoff from seeping into flood plains, urban areas, or other bodies of water. The thick vegetation between a river and a flood plain is called a riparian zone.

Despite their efforts, people can also radically fail to control floods. The most famous flood in American history, the Johnstown Flood, was an artificial disaster. The tragedy killed 2,209 people and made headlines around the country.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, U.S., was on a floodplain at the meeting of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh rivers. As more people moved to the city, the banks of the rivers were paved and narrowed, causing yearly flooding. Residents were prepared for this. They watched the river and moved their belongings upstairs or onto rooftops as the city flooded.

However, residents were not prepared for the additional flood from an entire lake. Located in nearby mountains, Lake Conemaugh was a reservoir created by the South Fork Dam. The lake was an exclusive retreat for members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, which owned the dam. Lake Conemaugh contained 20 million tons of water.

On May 31, 1889, the dam broke and the water rushed down the river at 64 kilometers (40 miles) per hour. Johnstown's leading industry was steel production, and the flood waters quickly became choked with industrial debris-steel cables, chemical solvents, glass, rail cars. The flood destroyed a wire factory, filling the water with tons of barbed wire. About 80 people died when floating wreckage caught fire.

Rebuilding Johnstown took years-the bodies of some victims were not found until 20 years later. Although the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club failed to maintain the dam, members of the club successfully argued that the disaster was an "act of God."

Flood Classification

Disaster experts classify floods according to their likelihood of occurring in a given time period. The most common classifications are a 10-year flood, a 50-year flood, and a 100-year flood. A 100-year flood, for example, is an extremely large, destructive event that would be expected to happen only once every century.

But this is only an estimate. What "100-year flood" actually means is that there is a 1 percent chance that such a flood could happen in any given year. In recent decades, 100-year floods have occurred more frequently. This may be due to global warming, the current period of climate change.

The Red River, which flows along the border of North Dakota and Minnesota, chronically floods. Anything over 8.5 meters (28 feet) is considered "flood stage" in the area. In 1997, the river crested at almost 12 meters (40 feet), a record level. In 2009, the record was beaten as the river flooded again, reaching a height of almost 12.5 meters (40.8 feet). The river flooded for 61 days.

Flash floods can develop within hours of heavy rainfall. Flash floods can be extremely dangerous, instantly turning a babbling brook into a thundering wall of water that sweeps away everything in its path. Most deaths from flooding occur as a result of flash floods. Flash floods do not have a system for classifying their magnitude.

Deserts are vulnerable to flash floods. Wadis and arroyos are dry river beds that only flow during heavy rains. Wadis can be dangerous during flash floods because they rarely have riparian zones to slow the flood's energy. The city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, developed on the site of several wadis, and floods are frequent after heavy rains. More than 100 people died in flash floods in Jeddah in 2009. The floods developed so quickly that many victims drowned in their cars as streets became submerged.

Predicting Floods

Today, hydrologists study past flood patterns to help predict where and when floods will happen in the future. The predictions are only estimates, however. Weather, land, and climate can all change.

An area's soil and groundwater provide clues about flooding. Pedologists, or soil scientists, work with hydrologists to determine how much water a region's earth can absorb. Agricultural soil, for instance, can absorb much more water than sand or bare rock. Groundwater is water already in the earth-in soil, underground reservoirs called aquifers, and even porous rocks. The type of soil and the amount of groundwater tells hydrologists how much more water the earth can absorb.

Determining the amount of runoff in an area can also provide clues about the possibility of flooding. Runoff happens when there is more water than soil can absorb. Excess water overflows and runs on top of the land. Runoff can come from natural processes, such as icemelt. It can also come from human activity, such as excess irrigation, sewage, and industrial waste. Controlling runoff can help control floods.

Hydrologists work with meteorologists to evaluate snowfall and snowpack. Melting snow contributes to runoff and increases groundwater levels. When snow melts quickly, the ground may not have time to absorb the water. Snowfall is one of the biggest contributors to flooding, and cannot always be predicted. Rapid snowmelt in the Andes Mountains, for example, creates mudslides and floods that disable railways and bridges. In 2010, snowmelt flooding trapped 4,000 tourists in towns near the remote historic site of Machu Picchu, Peru, for two days.

Modern technology helps researchers predict floods. Doppler radar, for example, shows scientists where a storm is most severe. Doppler uses motion to detect weather patterns and create computerized images of rainfall. Automated gauges placed in rivers measure the height and speed of river currents, and the amount of rain received. Geographic information system (GIS) maps made with this information help scientists warn people if a river will overrun its banks and flood areas nearby.

Preventing Floods

For thousands of years, people have tried to prevent and control floods. Yu the Great, for example, is a legendary figure in Chinese history. Around 2100 B.C.E., Yu developed a way to control the devastating floods of the Yellow River. Yu studied data from previous Yellow River floods, noting where the flow was the strongest and flood plains were most vulnerable. Instead of damming the river, Yu dredged it-he and a team of engineers made river channels deeper to accommodate more water. Yu also oversaw the construction of numerous irrigation canals, which diverted the flow of the river's mainstem during times of flooding.

It's not always possible to prevent floods, but it is often possible to minimize flood damage. Structures around rivers, lakes, and the sea can contain flood waters. Levees, runoff canals, and reservoirs can stop water from overflowing.

Levees are usually made of earth. They are built by piling soil, sand, or rocks near a river's banks. Levees may also be made of blocks of wood, plastic, or metal. They may even be reinforced by concrete. Levees in New Orleans, for example, use compacted earth, wooden beams, iron rebar, steel pilings, and concrete to hold back the mighty Mississippi River.

Runoff canals are man-made channels. These structures are connected to rivers and direct excess water away from buildings and residences. One of the first canals in North America was constructed in about 200 B.C.E. to control the seasonal flood waters of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, U.S. Today, southern Florida is criss-crossed by runoff canals that redirect the flow of the Everglades, the "River of Grass" that runs from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. These canals redirect flood water away from urban areas in southern Florida and toward irrigation canals primarily used for fields of sugar cane.

Natural and artificial reservoirs help prevent flooding. Natural reservoirs are basins where fresh water collects. Man-made reservoirs collect water behind a dam. They can hold more water in times of heavy rainfall. In April 2011, the government of Ethiopia announced plans for a large dam on the Blue Nile River. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which would be the largest dam in Africa, would create a reservoir capable of holding 67 billion cubic meters (2.4 trillion cubic feet) of water. The dam would prevent flooding downstream and provide the nation with hydroelectric energy.

Conserving wetlands also reduces the impact of floods. Wetlands provide a natural barrier, acting as a giant sponge for storm surges and flood plains. The swamps and bayous of America's southern Louisiana and Mississippi, for instance, protect inland areas from both coastal and riverine flooding. Wetlands absorb the storm surge from hurricanes that hit the area from the Gulf of Mexico. Wetland riparian zones that line the Mississippi River protect fertile flood plains as the river overflows its banks.

Many governments mandate that residents of flood-prone areas purchase flood insurance and build flood-resistant structures. Massive efforts to mitigate and redirect floods have resulted in some of the most ambitious engineering efforts ever seen. The Thames Barrier is one of the largest flood-control projects in the world. The Thames Barrier protects the urban area of London, England, from floods from storm surges that rush up the River Thames from the Atlantic Ocean. A series of 10 steel gates span the river near London's Woolrich district. Each gate can hold back 9,000 tons of water, and disappears into the river when the water is calm.

Perhaps the most extensive and sophisticated flood-prevention program is the Zuiderzee Works in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a low-lying nation that is plagued by coastal flooding from the North Sea. Beginning in the 1200s, the Dutch began to erect a series of massive dikes and levees on its coast. In the 1900s, Dutch engineers worked to isolate and dam an entire inlet of the North Sea, the Zuiderzee. The largest part of the Zuiderzee Works is the Afsluitdijk, a 32-kilometer (20-mile) dike that cuts off the Zuiderzee from the North Sea. In addition to protecting the Netherlands from flooding, the Zuiderzee Works has drained parts of the Zuiderzee for development.

Fast Fact

Apres Moi, le Deluge
"After me, the flood" (in French, " apres moi, le deluge") is a phrase attributed to the French King Louis XV or his mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

The phrase is a casual way of expressing irresponsibility, something like "When I leave a project, I don't care if a catastrophe happens. It no longer concerns me."

Fast Fact

Costliest U.S. Floods
As of July 2011, according to the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA):
Hurricane Katrina (2005)
$16.2 billion
Hurricane Ike (2008)
$2.6 billion
Hurricane Ivan (2004)
$1.2 billion
Tropical Storm Allison (1989)
$1.1 billion
Louisiana Flood (1995)
$585 million

Fast Fact

Flood Myths
Stories about great, Earth-drowning floods are common throughout world cultures. Many stories are remarkably similar: A deity warns a virtuous man about a catastrophic flood. The man builds a large boat, saving himself, his family, animals, and plants from the flood, which destroys the rest of Earth. Eventually, the man releases two birds to see if they bring back vegetation (which can only grow in soil). A bird returns, and human civilization is saved.

The most famous version of this flood myth is probably the story of Noah, recorded in the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran. Another version is the Mesopotamian legend of Utnapishtim, recorded in the Legend of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest works of literature, predating the Torah by more than a thousand years. The Maasai legend of Tumbainot, the Altai myth of Nama, and the Hawaiian myth of Nuu are all remarkably similar.

Fast Fact

"The Hero of Haarlem"
A popular story concerns a young boy from the town of Haarlem, Netherlands, who notices a leak in the town's dike. The Spaarne River is flowing through a tiny hole in the barrier, threatening to flood the town. The young boy plugs the leak with his finger, and stays there all night. Adults find him the next morning and permanently repair the leak. Although first written about by an American (Mary Mapes Dodge, in her book Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates), the story is from the Netherlands.

The story has been changed and retold many times. In most versions, the dike is holding back the North Sea, not a river. In some versions of the story, the young boy freezes to death during his all-night stay at the dike.

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Illustrators

Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society

Editors

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing, Emdash Editing

Producer

National Geographic Society

other

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

Media

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A flood happens when water overflows or soaks land that is normally dry. There are few places on Earth where people don't need to be concerned about flooding.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Floods may:

Find safe shelter right away.

Do not walk, swim or drive through flood waters. Turn Around, Don't Drown!

Remember, just six inches of moving water can knock you down, and one foot of moving water can sweep your vehicle away.

Stay off bridges over fast-moving water.

Depending on the type of flooding:

Evacuate if told to do so.

Move to higher ground or a higher floor.

Stay where you are.

Preparing for a Flood
Make a plan for your household, including your pets, so that you and your family know what to do, where to go, and what you will need to protect yourselves from flooding. Learn and practice evacuation routes, shelter plans, and flash flood response. Gather supplies, including non-perishable foods, cleaning supplies, and water for several days, in case you must leave immediately or if services are cut off in your area.

In Case of Emergency
Keep important documents in a waterproof container. Create password-protected digital copies. Protect your property. Move valuables to higher levels. Declutter drains and gutters. Install check valves. Consider a sump pump with a battery.

Evacuate immediately, if told to evacuate. Never drive around barricades. Local responders use them to safely direct traffic out of flooded areas.

Contact your healthcare provider If you are sick and need medical attention. Wait for further care instructions and shelter in place, if possible. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 9-1-1.

Listen to EAS, NOAA Weather Radio or local alerting systems for current emergency information and instructions regarding flooding.

Do not walk, swim or drive through flood waters. Turn Around. Don't Drown!

Stay off bridges over fast-moving water. Fast-moving water can wash bridges away without warning.

Stay inside your car if it is trapped in rapidly moving water. Get on the roof if water is rising inside the car.

Get to the highest level if trapped in a building. Only get on the roof if necessary and once there signal for help. Do not climb into a closed attic to avoid getting trapped by rising floodwater.

Pay attention to authorities for information and instructions. Return home only when authorities say it is safe.

Avoid driving except in emergencies.

Wear heavy work gloves, protective clothing and boots during clean up and use appropriate face coverings or masks if cleaning mold or other debris.

People with asthma and other lung conditions and/or immune suppression should not enter buildings with indoor water leaks or mold growth that can be seen or smelled. Children should not take part in disaster cleanup work.

Be aware that snakes and other animals may be in your house.

Be aware of the risk of electrocution. Do not touch electrical equipment if it is wet or if you are standing in water. Turn off the electricity to prevent electric shock if it is safe to do so.

Avoid wading in floodwater, which can be contaminated and contain dangerous debris. Underground or downed power lines can also electrically charge the water.

Use a generator or other gasoline-powered machinery ONLY outdoors and away from windows.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Floods are the most common natural disaster in the United States. Learn how to stay safe when a flood threatens. Prepare for a flood During a flood After a flood Associated content Flooding is a temporary overflow of water onto land that is normally dry. Floods are the most common disaster in the United States.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that sends surges of water, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 feet (30.5 meters), onto land. These walls of water can cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore.

What Causes a Tsunami?

These awe-inspiring waves are typically caused by large, undersea earthquakes at tectonic plate boundaries. When the ocean floor at a plate boundary rises or falls suddenly, it displaces the water above it and launches the rolling waves that will become a tsunami.

Most tsunamis-about 80 percent-happen within the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire," a geologically active area where tectonic shifts make volcanoes and earthquakes common.

Tsunamis may also be caused by underwater landslides or volcanic eruptions. They may even be launched, as they frequently were in Earth's ancient past, by the impact of a large meteorite plunging into an ocean.

Tsunamis race across the sea at up to 500 miles (805 kilometers) an hour-about as fast as a jet airplane. At that pace, they can cross the entire expanse of the Pacific Ocean in less than a day. And their long wavelengths mean they lose very little energy along the way.

In deep ocean, tsunami waves may appear only a foot or so high. But as they approach shoreline and enter shallower water they slow down and begin to grow in energy and height. The tops of the waves move faster than their bottoms do, which causes them to rise precipitously.

What Happens When It Hits Land

A tsunami's trough, the low point beneath the wave's crest, often reaches shore first. When it does, it produces a vacuum effect that sucks coastal water seaward and exposes harbor and sea floors. This retreating of sea water is an important warning sign of a tsunami, because the wave's crest and its enormous volume of water typically hit shore five minutes or so later. Recognizing this phenomenon can save lives.

A tsunami is usually composed of a series of waves, called a wave train, so its destructive force may be compounded as successive waves reach shore. People experiencing a tsunami should remember that the danger may not have passed with the first wave and should await official word that it is safe to return to vulnerable locations.

Some tsunamis do not appear on shore as massive breaking waves but instead resemble a quickly surging tide that inundates coastal areas.

The best defense against any tsunami is early warning that allows people to seek higher ground. The Pacific Tsunami Warning System, a coalition of 26 nations headquartered in Hawaii, maintains a web of seismic equipment and water level gauges to identify tsunamis at sea. Similar systems are proposed to protect coastal areas worldwide.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about these destructive surges of water from National Geographic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions or asteroids. A tsunami can kill or injure people and damage or destroy buildings and infrastructure as waves come in and go out. Tsunamis can:

IF YOU ARE UNDER A TSUNAMI WARNING:

If caused by an earthquake, Drop, Cover, then Hold On to protect yourself from the earthquake first.

Get to high ground as far inland as possible

Be alert to signs of a tsunami, such as a sudden rise or draining of ocean waters.

Listen to emergency information and alerts. Always follow the instructions from local emergency managers.

Evacuate: DO NOT wait! Leave as soon as you see any natural signs of a tsunami or receive an official tsunami warning.

If you are in a boat, go out to sea.

Prepare NOW

Survive DURING

Be Safe AFTER

Related Content

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn what to do if you are under a tsunami warning and how to stay safe when a tsunami threatens. Prepare Now Survive During Be Safe After Related Content A tsunami is a series of enormous ocean waves caused by earthquakes, underwater landslides, volcanic eruptions or asteroids.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As our team continues to deliver aid to families in need after Nepal's massive earthquake, they are meeting courageous people who survived the disaster and are now able to tell their harrowing stories.

Meet a few of the people we're helping below.

Hari, 65, was in her field when the earthquake hit. It threw her to the ground and left her family of 15 homeless. They are now living in a makeshift tent with a tarp Mercy Corps provided as part of an emergency kit.

"The earthquake happened right after lunch. We were in our fields. The young children were playing outside the house. We couldn't grab anything from our houses because we were already outside. We were shaken and couldn't stand up. Everything around us was shaking and there was dust everywhere."

Their house is still standing, but just barely, and they haven't changed their clothes since the earthquake. There's a little bit of clothing and food inside the house, but they won't go inside for fear another tremor will knock it down. "I'm just worried about how to survive day to day life," Hari says.

Paridhi, 5, is one of Hari's grandchildren. She's shy, but her grandmother explains how the children have been affected. "The kids ask us, what happened to our house? Why are we staying in a tent?," Hari says. "We explain to them the facts about the earthquake. We told them we are suffering because of this. But they are too young to understand."

When asked about what happened during the earthquake, Paridhi remembers, "My uncle took me and ran with me. I was scared and crying."

Ram, 26, and her mother were buried by rubble when the earthquake hit. Her father couldn't get them out, but finally, her brother was able to dig them free. She's shaken, but happy that all of her family is alive.

"The top two stories of our house collapsed after the very first tremor. My mother and I were instantly trapped. It was so fast I can't even describe it. I don't have many scratches on my body but it hurts. I have a lot of back pain."

A crew of neighbors dig through the rubble to try and salvage any of the family's valuable belongings. "I'm happy to be alive but so devastated our house is gone," Ram says. "At this moment I'm totally blind to the future. I'm just thinking about whether we can ever rebuild our house."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Meet just a few of the brave earthquake survivors we're helping, and hear their harrowing stories of the disaster.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On 25 April 2015, Tony Hill was mid-way through an Intrepid Nepal trip - some 2000ft above Namche Bazaar - when the earthquake struck. All of a sudden Tony, who by his own admission is "not particularly well-travelled" and his companions found themselves deep inside a disaster zone.

Tony is a writer from England. He lives in the old coal fields of Nottinghamshire ("where DH Lawrence lived and set many of his books, near Lord Byron's Gothic Newstead Abbey and Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest," says Tony) . He says he's reached a stage in his life where he's become aware of his bucket list, and trekking to Everest was on that bucket list. So he made the spontaneous decision to cross it off.

Last week, Tony left a comment on one of our articles about Nepal that made us think he had a story to tell. We got in touch with him and asked if he'd mind if we sent him some questions about his experiences. He was glad to oblige. Usually with these things, we'd edit the responses down in an attempt to make the piece a more digestible read. But Tony came back with such eloquent replies that we've hardly touched his account at all. And here it is, in all its moving, (almost) unedited splendour:

Tony - what made you want to visit Nepal? Had you visited before?

Everest was the draw; I love walking, nature, the breathtaking scenery of mountainous landscapes, places on earth of power, beauty and majesty that make humans insignificant little clusters of space dust blowing around on their surface.

But I love human history, culture and achievements too, so all in all, spending a few days in Kathmandu, visiting the ancient squares, Hindu and Buddhist temples and shrines and statues, and holy people, before trekking up through the Himalayan valleys to Everest Base Camp seemed like the ultimate adventure to me.

I chose April for my trek as the lower valleys would be Mother Nature decorated with rhododendrons (the national flower of Nepal) this appealed to me, as simple as that.

Were you travelling with anyone, or on your own?

I travelled over there alone but knew I'd be meeting up with fellow trekkers from all over the world who'd booked with Intrepid, so was looking forward to that. It turned out that - apart from 2 Thai women, Gae and Suntana - all the group were solo travellers. We all bonded brilliantly within hours of meeting up, and now, after the earthquake, I have a special bond with them, many of us have linked up on Facebook.

When you arrived, what were your first impressions of Nepal?

To be honest, when you drive from the airport into Kathmandu, the first impressions you have is that there is no doubt Nepal is a poor country, you see people living in poverty. Then there's the chaotic weave of vehicles (mainly motorbikes). Yet there is a vibrancy, colour and character to the people that adheres to your heart. And as you head into the city centre and the shops of a myriad wares, and glimpse temples and stupas, amongst hotels and ancient squares, you feel the heartbeat, sight and sounds of a city rich in culture, spirituality and history.

The following day I visited the ancient temples and palace of the old Kings in Durbar Square. A guide told me the incredible history of each building, including the 11 th century wooden Kathmandu house; this and many of the others were destroyed in the earthquake just a few days later. I'm haunted about the fate of the people I saw who would have been there every day; like my guide, a little lad feeding the pigeons and the holy man sat in a temple with his wife, he gave me a blessing.

I had a glimpse too of the living goddess, the Kumari (she luckily escaped the earthquake).

Next I went up to the Swayambhunath 'monkey temple,' one of the oldest holiest places in Nepal. There was a moment up there when I was sat in the sunshine, near a golden topped stupa with the eyes of Buddha staring out, and I looked out over Kathmandu and felt a sense of nirvana. That was at around the same time the earthquake struck 3 days later and buried people in buildings up at Swayambhunath.

How many days were you travelling for before the quake struck, and how were you liking Nepal?

On Thurs April 23 rd we flew out of Kathmandu to Lukla in the Himalayas, the view from the plane of the mountains is spectacular. There we were introduced to our Sherpa guides, some had walked up to 4 days to join up with us! One, Phurba, a Manchester United fan like me, told me his team also walk for days to play matches.

Following the route of the exquisite, turquoise and frothy white coloured Dudh Koshi river 'the milky river', along an ancient trading route from Tibet, down and up the side of high wooded valley sides, mountains peering down, I was already in paradise; this section alone would suffice as a class walking holiday. The first big wow moment was when a gap appeared in the clouds and I looked up and there was a mountain way on up there. Then we visited a tiny tumbledown monastery up in the valley, on a plateau, and these child monks appeared, magical. So all in all I was already falling in love with Nepal and its people.

You've talked in your comment on the blog about what happened when the quake hit. Would you mind talking about that a bit more? How did you feel when you realised what was happening?

The day had an eerie feel from the off: we went on an acclimatisation walk, about 2000ft above Namche. You're supposed to get the first breathtaking view of the Himalayan giants from up there, including Everest for the first time, but there was a grey blanket of cloud, wet snow was falling. Up on the tops, with spongy rolling grass and wind bent bushes and surrounded by a grey shroud, it felt more like Wuthering Heights moorland in England than being in the Himalayas (it's usually clear in the mornings in April in the Himalayas). We descended back into the mist and were on the outskirts of Namche, and began to walk down a passageway between two high stone buildings when....at first it sounded like the tarpaulin in the grounds of one building was flapping noisily in the wind, but a wind that wasn't there, all our puzzled attention was drawn to it. Then there was a rumble, and the ground began to shake violently.

The two buildings above began to sway and crack, like paper being torn, rubble rained down, it seemed like in slow motion, a film scene. Luckily a small open camping field was directly ahead of us, but the stone side of the café/bar at the edge of this collapsed, a pile of boulders crashing like they were nothing more than sugar grains spilling out from a knocked over bowl (luckily no one was in there at the time), terrifying.

Soldiers from a small nearby garrison ran passed us. Our group had become stretched out up in the hills, so we had an anxious wait not knowing if they were safe. There was great relief when they showed up minutes later. Then we walked back through rubble strewn paths to our teahouse, several buildings were damaged but there was huge relief again that Namche had escaped major destruction, and that no one had been killed. We further realised how lucky we'd been on arriving back at out teahouse, a pile of huge boulders had crashed through the ceiling and were on the beds of two women in our group. If the quake had happened in the night or a few hours earlier or later they would have been killed or badly injured, a chill ran down everyone's spine. At this stage we didn't know of the extent of the devastation in the rest of Nepal.

Our trek leader, Lalit, soon started giving us news of this, around 100 dead in Kathmandu and 1 dead at Everest. I was at the Hillsborough Disaster in England, on that day, as we walked back from the stadium, we heard 6 were confirmed dead at first, by the time we reached the city centre 50 were dead, so I knew that if this was already the death toll, only a few hours after the earthquake, then the number of deaths would be much greater, it felt like ice water had been injected into my veins.

Several of our group also had friends and loved ones out there, Lalit's family lived in Kathmandu, Paul, from Australia, had left his wife and sister at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, his sister is a nun there. The Sherpa's families, and Dr Mel had friends in Nepal too. A very worrying time for several hours until connections were made and all were safe, Lalit's home had been badly cracked however.

After the dust settled, so to speak, what was the mood on the ground like?

The fear factor never left us - there were 3 aftershocks in the first 15 hours after the major quake, and on several occasions rumours of an even bigger earthquake than the first was about to happen - but the spirit and bonding in our group was tremendous, Lalit never stopped making phone calls on our behalf, and our Sherpa guides never stopped looking out for us.

The strength, resourcefulness, resilience, and spirituality of the Nepalese people was evident within hours of the earthquake happening. The water was off but Sherpas ran down to the Dudh Koshi river to fill up sizable containers; prayers were said for our teahouse and protection of us staying there; they helped each other out by setting up tented communities. And their kindness and friendship to strangers was always on show. I remember a Nepalese man - who was now living in a tent with his family - started talking to me, he asked where I was from, when I said England, his face lit up, he shook my hand. 'I've trained with the Ghurkhas and the British paratroopers,' he said proudly with enthusiasm. And he was the one who shook my hand, it should have been the other way around.

The children of Nepal always made us smile, so cute, funny and full of life, even after the earthquake. The following day we were all up at the Everest view point, on a small grass bank facing the statue of Sherpa Tenzing, a Nepalese family were down there, they had a little boy, a tiny dynamo dynamite of energy and fun; he ran, jumped, tumbled and rolled in circles around Tenzing, before plonking himself down between and me and a guy called Paul, also from England. Paul has 4 kids and was missing them badly, this little lad starting playing a simple game of flicking stones with him and never stopped laughing, and lifted Paul's spirit, we all fell in love with him.

What were the days following the quake like?

A rollercoaster of incidents and emotions. Things I'll never ever forget. The day after the earthquake, sat up at the Everest viewpoint, watching vultures circling where yaks had been swept off the path by a landslide, the helicopters going up and down the huge valleys to and from Everest all afternoon, bringing back the bodies and injured, then a big aftershock, 6.5, shaking the earth again, a resounding crack up the mountains the far side of the valley as snow and ice crashed down, this happened 3 times.

The sadness and horror of hearing the daily updates about the rising death toll and destruction.

Intrepid organised it for us to be helicoptered out of Namche: the run up to the landing platform, then the helicopter nose diving down into the valley and flying down the valleys back to Lukla. No white knuckle theme park ride will ever match that!

Gae, Suntana and me coming across a little ceremony going on in Lukla, with monks and local people. We asked what was going on and were told that it was a service for a local 17-year-old lad who had been killed in the earthquake. We felt we we're being intrusive and began to walk away, but a woman with a big kettle of fruit tea came over, offered us a cup each and said we were welcome to stay and pay our respects, it was impossible not for the tears to well up, I was deeply moved by that.

The return to Kathmandu: the organised chaos, piles of aid and huge cargo planes coming into land and taking off at the airport; the pockets of destruction, people living in tents everywhere, the sad stories. But also already seeing shops back open and trading, people engaging in light hearted banter, laughing again, and thinking nothing will stop these amazing people in getting back on their feet.

Then temporarily experiencing spiritual healing: Aussie Paul was being reunited with his nun sister and wife up at Kopan Monastery and kindly asked if I would like to visit. Whilst I was there I met the visiting Lama Zopa Rimpoche, he took me by the hands, giving a blessing. Then I watched him sat under a tree in the illuminated gardens, with monks, young and old, gathered around him, as he lead prayers, mantras and chants for those lost in the earthquake, the moon and stars shining above and down below the lights of Kathmandu were back on after days of power-cuts. That was a beautiful and heart wrenching moment.

On returning home you must have felt relieved, emotional and, I imagine, a bit helpless. But out of it all, what were some of the most important lessons you learned through the experience?

I found it difficult adjusting to life back home for a while, guilt at not being out there helping out in some way. I had a kind of shell-shock for several weeks. People don't realise how many aftershocks there have been, this has a psychological effect, but I was out of that and the people of Nepal were having to continue living with it, with the monsoons approaching. The second big quake on May 12 th galvanised me into action, Lukla was badly damaged this time and the home of the family of one of our Sherpas, so I started a fund raising campaign, the least I could do. All of our group raised money for the earthquake appeal and spread awareness of the disaster, in the best way they could.

What lessons have I learned? That human life is beautiful but fragile, transient, a game of chance, we're in the hands of fate, or some god if that is your belief, that Mother Nature, and not humans, has the real power, the Gaia Theory. We're lucky to spend a short amount of time on a precious blue jewel spinning is the vast void of space, so why are we still killing each other and ruining the planet? Why does it take a disaster for United Nations to become just that? But this message from the Dalai Lama on a wall at Kopan Monastery says it better than me:

'We are visitors on this planet. We are here for one hundred years at the very most. During that period we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives. If you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true meaning of life.'

Do you have any plans to return to Nepal in the future? And what advice would you give to those who are considering a trip to Nepal now?

I would love to return to Nepal and would have no hesitation in doing so. The country needs tourism so the economy can thrive and the people can rebuild their lives. The paths in the Everest region weren't too bad even in the days after the earthquake and are now cleared. If you want to experience breathtaking beauty, in terms of landscape, go to Nepal, if you want enlightenment and an example of human nature at its best, go to Nepal.
Feature image c/o Edward Dalmuder, all other images c/o Tony Hill.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What was it like to live through the Nepal earthquake? A first-hand account. | Intrepid Travel Blog - The Journal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On 25 April 2015, Tony Hill was mid-way through an Intrepid Nepal trip - some 2000ft above Namche Bazaar - when the earthquake struck. All of a sudden Tony, who by his own admission is "not particularly well-travelled" and his companions found themselves deep inside a disaster zone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Eminent seismologist Hiroo Kanamori, Caltech's Smits Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, has been studying the movement of the earth his entire career. On March 11 he was in Tokyo, experiencing firsthand the largest earthquake in the country's recorded history.

"It's hard to believe that it was a coincidence that I arrived there on the eve of 'a once in a thousand years' event," says Kanamori.

He says that when the University of Tokyo building he was in squeaked and began to shake-for a long time, with a gradual increase in intensity-he could tell that the earthquake was not centered nearby. Judging from the strength of the shaking, he estimated that the quake might be a magnitude 8 or larger.

Kanamori met up with fellow seismologists from the university when he evacuated the building. With no reliable source of information, they shared initial thoughts and assumptions about the event.

"Early reports said it was a 7.9, which seemed reasonable to me given what I know about the area," he says. "But when I heard that it was actually a 9, I was surprised."

Kanamori and others had previously theorized that where a plate is very young, it tends to produce big earthquakes, such as the event in Chile last year, which happened on a plate that is 10 million years old-a baby when it comes to tectonic plates.

"But where old plates are subducting, we don't normally have giant earthquakes," says Kanamori. "This explanation usually works. However, the plate off the coast of Tohoku where this earthquake occurred is old, about 130 million years. Thus, at first sight, this event was a big exception."

A deep knowledge of earthquakes is not the only expertise that informed his reactions to the event. In October of last year, Kanamori traveled to the coast near Sendai-an area close to the epicenter of the quake and hit hard by the tsunami-with Luis Rivera, a seismologist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg, with whom Kanamori has been working on improving tsunami early-warning systems for the last several years.

"We walked the beach for two days to look at the coastal topography and try to understand how bad it might be when a tsunami came," he recalls. "It was very obvious that it would be devastating-there are no prominent roads or trails that lead to the nearby highlands."

Kanamori emphasizes that the rapid dissemination of information after a big event is extremely important to warning systems for tsunamis and recovery efforts for earthquakes. He says that information needs to be collected on a global scale, since local systems often fail during a natural disaster. This requires good coordination between agencies in different countries.

"In the case of an emergency, they can exchange information and take immediate action," he says.

Kanamori is also quick to point out that the field of seismology is rapidly advancing its methods for data collection and analysis so that we can improve the way we deal with emergencies. But at the end of the day, we have to prepare for the unexpected.

"In our science, it's very difficult to prove anything because you can't experiment. You have to rely on nature," he says. "Whatever happens in nature, you cannot predict 100 percent, so building robust infrastructures using rapid reliable information to prepare for the unexpected is very important."
For information on supporting the Japanese community at Caltech in their effort to help those in need, click here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Seismologist reflects on his firsthand experience of the Japanese earthquake | Caltech

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Eminent seismologist Hiroo Kanamori, Caltech's Smits Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, has been studying the movement of the earth his entire career. On March 11 he was in Tokyo, experiencing firsthand the largest earthquake in the country's recorded history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
UNICEF's Kent Page was visiting a school in Kathmandu when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck, the second major earthquake to hit Nepal in less than three weeks:
"Today's earthquake struck while I was with a Reuters television crew while we were conducting a school damage and safety assessment with Government of Nepal engineers.

A Reuters TV cameraman was with us filming the assessment of the schools and we had visited two schools already and were just in the middle of our third school assessment when the earthquake struck.

We were all inside the school building at the time when there was a loud noise as the building started violently shaking. It took a second or two to realize what was happening but then we ran for the door.

We gathered quickly outside in a small courtyard and the violent shaking continued and didn't stop for perhaps a minute, but it seemed much longer.

We all thought the buildings around us were going to collapse and gathered in the center of the small courtyard in a kind of semi-circle.

The Reuters TV cameraman continued filming throughout and is filing the story now.

Fortunately the earthquake finally ended - it is a terrifying experience - and the buildings did not fall down.

Everyone was safe and accounted for, though of course shaken.

I conducted two interviews in the courtyard with Reuters and then we went back to the school we had been to previously by foot because we had met some children there.

While walking a follow-up aftershock happened and fortunately, they had left the school before the earthquake hit and we believe they are all safe.

On the way back to the UNICEF Nepal office the streets were filled with people - everyone is out of doors.

We know that all UNICEF staff in Nepal are safe and accounted for but of course we are very concerned about the impact of this second earthquake in just over two weeks on the children of Nepal, particularly on their psychosocial well-being.

Going through an earthquake is a terrifying experience for anyone, and perhaps more particularly children.

UNICEF continues to work around the clock to support 1.7 million children affected now by two earthquakes in Nepal through our emergency health, nutrition, child protection, water, sanitation and education.

We thank everyone who has supported UNICEF's work in Nepal - there is still a lot of work to do here for the Nepali children."

Children need help

UNICEF is working to meet the immediate needs of 1.7 million children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"A Terrifying Experience": Firsthand Report from Nepal

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
UNICEF's Kent Page was visiting a school in Kathmandu when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck, the second major earthquake to hit Nepal in less than three weeks: "Today's earthquake struck while I was with a Reuters television crew while we were conducting a school damage and safety assessment with Government of Nepal engineers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A former storm chaser recounts being in the path of a tornado.

Emilie Lorditch, Staff Writer

(Inside Science) -- No one wants to be in the path of a tornado, but scientists sometimes become storm chasers to research extreme weather. Hear one former storm chaser recount her experiences being the path of a tornado.

Jennifer Henderson at the University of Colorado is a CIRES Postdoctoral Fellow with a group called Western Water Assessment. She talks about her past storm chasing days.

"As a volunteer who was driving some of the storm chase vehicles for the Virginia Tech field experience, we've had a lot of really exciting, kind of visual experiences seeing tornados from a distance. And the one that I remember most was in 2008. We were driving vans through WaKeeney, Kansas, and we looked up at the sky and there was this kind of blistery cloud that was descending from the sky, and our storm chase leader, he turned off down a dirt road and there was a whole bunch of chasers there -- this 'chaser convergence' as they call it. And we sort of parked and thought we were going to watch this lovely tornado descend and maybe cross the field in front of us. But we weren't expecting that we would get some of the winds and what they call the bear's cage. So, the tornado comes down; it crosses in front of us, and the winds that are getting entrained around the tornado are pushing hail pretty quickly. And so we're getting pummeled with quarter-sized hail.

"And it was a little bit of a terrifying experience. We were safe, but we're watching this tornado go in front of us and hearing all of this hail hitting our vans, all the chasers are trying to bail because, not that we were in danger from the storm of course, from the tornado winds at least specifically, but we were in danger of losing windshields. So, we're backing out of there and driving as quickly as we can, away.

"We eventually backed our way out of that storm and got to a place where we could watch kind of the lightning spider in the sky from a safe distance and tell our war stories of how we almost, you know, ended up in a tornado -- not really, but that's how we felt. So, it was a really exciting time, but our chase leaders, you know, after that, they emphasized that that was an unusual situation that they couldn't anticipate because you can't anticipate what's going to happen in the near environment of a tornado."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(Inside Science) -- No one wants to be in the path of a tornado, but scientists sometimes become storm chasers to research extreme weather. Hear one former storm chaser recount her experiences being the path of a tornado.Jennifer Henderson at the University of Colorado is a CIRES Postdoctoral Fellow with a group called Western Water Assessment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tornadoes

What is a tornado?
A tornado is a violent rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent tornadoes are capable of tremendous destruction with wind speeds of up to 300 mph. They can destroy large buildings, uproot trees and hurl vehicles hundreds of yards. They can also drive straw into trees. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide to 50 miles long. In an average year, 1000 tornadoes are reported nationwide.

How do tornadoes form?

Most tornadoes form from thunderstorms. You need warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cool, dry air from Canada. When these two air masses meet, they create instability in the atmosphere. A change in wind direction and an increase in wind speed with increasing height creates an invisible, horizontal spinning effect in the lower atmosphere. Rising air within the updraft tilts the rotating air from horizontal to vertical. An area of rotation, 2-6 miles wide, now extends through much of the storm. Most strong and violent tornadoes form within this area of strong rotation.

Click Here to learn more about tornadoes from NOAA.

What are some other factors for tornadoes to form?
Several conditions are required for the development of tornadoes and the thunderstorm clouds with which most tornadoes are associated. Abundant low level moisture is necessary to contribute to the development of a thunderstorm, and a "trigger" (perhaps a cold front or other low level zone of converging winds) is needed to lift the moist air aloft. Once the air begins to rise and becomes saturated, it will continue rising to great heights to produce a thunderstorm cloud, if the atmosphere is unstable. An unstable atmosphere is one where the temperature decreases rapidly with height. Atmospheric instability can also occur when dry air overlays moist air near the earth's surface. Finally, tornadoes usually form in areas where winds at all levels of the atmosphere are not only strong, but also turn with height in a clockwise or veering direction.

What do tornadoes look like?
Tornadoes can appear as a traditional funnel shape, or in a slender rope-like form. Some have a churning, smoky look to them, and other contain "multiple vortices", which are small, individual tornadoes rotating around a common center. Even others may be nearly invisible, with only swirling dust or debris at ground levels as the only indication of the tornado's presence.

What is a funnel cloud? A funnel cloud is a rotating cone-shaped column of air extending downward from the base of a thunderstorm, but not touching the ground. When it reaches the ground it is called a tornado.

It is not fully understood about how exactly tornadoes form, grow and die. Tornado researchers are still trying to solve the tornado puzzle, but for every piece that seems to fit they often uncover new pieces that need to be studied. How do tornadoes stop?

A supercell thunderstorm is a long-lived thunderstorm whose updrafts and downdrafts are in near balance. These storms have the greatest tendency to produce tornadoes that stay on the ground for long periods of time. Supercell thunderstorms can produce violent tornadoes with winds exceeding 200 mph.
What is a supercell thunderstorm?

A mesocyclone is a rotating vortex of air within a supercell thunderstorm. Mesocyclones do not always produce tornadoes.
What is a mesocyclone?

A wall cloud is an abrupt lowering of a rain-free cumulonimbus base into a low-hanging accessory cloud. A wall cloud is usually situated in the southwest portion of the storm. A rotating wall cloud usually develops before tornadoes or funnel clouds. What is a microburst?
A microburst is a downdraft (sinking air) in a thunderstorm that is less than 2.5 miles in scale. Although microbursts are not as widely recognized as tornadoes, they can cause comparable, and in some cases, worse damage than some tornadoes produce. In fact, wind speeds as high as 150 mph are possible in extreme microburst cases.
What is a wall cloud?

A waterspout is just a weak tornado that forms over water. They are most common along the Gulf Coast. Waterspouts can sometimes move inland, becoming tornadoes causing damage and injuries.

What is a waterspout?

What is hail?
Hail is created when small water droplets are caught in the updraft of a thunderstorm. These water droplets are lifted higher and higher into the sky until they freeze into ice. Once they become heavy, they will start to fall. If the smaller hailstones get caught in the updraft again, they will get more water on them and get lifted higher in the sky and get bigger. Once they get lifted again, they freeze and fall. This happens over and over again until the hailstone is too heavy and then falls to the ground.

What is the largest hailstone recorded in the United States?
According to the National Weather Service, the largest hailstone is 8 inches in diameter and weights approximately 2 pounds. It fell in Vivian, South Dakota on July 23, 2010.
A gustnado is a short-lived, relatively weak whirlwind that forms along a gust front. A gust front is the surge of very gusty winds at the leading edge of a thunderstorm's outflow of air. Gustnadoes are not tornadoes. They do not connect with any cloud-base rotation. But because gustnadoes often have a spinning dust cloud at ground level, they are sometimes wrongly reported as tornadoes. Gustnadoes can do minor damage.

What is a gustnado?
A landspout is a very weak tornado that is not associated with a wall cloud or a mesocyclone. It is the land equivalent of a waterspout.

What is a landspout?
A dust devil generally forms in the hot sun during the late morning or early afternoon hours. These are mostly harmless whirlwinds and are triggered by light desert breezes that create a swirling plume of dust with speeds rarely over 70 mph. These differ from tornadoes in that they are not associated with a thunderstorm (or any cloud) and are usually very weak.

What is a dust devil? Tornadoes can happen at any time of the year and at any time of the day. In the southern states, peak tornado season is from March through May. Peak times for tornadoes in the northern states are during the summer. A few southern states have a second peak time for tornado outbreaks in the fall. Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.

The geography of the central part of the United States, known as the Great Plains, is suited to bring all of the ingredients together to forms tornadoes. More than 500 tornadoes typically occur in this area every year and is why it is commonly known as "Tornado Alley". Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana all make up Tornado Alley. When are tornadoes most likely to occur?

Where are tornadoes most likely to occur?

Know the Lingo

TORNADO WATCH - Tornadoes are possible in your area. Stay tuned to the radio or television news.
TORNADO WARNING - A tornado is either on the ground or has been detected by Doppler radar. Seek shelter immediately!

Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area.

Know the Facts
Tornadoes can occur at any time of the year. nd winds less than 110 mph.

No terrain is safe from tornadoes.

Never open windows in severe weather situations. This allows damaging wind and debris to enter the structure.

69% of all tornadoes are labeled "weak tornadoes" meaning they have a lifetime of 1-10+ minutes a

SCALE

WIND SPEED

POSSIBLE DAMAGE

Enhanced,
Operational
Fujita Scale

29% of all tornadoes are labeled "strong tornadoes" meaning they last 20 minutes or longer and winds reach 110-205 mph.
2% of all tornadoes are labeled "violent tornadoes" and can last over an hour.

Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity

Tornado Safety Tips
BEFORE A TORNADO: Have a disaster plan. Make sure everyone knows where to go in case a tornado threatens. Make sure you know which county or parish you live in. Prepare a kit with emergency food for your home. Have enough food and water for at least 3 days.

AFTER A TORNADO: Stay indoors until it is safe to come out. Check for injured or trapped people, without putting yourself in danger. Watch out for downed power lines. Use a flashlight to inspect your home. Tornado Activities

Lesson Plan: Here are some great lesson plans on learning about tornado safety. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. DURING A TORNADO: Go to a basement. If you do not have a basement, go to an interior room without windows on the lowest floor such as a bathroom or closet. If you can, get under a sturdy piece of furniture, like a table. If you live in a mobile home get out. They offer little protection against tornadoes. Get out of automobiles. Do not try to outrun a tornado in your car, leave it immediately. If you're outside, go to a ditch or low lying area and lie flat in it. Stay away from fallen power lines and stay out of damaged areas.
Tornado Experiment: Here is a great experiment that allows the kids to make a tornado in a bottle.
IF YOU'RE AT SCHOOL DURING A TORNADO: Every school should have a disaster plan and have frequent drills. Basements offer the best protection. Schools without basements should use interior rooms and hallways on the lowest floor away from windows. Crouch down on your knees and protect your head with your arms.
Tornado Experiment: Here is a great experiment that allows the kids to make a tornado in a jar.
Pressure Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows how pressure is created in our atmosphere by sucking an egg in a bottle. This is a very cool experiment!
Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.

Make A Barometer Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a barometer.

Evaporation Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows kids how evaporation takes place.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is one of many True Story interviews in which we talk to people who have experienced interesting/challenging/amazing things. This is the story of Ashley, her family, and the tornado that tore their home apart.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Ashley. I'm 28 and live in Central Florida, where I was born and raised. I've lived other places, but wanted to call Florida home, so I settled down here after graduating from college. I'm a graphic designer and work for a local history museum as an exhibits designer. For fun I like to thrift, read, travel, swap/pen pal, and visit Walt Disney World.

Did you grow up in a tornado-prone area?
Central Florida isn't a particularly tornado-prone area - not like the Tornado Alley states, that is. Summers are often riddled with tornado warnings/watches due to thunderstorms and severe weather. Florida is also a target for hurricanes and tornadoes sometimes spawn off of those.

We practiced tornado drills in school where you got under your desk and put your head between your knees with hands behind your head. If tornadoes ever previously went through the area it was many, many years before the one that hit my house.

Where were you living when you and your family were hit?
We were living in Kissimmee, Florida. Our home was on an acre of land and we were the last house on a cul de sac road. It was a pretty rural, open area - behind our house was a large wooded area, a creek, and a large pond.

Tell us about the day the tornado hit.
On Saturday, February 22, 1998 my parents took my brother and I to the county fair. I bought a dream catcher and hung it on my wall the minute we got home. I remember watching the movie Casper the Friendly Ghost on television that night. The weather was fine during the day, but around 11pm the storm began.

It wasn't so bad at first, but got progressively worse. There was a large tornado outbreak across the region. Seven tornadoes in all were reported - dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured. The one that hit our house came just after midnight and claimed the most lives. It was initially rated as a F4tornado, but was later downgraded to a very high F3.

When did you realize the the tornado warning was serious? When did it become a real possibility that it would hit your neighborhood?
Our power went out and that's when we noticed the eccentric lightening. It was constant, one strike after another, each incredibly bright and close. My brother and I were pretty freaked out, so the four of us gathered in the living room to wait it out together. My mom heard something and opened the front window to look out.

I don't think I'll ever forget the look she had on her face - it was sheer panic. She screamed at us to run into the hallway, the central-most part of our house since we had no interior rooms. I remember hearing the freight train noise that is associated with tornadoes. It sounded like one was going to come barreling through the house at any moment.

What did it feel like when the tornado actually hit your home? What was it like to be inside?
The pressure inside the house grew as the tornado got closer and ultimately caused the house to explode. Before that, the walls were shaking so badly all of the family photos on them were crashing to the ground. A bookcase behind me fell over. I remember feeling the floor wobbling back and forth and hearing my parents screaming that they loved us before being yanked into the air. I was unconscious after that and don't remember being inside it.

Where did you land after the tornado? Were you injured?
When the tornado moved on, it miraculously dropped us all within feet of each other in the creek behind my house. I heard my dad calling my name and felt him pulling me out of the water. I had lost my glasses and couldn't see well, but together my brother and I navigated through the downed trees, power lines, and debris strewn all over the road to a neighbor's house. Air medics came for us since they couldn't get ambulances out to our area fast enough.

I had a very deep wound above my ankle on my left leg that went all the way to the bone. In the chaotic atmosphere of the hospital that night, my wound was sewn up without a thorough cleaning. My grandma took me back to the hospital a week later because it was red and swollen. I was in emergency surgery within a half hour of arriving.

They performed a wound debridement and removed all the dead and infected tissue inside the wound. I stayed in the hospital for a week, then had to have outpatient therapy where they put my leg in a medicated whirlpool and then packed the wound with gauze. The packing and removal of the gauze is something that still makes me squirm to think about. It was severely uncomfortable and painful, but it helped the tissue grow back together.

I have a sizable scar there now and a little bit of nerve damage from some other deep cuts on my foot.

How did you and your family recover from this?
Our home was completely destroyed. The only things that were left standing were the front steps, our wooden playground, and a stack of National Geographic magazines my dad kept in our shed. Nearly all of our things ended up in the creek or lake.

I have a small porcelain figurine of a cat sitting in a basket of laundry that survived. The cat has a tiny chip on his ear, but it was otherwise unscathed. It was strange to see the things that made it through and the things that were destroyed.

We stayed with my grandma in Orlando and she helped us get back on our feet. I went home in a hospital gown because I had no clothes. Friends and members of my grandma's church donated clothing and other items for us. I went to a couple of group therapy sessions at my middle school with other kids who were affected by the tornadoes.

We eventually bought a house near my grandma and moved in. We had to start from scratch. I know we didn't get much money at all from insurance and agencies or charities did not help us out beyond a couple gift cards. Assistance for people effected by natural disasters has come a long way since then.

Have you experienced any long-term effects from this?
I had/have PTSD which turned into an anxiety disorder. Most of the time I'm fine, but when I get scared or freaked out it can be pretty overwhelming. I'm okay with bad weather now as long as I'm with someone. I used to have bad nightmares, but those have subsided.

I do however, think I suffered from something that has caused memory loss - possibly a concussion. I have a hard time recalling events that have happened, even ones within 10 years. Remembering most of my childhood is nearly impossible and makes me feel horrible. My mom will ask if I remember doing something I should definitely remember and I won't have any recollection of it at all. I've met people from my past that I also don't remember, which can be embarrassing.

I try to have a "live life now" attitude because if anything, the tornado taught me that your life can end in the blink of an eye. You never imagine something like this could happen to you, but it can. I value experiences and memories more than material items because in the end they don't matter - it's about the people in your life and the way you've lived that do.

What advice would you give to someone else who's been through a very traumatic natural disaster?
Please seek therapy or counseling. Being in a natural disaster can be a very troubling experience, regardless of the degree to which you experienced it. Being in the tornado effected me in ways I never imagined it would. It's been 16 years and I'm still dealing with the aftermath. It can be very isolating because most people can never imagine what it's like to go through something like this. It's rare to come across someone who has had a shared experience.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Ashley. Have any of you guys been through a natural disaster? How did you recover from it?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is one of many True Story interviews in which we talk to people who have experienced interesting/challenging/amazing things. This is the story of Ashley, her family, and the tornado that tore their home apart. Tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Ashley.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
TAW: What's happening where you are in Joplin today?

Piotrowski: Well, I just got here. I would say based on past experience that there's a grassroots effort. As I'm pulling into town, I'm watching a pick-up truck loaded with supplies and ladders--it's a local grassroots effort. That's what America's about. People helping people. That's what we're seeing here. It's not people waiting for government aid, even though there's going to be lots of people that need it. We've just got grassroots efforts of people pouring in and helping. That's what I'm seeing as I'm pulling into town here. It's just really amazing to see that kind of response with the people that are here right now. And they're going to need a lot of help.

TAW: Can you tell us more about your experience of the Joplin tornado?

Piotrowski: My first message when the tornado was on the ground on the southwest side of Joplin, I sent an email alert that said: "Large devastating tornadoes in the city of Joplin. Whole subdivisions are leveled. Please send help. Please send massive help. We need it now--" or something to that effect. Of course, the tornado warnings were already in effect. They knew the tornado was on the ground. But just having additional people verifying the scope and magnitude is critical to preparing people, so that people know what to do, so that people can save lives down the road. I found myself Sunday afternoon one of the few people who actually witnessed and saw the tornado going through Joplin. Even though there were probably lots of people chasing, I was one of the very few of the people who saw the tornado. I was able to report it was on the ground and get the authorities to get the sirens going.

TAW: And what happened then?

Piotrowski: When I was on 20th Street when this thing came down, it was about a hundred yards wide. I saw rotating rain curtains like a robo-carwash, just real fast rain curtains spinning on the ground. I mean as soon as it hit the first building or whatever it hit first on the southwest side of the city, it instantly turned black for about ten seconds, and then it went from that to about a quarter mile wide about 15 seconds later. This is all in a matter of seconds. It wasn't like over a five minute period it got bigger and bigger, or like over ten minutes it got bigger and bigger. And then about 20 seconds later it was a half a mile wide, and about another minute later it was about three quarters of a mile wide. And about another minute after that it was a mile wide, and I was parallel to it. When it was a quarter mile wide I was a good half mile or mile north of it, so I'm fine. I'm not in the vortex. As we kept coming east on 20th Street, it just got wider and wider and wider, and it literally tried to suck me into the north wall of the tornado coming down 20th Street I saw a car in front of me get picked up and hurdled into a field just west of the Joplin High School. At that point, it blew out my windows. I got cut up. Glass was all inside of my Chevy Avalanche, and I had to abort the mission. I had glass all over me, so I turned the rear end of the car into the wind, because it was about 120 mph behind me. Debris was everywhere. In the sky there were millions of pieces of debris flying over me by me near me. Just everywhere.

Then I realized that there was somebody in the car that got picked up and thought, we've gotta go help them. We waited for the wind to die down for a minute or two, and they did the same thing. Once the wind died down, the two ladies came crawling out of the windows of the car and came running our direction because they saw our headlights on. My wife got out of the car, and the ladies were in shock. They took off to somebody's house they knew, that was basically gone. And that scene at 20th and Iowa Ave--which I'm approaching right now--in that area there were about 400 to 500 homes, and 99 percent of that neighborhood was flattened. There were no walls standing, and all I could hear was gas spewing from all the broken gas lines. I had a fire on top of the hill behind me. Homes and buildings were on fire, engulfed in flames within seconds of the tornado. And then all I heard--it sounds like thousands but it may have only been 50 people or 20 people--all I heard were screams and moans of terror. "Help me, help me!" just blood curdling screams from all over the neighborhood, and I was the first person to take my vehicle and drive over the debris, and I went as far up Iowa Street as far as I could towards the heart of the tornado. I got within about 50 yards of the first houses, and then when I walked down Iowa Street, the first thing I saw in the middle of the street--the debris was about two to three feet, two to four feet deep everywhere--I saw bodies in people's front yards. People got blown out of their houses, dead and alive. That's what I witnessed.

I spent the next three and half hours by myself. By myself with no emergency services people, no 911 on the phone--I called hundreds of times--no help, no firemen, because their resources were so overwhelmed here. I personally, hand by hand, dug 40 different people out of their homes and the rubble, both dead and alive, for the next three and a half hours until 8:45, when I got so frustrated. I had two flat tires. I changed the flats after digging people out of rubble. I did have some people come in at about 8:00 some people that had loved ones here--friends and neighbors, parents and kids--start just flooding the area looking for their loved ones. I had people help me change the flats, then I drove my truck out of that area, drove my truck about a mile, found a fire truck and brought it back into the neighborhood. That was the first emergency services there. That was about three and a half hours after the tornado went through. I could see for a mile--because everything's level, I could see if there were fire trucks or ambulances in the area--there were none. In my part of town, there were no ambulances or fire trucks for the first three hours, why? Because they were probably consumed by [work] in other parts of the city. There weren't enough people to help. Then I started putting out pleas on Facebook, telling people I need at least 100 ambulances where I was located, and the number of fatalities and injuries at my location. The way we got people out was that the people that came in there, they started picking up their family members and loading them into trucks and driving them to the only hospital left in Joplin. That's how we got people out of here.

That's what I witnessed. That's what I saw. I mean, people only know about a third of the story. It's not about just chasing, it's about helping and saving people. What I witnessed here in Joplin is unimaginable.

I found three boys that were special needs boys--I later found out that one of them had died--the other two boys were crying and wailing, "Help me, Help me!" Covered in blood. One of them had an extremely critical head injury. The others had really bad injuries. They were on the floor of their house, or what was left of the floor. The entire structure was gone, and at that point I'm telling them, "Don't get up." Because I know they're injured, I get them some cover, some carpet, and I cover all three of them to keep wind and hail from hitting them. And they're just wailing for help.

Right next door, I find two elderly women that are screaming, both in wheelchairs with two cats, and they're under about six feet of rubble. There are girder beams laying across them. One of them is on [one lady's] back, one them is on her face crushing her neck. That woman is over 80 years old, she's still in her wheelchair--upside down, backwards with the debris on top of her-- and her whole roof is sitting on her face. It took me an hour and a half to uncover those two ladies.

Right behind, them, I turned around and found a black dog. I'm about to cry--[muffled sobs] It was really bad. [speaking through the sobs] There was a black dog behind me. It looked like it wasn't injured, the dog looked fine. It kept barking. Because I have animals, I love animals, I know what's going on. He just kept backing and he was standing on top of rubble, and there was an elderly gentleman about three feet under the rubble. His owner was about three feet under the rubble, and the dog's telling me, "Help me, there's somebody here." He's barking, so I go over there. This is house after house. This is what I witnessed down Iowa Street. So I started uncovering him, and the guy was alive, not critically injured with three feet of rubble on him. Again, a 75 year-old gentleman.

It was just that scene, house after house after house, for about three and a half hours, nonstop. You can't write history, you can't describe it. This is something you cannot make up. You can't-- You just can't understand the sheer trauma that these people have been through here. It's just unimaginable.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Adam Clark Estes is a former writer for The Wire. He has also written for The Huffington Postand Vice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Storm Chaser's First-Hand Account of the Joplin Tornado

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
TAW: What's happening where you are in Joplin today? Piotrowski: Well, I just got here. I would say based on past experience that there's a grassroots effort. As I'm pulling into town, I'm watching a pick-up truck loaded with supplies and ladders--it's a local grassroots effort. That's what America's about.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Torrential rains and widespread flooding in southern Alberta have left people throughout the province in awe at the power and scope of the devastation and concerned about the uncertain hours ahead.

The floodwaters have washed out roads and bridges, left at least one person missing and caused cars, couches and refrigerators to float away. Several communities are under states of emergency, and as many as 100,000 people could be forced from their homes in Calgary alone.

There were flashpoints of chaos from Banff and Canmore and Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies, to Calgary and beyond in the north and south to Lethbridge.

John E. Marriott, a photographer who lives along Cougar Creek in the mountain town of Canmore, about 100 km west of Calgary, said on Thursday that the raging torrent had moved within metres of his house.

The creek rose from centimetres deep and about three metres wide to being 150 metres wide and about five metres deep, he said.

Canmore resident Wade Graham said he woke up at about 3 a.m. Thursday to a rumbling sound "and it was the creek."

"At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch. As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it's still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider.

"All you can hear is like boulders and trees. I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It's insane."

He told CBC News he was looking directly at Grotto Mountain, "which has no waterfalls on it ever. From my bedroom window I can count ... seven major waterfalls from here."

Mike Crawford, who lives on Bow Crescent in Calgary, said he had to leave his home just after noon Thursday.

"Early this morning the river was going over the bike trails, but it wasn't looking to be a concern," he told CBC's Ian Hanomansing.

"Noon it was higher, but still not a concern, and within hours it had risen several feet and water started seeping up onto the streets and running through the neighbour's yard into my yard."

He said he decided to leave while it was still safe, saying water was starting to cover the streets. Crawford's home was built over the last year, and he moved in only three weeks ago. "I'm not really sure what I'm going to be walking into tomorrow or the next day," he said.

The community of Canmore, a popular tourist destination, also had flood trouble. Writer and musician Dave Bidini was in Canmore working on a book, and is now stranded in a hotel with truckers, tourists and families with children.

"There's no way in and there's no way out [of town]," he told CBC News shortly before midnight local time. "I know people at the hotel were worrying about looking a few days down the road, about supplies, and the town really kind of in a state of atrophy, which is where it appears to be headed right now. So it's actually starting to get kind of scary."

He described the hotel as "lively," with people on edge and worried about power outages.

"Nobody by any means is relaxed and I do think it's going to be kind of a long night," he said.

Evacuees asked to mark doors with X

Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River (Cougar Creek is a tributary) aren't expected to subside until Saturday afternoon.

Evacuees in Calgary were being asked to stay with friends or relatives, though recreation centres were being set up to accommodate those who had no place to go.

They were also asked to mark their front doors with a giant "X" so that first responders wouldn't have to stop at homes that were already emptied.

Calgary resident Rick Wasfy said he was told to leave by four police officers even though it was sunny and the water was seven blocks from his home.

Wasfy, who was forced to ride out Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said packing and heading to a friend's house was the right choice.

"Mother Nature's not something you want to mess with. If you have a chance to get out and get safe, that's the right thing to do," he said.

His advice to people who decide to stay despite the evacuations was that, "The water's going to come suddenly when it comes."

The flooding was particularly destructive in communities just south of Calgary such as High River, Turner Valley and Black Diamond, where the Highwood River swept away two people.

"One female adult had been stranded on a trailer and also a second adult male had been stranded on a nearby flatbed," said Cam Heke of STARS air ambulance.

"We did respond to the area. The female adult was no longer on the trailer and was missing. We did conduct a search along the river and we were unable to locate that missing person.

"However, the male adult was on the trailer and local emergency services with another helicopter organization ... were able to rescue that man."

Trapped in their cars

In High River, where residents were under a mandatory evacuation order by late Thursday, the water trapped residents in their cars and forced others to flee to the rooftops of their homes. Streets became tributaries, swamping vehicles.

Randy Livie said he came into town to help a friend and almost didn't get out.

"It was over my hood," he said. "There was a Jeep in front of me and he stalled out.

"There was a minivan that went in front of me. He stalled out. This other car he came in and he started floating away - he bailed out. He had crutches. A truck pulled up and helped him out. It's just wild down there."

The river carried boats and trees into bridge abutments, he said.

Megan Wozniuk and her half-sister, who is eight and a half months pregnant, paddled in a boat for a "frightening" 45-minute journey to rescue her half-sister's father. But when they got there, he didn't want to leave.

"It's about 10 hours since we've heard anything" from him, she told CBC News.

'Save the people'

High River spokesperson Joan Botkin said Thursday that the rescue boats were struggling with a strong current, but added, "that's our priority. Right now it is 'Save the people. Get the residents out of there."

Alberta Health Services said the emergency department in High River had been closed, though patients already in the hospital were safe and being cared for.

Residents in a seniors care facility were told to leave. Even the original evacuation centre had to be moved as floodwaters threatened.

Cellphone service and landline service in the area was spotty, CBC's Briar Stewart reported, making the situation more difficult in the community of roughly 12,000. "People were really surprised at just how fast the water moved in," Stewart said. "We're told that at one point 150 people were stranded, many of them on their roof, trying to wave in the helicopters in the air to get their attention."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alberta flood: 'I watched a refrigerator go by. It's insane' | CBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Torrential rains and widespread flooding in southern Alberta have left people throughout the province in awe at the power and scope of the devastation and concerned about the uncertain hours ahead. The floodwaters have washed out roads and bridges, left at least one person missing and caused cars, couches and refrigerators to float away.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I know how it happens. Now.

How people in heavy downpours get stranded or killed driving their vehicles through flood waters. They see a mirage. I saw a mirage. It's a nasty mind trick that nature played on me and a wishful way out of a bad situation that led me further into danger.

For background, I have lived in Houston for 18 years, and have covered every weather event in this city for as many years. You name the hurricane, tropical storm or fast-moving thunderstorm...I have managed to make my way through this city without so much as a scratch on my car. I have never run out of gas (again, multiple hurricanes with gas shortages), no car accidents, no flooded cars, until the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

Thousands of Houstonians know exactly where they were after the Houston Rockets won Game 4 against the Golden State Warriors. Even if they were not at the game, they knew of the game because in its aftermath, it became an emergency storm shelter for stranded fans.

I finished shooting the game, packed up my car and headed to my home in the Heights. I thought I could outsmart others and take surface streets through North Houston - my route led me past UH Downtown and wound up North Main Street. I soon discovered North Main at the overpass to I-45 was flooded. Just as an unlucky driver dove into the abyss at Main, I diverted and kept moving up Fulton behind an impossibly slow driver. I remember honking at them, hoping they would move faster.

After an eternity, I came to Patton. Although I had planned to keep going to Cavalcade, and try to cross over, I decided that I would take Patton and try to work over to Main Street.

The underpass of I-45 at Patton was under water, but was passable. I could have possibly stayed there, had it not been for a truck full of men that were pushing a late-model truck up to a darkened parking area. I coaxed my car through the waters and the men all looked at me. Should I have stayed on that patch of gravel alone with those men, even as the hair on the back of my neck stood up? No, I pushed forward, in water that was deep, but manageable.

The water started getting deeper, but...I pushed ahead when I saw a small hill in front of me. Higher ground! It beckoned to me and I was like a moth to that flame. Just a little farther....

Bam! I hit that wall of water like I was blind. NO! I couldn't believe I hit water when I felt for sure I was about to find safety. NO! All I wanted to do was back up 10 minutes and rethink staying under I-45. Suddenly I was surrounded by water, and when I hit it, the river was slapping up just below the window of the Jeep. It settled down a little after the car came to a rest.....shuddering for a minute as it adjusted to the current. I now know that current of water, when it comes alive during storms, is known as the Little White Oak Bayou.

I managed a quick call to my husband, to let him know I had stalled. I told him I was okay, and I quickly got off the phone as I felt the cold water start to seep into the floor well of the car. I could not panic while on the phone with him. I just could not. He would try to come out and save me, and possibly get into the same or worse mess. I chose to call a co-worker leaving the game after me. I thought he might be close. He was in his own driving nightmare. I dialed my boss, Steve Gonzales.

I think at one point through my conversation with Steve, I was hyperventilating. The water was rising outside of the car, and the water inside was reaching up toward the seat. I had to do something; he was telling me more rain was on the way. I had to do something, I had to get out of that car. This vehicle was both my safety net and my death trap, but which way to go? More rain coming. I was unable to move.

He was telling me to grab my monopod (a single leg device photographers use to hold up heavy lenses, seen at football games). He said to check for drainage ditches with the monopod before stepping out of the car. I rolled the window down and poked around as far out as I could. It took several minutes for him to convince me to get out of the car. I grabbed a few important items: a new camera body- if I lost this one, the company would probably not replace it - my computer, phone, wallet and power cord for the phone.

I decided not to break the window out, I held my breath and opened the car door. My heart beating, the wash of water came into the truck. I closed it back quickly. The driver's side was on the opposite side of the flow of water, but it took a few tries to get it closed, and I remember locking it. I tried to scream "help," but it was like a bad dream, the one that you try to scream but a whisper comes out. There was still gear inside. I clung to the side of the car until I could get a bearing. I was heading to the highest spot - a house about 1,000 feet away. It felt like a million with water nearly to my waist, fear enveloping every step, hoping I wasn't going to be staring into a giant storm drain, hungry for more than just water.

I finally stumbled up the steps and knocked. I tried my scream again, and I felt like someone could have heard it this time. No answer. I waited. I called Steve and told him that I was on a porch and gave him the address as I read it off the front porch, just in case. I asked him to call my husband Robert, as my phone battery was quickly being eaten up. What's my next move? I can stay here on this porch, surrounded by water...or...I could go find a human.

As I walked up the steps of the house, I saw a house with a garage light on, three cars angled to take advantage of the little bit of higher ground. Water was lapping up against the door separating the garage from the house. A fresh wave poured in as another car, obviously seeing the same mirage as me, plowed into its watery grave. I knocked on the door thinking whoever lived there had no reason in the world to let me in. They couldn't see me; they should send me away.

The woman who let me in without hesitation is a true angel. It turns out her son, who lives in Dallas, is also a photographer, and her neighbor also knew my husband. These were many of the "this is why Houston is a small town" moments I had that evening.

The next morning after water receded and my husband retrieved me and my belongings from my disabled Jeep, I hopped into my personal car and went out to document the devastation that the storm had caused in the rest of the city. I needed to get out and see what other parts of Houston had experienced.

I got a call about a body located near South Braeswood. It was the body of a woman. She was covered in a sheet, not far from me, and I shivered even as the sun and humidity made me sweat.

That might have, could have....could it have been....me?

It can happen to anyone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
May 28, 2015: Photographer experiences rising floodwaters firsthand

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I know how it happens. Now. How people in heavy downpours get stranded or killed driving their vehicles through flood waters. They see a mirage. I saw a mirage. It's a nasty mind trick that nature played on me and a wishful way out of a bad situation that led me further into danger.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Marthunis, 17, from Alue Naga village, Banda Aceh

That morning I was playing soccer with my friends. We ran home after the strong earthquake and after that I heard a really loud noise, like an aeroplane. When I looked at the sea I saw something I had never seen before and I was terrified. My family rushed into our minivan but the road was full with everyone trying to escape. The black wave hit our minivan, turning us over several times before I blacked out. When I regained consciousness I was in the water. Holding on to a school chair, I floated until I landed on a beach. I had no idea where I was and I was so hungry and thirsty. There were bodies and debris everywhere. Under a mangrove tree I saw a mattress had washed up and I started searching for packets of noodles and bottles of water, collecting them around my mattress. After five days I didn't have any water or food left. I survived there by myself until day 20. That's when I saw people coming to collect the bodies. They rescued me and took me to Fakinah hospital where I found my father. He told me my mother and sister had died in the tsunami.

Nazaruddin Musa, 42, from Darussalam, Banda Aceh

I was at a great fishing spot in Krueng Cut village when I felt the earthquake. I wasn't worried but I thought I should check on my family. I arrived home about 15 minutes later and my wife and son were fine so I was thinking about driving around town to look at the damage from the earthquake. At that time I could never have imagined the tsunami. But minutes later I saw the water coming towards us, it was washing up houses and gathering speed. I grabbed my son and my wife and we ran. There was a huge wall behind our house and we only just managed to scale it in time. It was a life or death moment because the water was right behind us. We ran to a two-storey building, and the next moment I saw the first wave take hundreds of people. I ran down and picked up a small girl lying on the ground and took her up to the second floor. Then the second wave hit. After the first wave I could see the dead and injured but the second wave was devastating, it just swept everything away.

Mahyuddin, 38, from Blang Bintang, Aceh Besar

On Saturday I went fishing around Pulau Weh, an island off Aceh, and we spent the night there. We were on the way back to the mainland on Sunday morning when our boats started rocking. After that we could see a huge wave in the distance. It was extraordinary, about 20 meters high. Another boat crew heading to land started yelling at us, telling us to return to the middle of the ocean. Three waves passed and at noon we got a radio call asking for us to help rescue the victims. On the way back we saw bodies floating in the water. It was unbelievable. We picked up many survivors. When we got to land we saw that it was flat, debris was everywhere and there was a clear view of the mountain. We helped rescue people all day and before it got dark I returned to my home in Kampoeng Jawa village. Sadly, my house had been swept away. I had lost my wife and my son and I didn't know what to do. I went to the great mosque and slept there on the terrace and the tremors continued into the night.

Nazariah, 44, from Lampulo, Banda Aceh

My baby was six months old and my first instinct was to grab him. I heard people screaming outside, that water was coming and I saw many people running. Then I heard something smack against the house and I knew I was not going to be safe on the second floor. My husband and my other children were out so I ran with my baby and my mother. The first wave hit us but we managed to hold on to each other. I was so scared that I would lose them so I held on as tight as I could. The water carried us to a police station near my house and a policeman there pulled us out of the water. Then the second very strong wave came. We ran up to the second floor but the water was filling up the whole room. I thought we might get trapped and drown in there. But the policeman started bashing at the ceiling and he made a hole so we could climb into the roof. It was an amazing moment. I was thanking God when the water started to go down.

Fauziah, 44, from Lampulo, Banda Aceh

I knew I had to escape but my husband had taken the motorbike when he went shopping and I was at home with our five children. I had no idea what to do. I was just thinking that I had to get to the second floor of a house nearby. What I remember was that the wave was really black. At first we weren't sure if it was oil or water. When it came up to us on the second floor it felt like judgment day. I thought my children and I were all going to die. Panicking, my son made a hole in the roof and climbed up. One by one he pulled us up, I was amazed by him. After that that we realised a boat had landed on top of the house. From the roof I could also see many people floating in the water. We climbed up into the boat and then I started praying. I was worried about my parents and my husband. They all died that day. The tsunami was 10 years ago but I feel like it just happened. I keep remembering even though I know my life should go on.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Indian Ocean tsunami: survivors' stories from Aceh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
That morning I was playing soccer with my friends. We ran home after the strong earthquake and after that I heard a really loud noise, like an aeroplane. When I looked at the sea I saw something I had never seen before and I was terrified.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On 26 December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, triggered a deadly tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people and rendered millions homeless.

Many more found their lives were transformed forever by the natural disaster. Here, some share their stories.

Louis Cryer was 18 and in Sri Lanka with his mother Zoe and brother Felix

We were staying in an idyllic beach village called Unawatuna in Galle district. It took a matter of seconds for a wall of water of about 5ft (1.52m) in height to start coming in. It was a kind of surge which reached the first floor of our hotel.

It flattened walls, trees, and the buildings around us, before rising higher and higher. We tried to get people out. Miraculously, guests who had been in the room underneath us started popping up from the water.

One woman was trapped in her locked room because she couldn't find her key. She said the room filled up quickly with water and she took what she thought would be her last breath. Luckily she found the key and opened the door which then burst into pieces under the pressure.

Buildings were collapsing around us. We tried to pull out passing people trapped in the currents.

When the water finally subsided we made a run for higher ground and a temple that had become a make-shift safe refugee area. We set up camp in a hotel up on a hill and when it was safe to do so, we went back down to salvage anything we could. I remember seeing rooms full of mud and fish.

People came up to the temple with dead bodies. We carried one Italian woman with a suspected broken back through the debris to another hotel to get medical help. I met one guy who had been out surfing and was swept a few miles up the coast. He had to walk through all the death and destruction to find his family. Luckily he found them all.

One of the only positives to come out of it all was the humanity of it. It didn't matter about your nationality or religion. Everyone was checking on each other.

A few days later, once the road was clear, the High Commission sent coaches to take us back to a refugee centre in Colombo. We were fed, watered, offered clothes and flights home but we chose not go straight away. We wanted to stay to try and comprehend the reality of what had happened.

The main thing we felt was guilt. After seeing the devastation, we were lucky enough leave, but many were left with nothing.

Once in the UK, I put on an exhibition of photos I'd taken, spoke about it at our school and raised £3500 to send back to the village.

I gained a new-found respect for the sea. I never realised its power. It hasn't put me off going in the water, but I'm a lot more aware of what it can do.

We were having breakfast at the hotel on a terrace, overlooking the pool, the beach and the Andaman Sea. My husband Tom noticed the waiters were all pointing at the sea which was receding rapidly. It was a fascinating sight. People got their cameras out and walked towards the dry seabed. The beach was full of sunbathing tourists.

Tom had an uncomfortable feeling though. He lived for two years on the beach in California and had never seen a sea behave like this. Then it clicked: the trembling he heard earlier was an earthquake. The receding water was the prelude to a tidal wave.

Tom grabbed my hand and screamed, "Run!". At that same moment, he saw a high wall of water come crashing over the reef towards us at a speed of 40-50mph. We ran uphill fast. The water was right behind us. The noise was deafening.

'Few survivors'

Tom looked behind and saw the beach and pool area were a boiling mass of water. Palm trees, beach chairs and parts of bungalows were twirling around and people were frantically trying to hold on to something. We kept going for higher ground, up the steep hill into the jungle beyond it. We waited for two hours, knowing only few people would have survived the onslaught below.

When the sea looked calm again we descended to the hotel, and found many badly wounded people. We helped to get them onto the back of trucks taking people to hospital.

Then we were warned another tsunami was on its way so we climbed up into the jungle again, where we waited three more hours.

We then came down to the road there were cars and trucks loaded with the wounded. No one knew what to do or where to go. We did not want to go down to the lower level and see all the corpses that littered the beach.

There was no electricity, no cell-phone network nor radio, so we spent the night at a small restaurant stand.

The next day the road was clear, and we could start the long trip home. The floor of the bus station was covered with wounded people, all waiting for the bus to Bangkok. People nearly cried at the opportunity to use our cell phone and reach their families to tell them they were alive.

The guilt was hard to bear. I will never forgive myself for not going to the hospital with the wounded but mainly for coming back unscratched.

Ten years on and we are still looking at life with a lot of more appreciation. We feel connected with Thailand so that is why we continue with a Thai animal charity.

My partner and I had won a snorkling trip at a raffle on Christmas Eve at our hotel, Phi Phi Charlie on Koh Phi Phi. That raffle saved our lives.

We had been snorkelling in the water when the Thai guides started to call everyone back onto the boats. The water had receded rapidly from the shoreline and nobody knew what was happening. We were lucky that we managed to get back onto the boat as the waves came in, and the boat swiftly repositioned itself some few hundred metres away from the coast. However, as strange currents began to develop and the waves started to impact upon the bay, we saw people being swept away.

Longtail boats that had been closer to the shoreline snapped and sank like twigs. We can't believe how lucky we were to get back onto the boat as we don't know what happened to the people we had been snorkelling with and who had been swept away.

We just thought some localised freak incident had taken place but 30 minutes later the boat guides had a phone call from friends who told them Phuket and Phi Phi Don had been hit badly by a tsunami.

It became clear that Koh Phi Phi, where we had been staying, was devastated by the waves. Our hotel was destroyed, and it was only recently we found out that over half the people staying there were killed. We stayed in open water for the rest of the day waiting for more advice about what to do.

It wasn't until late afternoon that the boat took us back to Koh Phi Phi Don. It was then that the tragedy became apparent.

We were sailing in a soup of debris from the island which included TVs, fridges, holiday books and worse. It was just awful. We could see that the island was devastated and the infrastructure was shattered.

Desperate situation

One man on board had a mobile phone. We all took it in turns to try to call home. Eventually I got through to my brother-in-law. I have never heard anyone speak with such worry and relief. He told me that everyone was so worried and had feared the worst.

We all decided to stay on the boat that night, moored out at sea. The boat was too small to have taken us all the way to Phuket. The only option we had was to wait for help to arrive in the morning. It was the longest night of my life and were it not for the camaraderie of those passengers on board and the wonderful generosity of the Thai people who owned and manned the boat, it would have been unbearable.

As the sun rose, we took the boat in to the harbour once again and waited for the larger boats to arrive. It was just awful. From our position on the water we saw hundreds of people all desperate to get off the island. They were huddled together on the pier in the harbour.

We eventually got the ferry boat to Phuket that morning and after a long wait we boarded an army plane back to Bangkok and a flight home.

We had lost all of our possessions but didn't care, we were so grateful to be alive. It was such an awful situation and such a random tragedy. Why did we take that boat trip that day? What if we had overslept? Why should we be the ones to survive and not so many others like us who didn't. It is senseless and random and just so utterly sad.

Every 26 December since the tsunami my partner and I take a walk on a beach and reflect on that devastating day. We will remember those who died again this year.

Produced by Sherie Ryder and Helen Dafedjaiye

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As people around the world remember the tragic events following the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, we share some of your experiences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Any major tornado is a newsworthy event, but some truly horrific storms linger in the public consciousness. The most powerful storms remain known long after they dissipate, while a camera in the right place at the right time may render another funnel cloud famous.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This article was most recently revised and updated by

Tri-State Tornado of 1925, also called Great Tri-State Tornado, tornado, the deadliest in U.S. history, that traveled from southeastern Missouri through southern Illinois and into southwestern Indiana on March 18, 1925. The storm completely destroyed a number of towns and caused 695 deaths.

Tri-State Tornado of 1925 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski

The tornado materialized about 1:00 pm local time in Ellington, Missouri. It caught the town's residents by surprise, as the weather forecast had been normal. (To prevent panic among the public, tornado forecasting was not practiced at the time, and even the word "tornado" had been banned from U.S. weather forecasts since the late 19th century.) The storm moved quickly to the northeast, speeding through the Missouri towns of Annapolis, Biehle, and Frohna and killing 11 people before crossing the Mississippi River into southern Illinois, where it virtually destroyed the towns of Gorham, De Soto, and Murphysboro, among others. Murphysboro was the hardest-hit area in the tornado's path, with 234 fatalities. After killing more than 600 people in Illinois, the tornado crossed the Wabash River into Indiana, where it demolished the towns of Griffin, Owensville, and Princeton and devastated about 85 farms in between. Having taken 71 lives in Indiana, the storm dissipated about 4:30 pm approximately 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Petersburg.

With winds of roughly 300 miles (480 km) per hour, which would classify it as an EF5 tornado in the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the tornado lasted 3.5 hours and traveled 219 miles (352 km)-setting records for both duration and distance. Its width of up to 1 mile (1.6 km), average speed of almost 62 miles (100 km) per hour, and peak speed of 73 miles (117 km) per hour also make it one of the largest and fastest tornadoes in U.S. history. In addition to the 695 casualties, there were more than 2,000 injured survivors, as well as thousands who were left homeless and without food. Fires, looting, and theft in the tornado's aftermath exacerbated its effects.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Adam Augustyn, Managing Editor, Reference Content.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

Tornado, a small-diameter column of violently rotating air developed within a convective cloud and in contact with the ground. Tornadoes occur most often in association with thunderstorms during the spring and summer in the mid-latitudes of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These whirling atmospheric vortices can generate the strongest...

Missouri, constituent state of the United States of America. To the north lies Iowa; across the Mississippi River to the east, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee; to the south, Arkansas; and to the west, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. With the exception of Tennessee, Missouri has more neighbouring states than any other...

Illinois, constituent state of the United States of America. It stretches southward 385 miles (620 km) from the Wisconsin border in the north to Cairo in the south. In addition to Wisconsin, the state borders Lake Michigan to the northeast, Indiana to the east, Kentucky to the southeast, Missouri to...

Tri-State Tornado of 1925

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tri-State Tornado of 1925 | History, Path, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tri-State Tornado of 1925, the deadliest tornado in U.S. history, which passed through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925, completely destroying a number of towns and causing 695 deaths. The tornado lasted 3.5 hours and traveled 219 miles (352 km)-setting records for both duration and distance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Super Outbreak of 1974 | tornado disaster, North America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Super Outbreak of 1974: Super Outbreak of 1974, series of tornadoes that caused severe damage to the Midwestern, southern, and eastern United States and Ontario, Canada, on April 3-4, 1974.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Saturia-Manikganj Sadar tornado | tornado, Manikganj district, Bangladesh [1989]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Saturia-Manikganj Sadar tornado: Saturia-Manikganj Sadar tornado, catastrophic tornado that struck the Manikganj district of Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. Causing approximately 1,300 fatalities, it was likely the deadliest tornado in recorded history. The tornado struck at around 6:30 pm local time and moved east from the

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When a big earthquake hits, it can be devastating-entire cities can be levelled, not to mention the loss of human lives. So what is going on when the ground starts shaking beneath our feet?

To find out we need to go deep underground. At the centre of our planet-around 5,000 to 6,000 kilometres beneath the surface-is an extremely hot, solid core, made mostly of iron and possibly nickel surrounded by a molten outer core (also thought to be made of mostly iron and some nickel). Further out we find another high-temperature layer, called the convecting mantle, which isn't exactly molten, but some movement is still possible given sufficient time. This convecting mantle enables convection currents, driven by heat from the planet's core, to 'flow' slowly within it.

The uppermost section of the mantle is relatively cool and brittle, and deforms elastically. Finally above this layer is the crust, the outermost layer of the planet (the bit we stand on). This coupled layer of crust and uppermost mantle is called the lithosphere and although it feels solid as we walk around on it, the lithosphere is actually very thin compared to the other layers of Earth-it ranges from less than 20 kilometres to more than 200 kilometres thick in different areas.

Earth is not a homogeneous ball of rock, it's made of several layers, which have different chemical and physical characteristics. (Image not to scale). Image adapted from: Australian Academy of Science.

But unlike a smooth eggshell that you may imagine, the Earth's crust is not a single, unbroken layer. Rather, it's made of sections called tectonic plates that sit on top of the slowly flowing and moving mantle.

These plates do not stay still: over time, they migrate around the planet, sometimes grinding against each other, or pushing into each other to build mountain ranges. In other places where plates are moving towards each other, one plate is forced underneath another plate. The results are known as subduction zones, and the world's largest earthquakes occur in these regions.

Earth's crust is made of several tectonic plates, which slowly move around Earth's surface. Most tectonic activity, including earthquakes, occurs where these plates meet. Image adapted from: Australian Academy of Science.

With all this dynamic movement constantly taking place all over the planet, big plates of rock moving around and bumping against each other, it's no wonder that sometimes it gets a little unstable. As the plates move relative to each other, huge amounts of stress can build up over long periods of time. Eventually there comes a point when all the accumulated stress is suddenly released: rocks break and huge sections of crust are cracked and displaced. These movements result in waves of energy called seismic waves that radiate out in all directions. The waves travel into the interior of the planet and towards Earth's surface. All this activity takes place deep within Earth, making it difficult to monitor and, therefore, difficult to predict when a future earthquake might occur.

It's also no surprise that the most seismically active regions of the planet are found along the edges of the tectonic plates, but not all earthquakes occur along these boundaries. The entire continent of Australia is in the middle of a tectonic plate, with no part of it near a major plate boundary. Yet Australia is not immune: earthquakes still occur from time to time, such as the deadly 1989 earthquake in Newcastle with a magnitude of 5.4.

How do we measure earthquakes?

Earthquakes are measured using instruments called seismometers that detect the vibrations caused by seismic waves as they travel through the crust. Seismic waves can be both natural (from earthquakes) or caused by human activity (explosions). The concept of a seismometer is simple: a weight tends to stay still as the earth moves and the relative motion can be drawn on a reel of paper as a zig-zag line. The bigger the vibration, the bigger the zig-zag. Modern systems use electronics to give more accurate results but the principle is the same.

A seismograph record of the 2011 Tohoku, Japan earthquake, recorded on the other side of the Pacific Ocean at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Image adapted from: Joe Parks; CC BY NC 2.0

The strength (or 'magnitude') of earthquakes used to be determined according to the Richter Scale, which compares the relative strength of different earthquakes. The scale is logarithmic, meaning that an earthquake of magnitude 6 is ten times stronger than one of magnitude 5. A magnitude 7 quake is 10 times stronger than a magnitude 6, and 100 times stronger than a magnitude 5.

These days, although the term 'Richter Scale' still persists in the media and general use among the public, scientists now use a more accurate physical measure of the size of an earthquake, called the 'moment magnitude'. This measures how strong the ground is (how much energy is needed to break it), how much actual displacement occurs, and the amount of rock that is displaced.

To give a sense of what different magnitudes feel like for people experiencing them, anything above a magnitude of 5.5 can cause damage to buildings, while anything greater than 7.0 will typically cause serious damage. Meanwhile, you'd probably sleep through anything less than a 2.5 and it would likely only be picked up by seismographs.

Earth is not as rock-solid as it may seem: it's a dynamic planet, with a lot of activity taking place underneath the surface. As scientists continue to study its inner workings, we may be able to better predict the severity of earthquakes before they happen. Until then, there's still a lot to learn.

This article has been reviewed by the following experts: Professor Brian Kennett FAA FRS Emeritus Professor of Seismology, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University; Professor Richard Arculus Emeritus Professor, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Earthquakes are often thought of as largely unpredictable, wholly natural forces of nature-but that may be changing.

A study published in the journal Seismological Research Letters this week identified 730 sites where human activity caused earthquakes over the past 150 years. And while we've long known that people can influence seismic activity, researchers were surprised to find that human activity has induced earthquakes with magnitudes as high as 7.9-and that the number of earthquakes is clearly rising in some regions of the world.

Just like earthquakes caused by nature, human-induced earthquakes have the potential to be dangerous, even deadly. And geologists are only just beginning to understand the repercussions these quakes could have on people and the environment.

What kind of human activity causes earthquakes?

The effects of human-induced earthquakes may be similar to those created by nature, but are often seen in regions with little or no previous seismic activity. Most natural earthquakes happen along fault lines, which are commonly (but not exclusively) found where tectonic plates converge. But earthquakes triggered by human activity can occur far from the edges of tectonic plates.

Exactly what causes each induced earthquake depends on the type of human activity.

According to the report's data, found on a publicly accessible database, mining accounted for the highest number of human-induced earthquakes worldwide (many earthquakes clustered around 271 sites). The removal of material from the earth can cause instability, leading to sudden collapses that trigger earthquakes.

Multiple earthquakes at 167 sites-and by far the deadliest ones-were triggered by what the report calls water reservoir impoundment, or dam building. ( See the power of dams and dam removal.)

In 2008, an estimated 80,000 people died or went missing following a 7.9 earthquake in China's Sichuan province. Scientists believe it was triggered by the weight of 320 million tons of water that had been collected in the Zipingpu Reservoir-over a well-known fault line.

In the U.S., the conversation around human-induced earthquakes has largely centered around fracking for oil and natural gas, given the rapid spread of the technology in many states. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, fracking can induce seismic activity, both directly and from disposing of wastewater used in the process-the byproduct of water, sand, and chemicals used to hydraulically fracture hydrocarbons from rock. That high-pressure wastewater can crack rocks and lubricate faults.

In the study, the authors found 29 project sites where earthquakes were induced by fracking itself, 36 sites where quakes were induced by post-fracking wastewater disposal, and 12 sites with temblors induced by unspecific oil and gas wastewater disposal. ( Learn more about fracking.) In the case of Oklahoma, which has experienced heavy fracking activity, hundreds of small earthquakes have been observed annually in a region that was previously more geologically quiet.

Earthquake triggers were also identified from nuclear explosions in 22 locations and two construction sites.

"All anthropogenic projects influence forces acting in the Earth's crust," said Miles Wilson, a University of Durham geophysicist who collected the study's data. "For example, by adding or removing mass, so we shouldn't be surprised that the Earth responds to these changes and that in some cases earthquakes are the response."

Wilson's compiled records of human-induced earthquakes date back a century and a half. The website allows visitors to search quakes by date or region or drill down into data like magnitude, location, and cause.

Users can also submit additional cases they believe should be added to the database.

The database includes 108 sites that have experienced human-induced earthquakes over the past decade, ranging in magnitude from relatively small events to as strong as 5.8. The majority of those quakes were in the U.S. and Canada and were caused by disposal of fracking waste into the ground.

"In the long term," Wilson said, "we may start to see more cases of induced seismicity across the world as we increase the number and scale of anthropogenic projects that influence the Earth."

Mining, too, is expected to increase in scale. Today's mines are bigger than ever and reach miles underground. All this activity could lead to more instability in the Earth, and more or larger earthquakes, Wilson warns.

Sometimes, "anthropogenic activity is the final straw that releases built-up stress," said the geophysicist.

Wilson's work at the University of Durham was in part commissioned by a Dutch oil and gas company called Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV, which was interested in the potential impacts of its work. By better understanding earthquakes, engineers could work to minimize them, Wilson suggests.

It's unlikely people will stop digging into the Earth, or injecting wastewater, any time soon. But Wilson says we may be better prepared to avoid the worst disasters, like China's 2008 earthquake.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Humans Are Causing Deadly Earthquakes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Earthquakes are often thought of as largely unpredictable, wholly natural forces of nature-but that may be changing. A study published in the journal Seismological Research Letters this week identified 730 sites where human activity caused earthquakes over the past 150 years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Skip to main content

Official websites use .gov
A.gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Skip to main content Official websites use .gov A.gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When the fourth-graders in Mrs. Marlem Diaz-Brown's class returned to school on Monday, they were tasked with writing their first essay of the year. The topic was familiar: Hurricane Irma.

By Wednesday, they had worked out their introduction and evidence paragraphs and were brainstorming their personal experiences. To help them remember, Mrs. D-B had them draw out a timeline - starting Friday before the storm. Then, based on their drawings, they could start to talk about - and eventually, write about - what they experienced.

The essays all started off this way: The name Irma will always strike fear, disappointment, and dismay in our city. Here's what else they had on their minds:
Antonio Santamaria, 9
"I felt like Dorothy and her dog in the Wizard of Oz, the winds were howling around my house, the rain came on and off, lights flickering on and off in the kitchen. Irma, she devastated the internet and the cable, so we played board games. We had a really good family time experience. Florida and hurricanes ... it's a perfect recipe for disaster. Now we have Maria and Jose and Lee on the loose. For them, I would suggest that you always should stay safe, always try to remember that even if it seems like the world is all darkness, it's always gonna be a way out. Always. You may not see it, but it's there."
Emilia Rubalcaba, 9, and Veronica Segredo, 9
Emilia: "Everyone was like really excited, because like, hello, like we've never been in a hurricane before, what this is like? And I'm like, 'Just because you've never been in a hurricane before doesn't mean it's good.' My mom and I evacuated to Canada, but first, we had to wait 11 hours to get on the flight."

Veronica: "I wasn't like scared or anything, I was fine. But we did lose power. Something I just wanted to say, my grandma's name is called Irma, and now she wants to change her name."
Olivia Geller, 9
"It's a little scary once it starts because most of us hadn't been in a hurricane yet. Most of the hurricane was gloom, but not all of it. The actual day of the hurricane was boring. We played hide and seek and we ate snacks."

She offers this advice: "Always stay inside, if you lose power have snacks in case you are really hungry. If something happens and you need to evacuate always put gas in your car."
Louis Perez, 9
"A bad thing is that I had to go sleep in a closet. It's kind of hard sleeping there like you're always squished. But it was just for a day. It's like a bad dream, happening in a fake world but it's real. It was like swirling winds a lot. You could hear like schwooooo schwooo."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Miami 4th-Graders Write About Their Experiences With Hurricanes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When the fourth-graders in Mrs. Marlem Diaz-Brown's class returned to school on Monday, they were tasked with writing their first essay of the year. The topic was familiar: Hurricane Irma. By Wednesday, they had worked out their introduction and evidence paragraphs and were brainstorming their personal experiences. To help them remember, Mrs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CLOSE

I seem to be a magnet for natural disasters.

I've prepared for, rode out and survived more floods, tornadoes, typhoons and their ilk than probably most others.

None of them was pleasant, obviously, but my worst experience was when Hurricane Andrew barreled through Homestead where I happened to be vacationing at my parents' new house 25 years ago this week.

I have found myself in the eye of the storm - or near enough to feel its wrath - over the past few decades of my life. Some of the worst include a 1985 "100-year flood" that ravaged the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming, nearly drowning me and my family when our apartment floor was sucked into the basement. Years later, I and several other sailors held onto a chain for dear life when a rogue wave suddenly rocked the USS Belleau Wood as it skirted away from Hurricane Iniki in 1992 near Hawaii. We had been watching the storm from a walkway on the ship's port side and were nearly tossed overboard.

However, all of those pale in comparison to the crisis that Andrew wrought.

First, no one could have prepared themselves for what is now known as one of the most destructive hurricanes on record, with all due respect owed to those who endured Katrina and similarly insane storms.

But my parents and I did our best.

My first week in South Florida was uneventful and quite pleasant. I got a taste of the Miami nightlife and the saltwater while snorkeling in the Keys.

Then the news hit. There was a storm making its way toward the Bahamas.

Initially, Andrew was fairly tame, and forecasters said it would veer north. Many in the Keys, Homestead and the greater Miami area paid little attention.

Little did any of us know how quickly things would change. A sudden strengthening occurred, taking Andrew from a bothersome tropical swell to a deadly serious weather event. Not only that, but the storm was traveling fast.

To make matters worse, Andrew took a last-second jaunt south, switching its projected path from hitting the Palm Beach area to putting south Dade County as its bull's-eye.

Those who waited until the last minute to prepare were left with very few choices. That included us. My family and I debated for hours whether to stay or flee. The argument became moot once we drove the few blocks from their house to U.S. 1, seeing that the main road in Homestead was now a parking lot for miles north and south.

Our only option was to hunker down. And this was at a time when very few homeowners had thought of buying aluminum shutters. My father and I visited numerous home improvement stores, hoping to find at least a few sheets of plywood to shutter the windows. We walked away empty-handed several times until we finally found a mom-and-pop shop that had just enough to fulfill our need.

That night, he hit. Hard. The stories you may have read or heard about a major storm sounding like a barreling freight train are all true. The only thing they don't tell you is that the sound is continuous. People might think they can deal with that until it's pounding nonstop on every wall of their home.

Initially, my family and I huddled in my parents' master bedroom, holding one another tight. Beside us sat our scuba gear. Yes, we were far inland, but one never knew.

Then the real strong winds started.

For the first several minutes of intense and constant bashing on the walls and roof, it seemed like the house was going to fare well. That was until we saw water pouring from the ceiling fan and a beam of light suddenly appeared in the corner of the room.

We realized the roof was being peeled off, so our instinct was to run. With our family pets leading the way, we booked it for the opposite end of the ranch home, ducking into closets and bathrooms. We didn't find out until later that a portion of the roof had lifted up, but another gust of wind forced it back down and sealed the home again. If it hadn't, we would likely have lost the entire roof and our lives with it.

And once it passed, we discovered we were one of the truly lucky ones. The house next door lost an entire second floor. The roof and some of the walls were nowhere to be found. Another neighbor found a long length of wood had pierced through his recreational vehicle like an arrow.

Fortunately, my folks' home held on. We had made it. They did have to rebuild, as they later learned that the entire structure was considered a total loss due to water damage. And I barely made it back to my ship on time, since Miami International Airport opened just one day before my flight left.

But like I've said, I've been one of the lucky ones. Just don't bring me along on any vacation. The next storm may just be right behind me.

Read or Share this story: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2017/08/19/first-hand-experience-we-were-among-lucky-hurricane-andrew-survivors/573698001/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CLOSE I seem to be a magnet for natural disasters. I've prepared for, rode out and survived more floods, tornadoes, typhoons and their ilk than probably most others. None of them was pleasant, obviously, but my worst experience was when Hurricane Andrew barreled through Homestead where I happened to be vacationing at my parents' new house 25 years ago this week.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the science of volcanoes including how they form mountains, lava, and magma; types such as cinder cone, composite, and shield; watch a video about volcanoes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Boris Rodriguez has no-one to turn to now. He lost more loved ones in a single night on Sunday than many do in a lifetime.

Mr Rodriguez's wife, both of her parents, his brother and sister-in-law and their children died when the Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupted.

"I saw the children's bodies," he told me between sobs. "They were huddled together in the bed, like they were trying to hide from what was happening."

If Mr Rodriguez, who is 25, were a solitary case, it would be heartbreaking enough. But most of his neighbours in the village of El Rodeo have similar stories of grief. The village was almost entirely wiped off the map. He was saved only because he was working lower down the mountain, in the city of Escuintla, for a transportation company.

"After the eruption I managed to cross over the coffee plantations on the hillsides and found the tin homes completely buried," he said.

Beyond the security cordon in El Rodeo, it was clear what he meant. Cars had been tossed around like they were discarded toys. The river of ash and dust reached waist height in many areas, and the ground was still piping hot.

"The most complicated thing here is trying to salvage some of these homes because there is a lot of material that is still boiling and some areas still on fire," said Captain Carlos Valenzuela, the lead co-ordinator of the rescue effort.

How volcano disaster unfolded

The number of confirmed dead stands at 75 but the civil emergency authority announced that around 200 people were missing, raising fears that the death toll will increase substantially.

"We don't have an exact number of dead because we know there are whole families that have disappeared and no one has claimed them," said Capt Valenzuela.

It is possible they are in different shelters and haven't been able to communicate with each other, said Capt Valenzuela. "We just can't say yet."

The authorities, fearful of further injury or accidents, were tightly controlling the entrance to the village, meaning many residents had still not been able to return to their homes to recover what was left.

Eruption in pictures

How many people do volcanoes kill?

More on Guatemala

To some survivors, the emergency response was woefully disjointed and disorganised.

"No-one is telling us where to go, what to do," said Maria Turen. She did not know where her mother was and feared her home had been obliterated. "I want to see my house but they won't let me up," she said. "I don't know anything."

Outside some homes, family dogs stood waiting in vain for their owners. Rescue workers were ferrying strays and livestock down the hillside. The dust resembled deep snow except for its slate grey colour and the lingering odour of burning.

Then suddenly on Tuesday, a whistle, an alarm, a panicked run. The vast volcano gave another demonstration of its mighty power, sending a fresh plume of smoke and dust towering over the stricken hills.

Within minutes, the streets were clogged with vehicles trying to find a route down to safety. Mothers carried their children, the elderly were helped by their grandchildren. Anyone with a spare seat in their car offered a lift to those walking past.

Amid the chaos was a sense of Guatemala pulling together in adversity.

Members of the fire service and military were slumped on the patches of grass at the side of the road, taking a moment to gather their breath. Soon the torrential rains returned and night began to fall, halting the rescuers forlorn search for survivors.

Mr Rodriguez held on to a sliver of hope of finding his family.

"God willing, I'll find them," he said. "This has been an act of God and if he has taken them, then there's nothing we can do. But I would like to bury them properly, so that we don't have to suffer any more."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Boris Rodriguez has no-one to turn to now. He lost more loved ones in a single night on Sunday than many do in a lifetime. Mr Rodriguez's wife, both of her parents, his brother and sister-in-law and their children died when the Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupted.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We heard a loud boom. The noise didn't knock me down, but it was as loud as a military jet breaking the sound barrier. Even then, I wasn't really sure what the sound meant. I spun around and looked up, and there was this ninety-story gray column of rock, ash, and gas shooting out of the volcano. You see that going up and all you can think is, I've got to get out of here. And it was right at that moment -- the "oh shit" moment -- that I looked up and got clipped by a flying piece of rock, right above my left eye. I have no idea how big it was, because I didn't see it before it hit me. All around me rocks were falling, some the size of television sets. And they were hot, more than 1100 degrees Fahrenheit.

It was 1993, and I'd been invited to a volcanology conference at the Galeras volcano in Colombia. On the third day of the conference, a bunch of us went up to the crater to take samples and explore. We certainly weren't expecting any activity.

After I got hit, my legs were rubbery, and I kept running and falling down the volcano. The footing was terrible: big boulders and loose ash. I kept falling and getting up, falling and getting up, and soon I heard somebody yelling at me to get down behind something. I tried to get behind a boulder, but there was nothing big enough to protect me. I used my pack to protect my head from the debris. They found it a few days later with holes burned right through it.

I sat behind a big slab of rock to catch my breath and then set out to get as far away from the cone as I could. I'd been hit in the head, had burns all over my hands and legs, and my legs were swelling up from sprains. My left eye had filled up with blood. Everything around me was gray.

I got maybe 20 percent of the way back to our vehicles before I just couldn't move. I was exhausted, in shock, and strangely cold from the pebbly, ashen rain that had started to fall. I think I had been immobile for twenty to thirty minutes before the rescuers arrived.

It turned out, in hindsight, that getting hit by that first fragment might have been my lucky break, because that slowed my descent. The people who were downslope from me all died, because more rocks fell on them.

I woke up in the hospital the next day fully aware but thinking, I'm still here, I can't believe it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What It Feels Like...to Survive a Volcanic Eruption

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We heard a loud boom. The noise didn't knock me down, but it was as loud as a military jet breaking the sound barrier. Even then, I wasn't really sure what the sound meant. I spun around and looked up, and there was this ninety-story gray column of rock, ash, and gas shooting out of the volcano.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Japanese rescuers resumed a grim operation to recover bodies on Monday after 31 people were believed killed in a volcanic eruption, as survivors told of seeing hikers die when tonnes of ash and rocks thundered from the sky.

More than 1,100 firefighters, police and troops returned to the ash-blanketed slopes of Mount Ontake in a bid to reach those they had to abandon on Sunday when soaring levels of poisonous gas made the operation too dangerous.

Soldiers managed to bring down eight more bodies by helicopter on Monday, before toxic gases and ash forced them to again suspend the recovery effort in the early afternoon.

At least 31 people were found near the summit of the 3,067-metre (10,121-foot) volcano, which erupted on Saturday without warning, spewing ash, rocks and steam.

Four were confirmed dead, all men, aged between 23 and 61.

Rescue workers were trying to bring down at least 27 people still on the volcano who were believed killed. Six were airlifted late on Monday morning, the public broadcaster NHK reported. They were technically listed as in "cardiac arrest" - a term applied before doctors can certify death.

About 40 people were hurt by flying rocks and inhaling poisonous fumes.

Heartbreaking stories began to emerge from survivors who made it down the mountain as rolling clouds of volcanic debris swept down its flanks, smothering everything in their path.

"Some people were buried in ash up to their knees and the two in front of me seemed to be dead," a woman hiker told the private Asahi network.

Another told how she had heard the last moments of a victim battered by a cascade of rocks.

"There was someone lying outside the hut after being hit in the back," she said. "He was saying 'It hurts, it hurts,' but after about half an hour he went quiet."

Seiichi Sakurai, who had been working at one of the huts near the top of the volcano, told NHK he had tried his best to help people but could not save them all.

"Ash was constantly falling ... some people were buried alive but I could do nothing but tell [rescuers] about them over the radio," he said.

Another survivor told the Yomiuri newspaper he had seen a boy shouting "It's hot" and "I can't breathe!" near the peak, before the ash clouds turned everything black and silent.

Anguished families waited for news. A tearful father sobbed as he clutched a photograph of his son and the young man's girlfriend, who had not been heard from since the eruption.

An elderly woman told the Asahi network her son had telephoned her just after gas, rocks and ash began spewing from the volcano.

"He told me it erupted ... He said 'It's over. I'm dying now' and then the line was cut off," the woman said.

The meteorological agency forecast further eruptions, warning that volcanic debris might settle within four kilometres (2.5 miles) of the peak.

Japan's meteorological agency keeps a round-the-clock watch on 47 volcanos thought to be at risk of violent activity over the next century, including Mount Fuji, whose eruption could have a catastrophic effect on the country's economy.

But Toshitsugu Fujii, a vulcanologist at the agency, admitted accurate forecasting was very difficult.

Steam explosions such as those on Ontake often occured without warning, he said.

"People may say we failed to predict this [because there were earthquakes in September] but this is something that could not be helped, in a sense. That's the reality of the limit of our knowledge," he said.
Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Japanese volcano eruption survivors tell heartbreaking stories of victims

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Japanese rescuers resumed a grim operation to recover bodies on Monday after 31 people were believed killed in a volcanic eruption, as survivors told of seeing hikers die when tonnes of ash and rocks thundered from the sky.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Volcano facts | National Geographic Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Check out these fascinating volcano facts with National Geographic Kids! What is a volcano? Why does it erupt? And where can you find the world's biggest?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
NOAA does not validate these stories. They are reprinted with permission from the sender.
Bill, New York, 2012

In November of 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit our forested property near the Delaware River in New York. We had thought that since we lived a couple of hours inland and over 1000 feet higher than sea level, we were fairly safe. We have always made some preparations in case of emergencies but we had a lot to learn about being ready for a situation like this.

We knew the storm was approaching quickly and it was going to be severe. We had waterproof canoeing "go-bags" ready and we had a 625 gallon above ground water storage tank and a good non-electric water purification system. Even our dog had his saddle bags packed with his food and supplies. But we were not prepared for the intensity of this storm. Bugging out was not an option, at least by car.

When the storm hit, the winds kept getting stronger. Just when we thought that it was as bad as it could get, the wind picked up even more. Trees blew down and ripped out the power lines to our house. The circuit breaker box exploded. Several large conifers fell on top of our house, partially crushing the roof. Our daughter was watching the storm just as the wind hit and a huge tree blew down and landed directly on the roof above her room. An old garden trellis, made from large timbers took the brunt of the force and probably saved her life.

We gathered the kids to the center of the little house as far from windows as we could get. We had a few battery powered LED lanterns lit because the power was out.

Trees and down power lines blocked our street so we had to shelter in place and tough it out. I think there might have been a tornado along with the hurricane because some trees were twisted in half and not just blown down in one direction.

Once the storm passed, we had to assess the damage. No one was hurt thankfully. We made sure the propane tank was shut off and every appliance was unplugged. Clearing the driveway and property of downed trees and debris took several days. We had no intention of clearing the road of trees, it was too dangerous since the power lines crisscrossed everywhere. We were able to check on our neighbors and offer what assistance we could.

We had to stay in the house since the roads were impassable and dangerous. Since we have a private well and use an electric well pump, we had no running water. We had plenty of fresh water in the water tank, fortunately, and every drop of water we consumed went first through our counter top purification system.

After the house was rebuilt and the storm was mostly behind us, we made lists of things that we could have done better. The first thing we did was to make a plan in case we got separated. Perhaps next time an emergency struck, we might not all be home. We planned where we could meet and who we might call for information.

Over the next couple of years we invested a wood burning stove and a generator that could run on either gasoline or propane. Gasoline was scarce for weeks after the storm and rationed. 20 pound propane tanks were available, though. We also built a battery bank for backup power. Several deep cycle batteries connected to a power inverter. So we had two power sources. We now all keep a pair of jeans and sturdy slip on shoes next to our beds so we are ready to go in 5 minutes flat.

A few other changes we made to our preparations.... We got 2 camp type toilets, emergency nonperishable foods like freeze dried back packing meals, MRE's , canned foods, more lanterns and extra batteries of all types, a good quality am/fm and weather radio that runs on either batteries, a/c power or a crank/dynamo and we doubled the size of our garden. Some eight years later, we continue to improve our emergency preparations and refine our plans.

Christina, Virginia, 2003, 2011, 2018

I have been through three major hurricanes that tore up my area of Virginia pretty badly. My first lesson learned was Hurricane Isabel in 2003. Isabel really messed our area up in the northern neck of Virginia. No power for 13 days. Nowhere to get gas or ice. I will never forget the howling of the winds and thinking this will this ever stop. Many houses were lost into the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers during Isabel.

My next experience was Hurricane Irene. A microburst (powerful wind) came right across the street. It looked like someone's hand just cut a swath right through the trees. The sound of that wind! It creeps me out every time. No power again for 7 days.

Last year Hurricane Michael got us! No power for 5 days and many main roads washed out. Several roads were impassable until this past March! I DO NOT play with these storms.

Do not think just because you're not taking a direct hit that it can't be destructive!! Prepare ahead of time! Buy lots of water, fill up large buckets with water to flush toilets, buy batteries, charcoal to cook food, table sandwiches food like peanut butter and jelly will help too. Always have paper plates and plastic utensils. Get baby wipes for personal hygiene for everyone, not just babies. Fill your vehicles up with gas and remember your pets!! Get extra pet food, litter, etc. Get your prescription and over the counter medicines ahead of time! And don't forget you need a NOAA Weather Radio when the power goes out to stay on top of things.!! Be prepared to be self sustaining for days because you will be without power for days and possibly stranded for days. Do not ever wait til the last minute to gather supplies and if they tell you to evacuate then do it!!

Steve, Houston, Texas, 2008

I remember the day Hurricane Ike struck Texas and Louisiana back in 2008. It was Friday night, September 12, 2008, in Houston Texas. I was 11 at the time and my mom and dad were sitting in front of the TV watching as Ike crept closer towards Texas. My dad went to Walmart and got some dry food, flashlights and batteries for the storm. I was really nervous because of the size of Ike (it was 450 miles wide!) and the damage it might cause overnight. I was walking around thinking the worse and even taking a long last look at my apartment complex with my neighbor's friend!

It started getting windy around 6 pm (winds around 40 mph) and we got scared and ran home. Twigs from the 100 foot pine trees started to break off and leaves were flying everywhere. My mom and I were walking to Pops Supermarket to get some last minute things and the checkout line was long. When we were finally done, the winds blew open the door and everybody went silent.

We went home quickly. Dad was in the bedroom with his hardhat on playing with the flashlight as he watched the news. There was a phone bank with citizens asking questions to Dr. Neil on Channel 11 about what kind of damage they could expect. I ran outside at 10 pm and the winds were still at 40mph but they started to gust past 50 and I was on my porch watching the palm tree near me sway in the wind. The tall pine trees were bending slightly as I heard them rustle in the wind. More leaves and trash were airborne now.

I couldn't stand against wind as I tried to go downstairs and the wind kept pushing me back. I gave up and went back upstairs once my folks told me it's no longer safe to be wandering. The wind was howling at the back window. My dad managed to use an old bed to cover the window and it was reinforced with the couch in his bedroom. I tried to fall asleep but the wind was howling constantly and gusts started to become a little more frequent. At around 11:30 pm, it was getting blustery outside and my dad tried to microwave a burrito (worst time for a snack!) and the lights started to flicker. We ran to the closet but we started to fuss when my mom didn't want to get in. She was terrified and we tried to calm her down but another loud gust blew in and the carport downstairs started rumbling.

The wind was starting to make squealing and screeching noises. We were silent for a couple minutes staring at the back window. I could see an outline of the trees whipping in the wind from the street light. Dad and I went inside and mom slept in the living room. For another 30 minutes the lights would flicker as we listened to Paul and Tom on the radio. I lay down on the floor and dad sat on his big tool box playing with the flashlight. Around 12:30 am, we lost power and he winds got louder. It sounded like a train one minute and a wolf howling the next second. The winds were probably between 70 and 80 by that time. My dad went out to get my mom but I remember my mom opening the door to look outside to get a peek. It was terrifying. In the sea of darkness the palm tree was bending back and forth violently. Water was falling from the roofs like Niagara Falls. The giant pine trees were bending at 45 degree angles with branches snapping off.

Mom closed the door and finally took refuge in the closet. She was crying at one point and we told her we were going to make it out. At 1:30 am the back window shattered and glass and rain started to come in. I flashed a light to help dad see and he had to get some trash bags to cover the TV and computer in his room and push the couch to push the beds that were covering the broken window back up but the wind kept pushing them down.

Around 2:00 am, the radio said Ike made landfall at Galveston and Houston and the surrounding area was being battered by high winds and heavy surge flooding. Dad took note of the sky looking orange when we opened the closet door to let some cool air in since it was hot inside the closet! I heard debris hitting the building and the wind was deafening. The winds were above 75mph around that time. All night the wind was screaming. We spent 10 to 12 hours in the closet until noon Saturday.

It was a mess outside. Shingles littered the floor and tree branches and twigs were everywhere. My dad's old pair of shoes were still next to the door! The courtyard was even worse. Pine trees were snapped in half and entire trees were down on the ground. I helped our neighbors clean up the debris and clear the pathways. Dad went to get more food and water. We ate what we could and had to walk around to find some food and hot water. Mom and dad were upset but glad we made it out unscathed. We walked around the neighborhood seeing the damage. A lot of tree damage and some leaning power lines. I couldn't sleep that Saturday night with all the humidity. My mom and I were listening to updates from the mayor and city officials.

We were both scared out of wits and I cried but my mom reassured me that we made it and we are OK. By Sunday afternoon the power was restored and we started to learn about the true devastation Ike did to the state. I was thankful that we didn't lost our home or lives for that manner. Some areas along the coast were wrecked or wiped out from the storm surge. I remember the reporter on 13 trying to get a grip on his emotions as he went through the damage and ruins at Bolivar Peninsula. Watching the wreckage, it ran a chill down my spine but but it showed me the true power of these cyclones. Ike would cause me to take preparations more seriously and now I stock more supplies to prepare for every season. I know it's not much of a story but tropical cyclones are nothing to mess with. The story I will tell my kids one day!

Bruce, Tampa Bay area, FL

I am a retired man who lives in Tampa Bay area and lost power for 73 hours as a result of Hurricane Irma. I slept like a baby for three nights and did not lose any food to spoilage. I took some common-sense steps to achieve those results.

I froze TAP water in several 2-liter bottles. I also froze bottles of bottled water (16-20 oz size preferred).

I assumed I would lose power, so I turned AC down from usual 76 to 71 so when power went off my walls, ceilings and floors would be at 71 instead of 76, keeping me cooler longer.

I never opened up any windows. Better to have 80-degree air in my condo without humidity, then 85-90 degree outside air with humidity. (Condo temp reached a high of 80 after 3 days).

When I went to bed the second and third night, I took two frozen bottles of water and put each in a zip lock bag (to collect condensation) and put each bottle in a sock. Then I placed a bottle on each side of me to help keep my body temp down. When I woke up the ice was water and I now had more water to drink.

The last day I did the same as #4 above, but placed bottles on each side of me while sitting in my chair. Cool as a cucumber! No reason old people should be dying of heat stroke. Also poured cold water onto a towel and wrapped it around my neck. Wring out and repeat.

When power went out I took all my frozen food and bottles of water and packed it into coolers (bought at Walmart) and put the coolers INTO THE FREEZER and REFRIGERATOR. My food was still frozen when the power was restored 73 hours later. I took shelves out of refrigerator section and put all my refrigerated food, beverages and condiments into coolers along with the frozen 2-liter bottles of water. Food was in perfect condition 73 hours after losing power. Pack remaining space around outside of coolers with as many frozen bottles of water as you can fit. I believe that these tips will keep food cold 5-7 days and provide plenty of cooling water.

Neal, Hurricane Sandy, 2012

As Member of Bellevue Hospital Medical center medical staff, I helped evacuate the Hospital during Huricane Sandy . I am a registered nurse , and with the help of all the staff and many city and governmental agency staff members, we evacuated 520 patients to area hospitals . When I say all the staff , that meant people from accounting , chaplains, medical residents , and even two brand new nurses. I was assigned to the 14 th floor. I was instructed, because of my seniority, to guide the two new nurses during the huricane. Talk about trial by fire! We lost power the 2 nd day, while the storm was raging. We ended up having to carry patients down from as high as the 22 nd floor.

When I say all governmental agencies, we had Oklahoma city fire, Homeland Security and the US Army helping. I have to say everyone pitched in. There was an unbelievable sense of comradery . When New York City needed help in its most desperate hour, the Bellevue staff, and especially the nursing staff , answered the call for help and came to the hospital . We evacuated 520 patients with 1 birth , and 1 cardiac bypass, along the way . Everyone was safely evacuated.

Sally, Jacksonville, FL, 2017

Hi, we are Flood Victims from Hurricane Irma. We live in Jacksonville, Fl. Hurricane Irma hit us on September 11, 2017. Thank God we had some friends we were able to stay with who lived on higher ground. Thank God we got out of there and moved our van. I believe they said the Hurricane was a Category 5.

When we were allowed back in, we were told we had to move out within 7-10 days and that we needed to throw everything out. The river water was very dirty and it came up 2 feet. They brought great big dumpsters in and all of us on ground floor filled them with our furniture. It was the most devastated situation i have ever been in. I thought i was going to have a nervous breakdown. It was horrible! I wasn't worried about our belongings but we came very close to being homeless. I am 69 years old and I take care of my 82 year old uncle. When we get older we don't cope with things as well as when we were younger. Most of our family has passed away and the ones who haven't are old and not able to help us. Most of our friends have passed away also, so we came very close to being homeless!

We moved two times and are moving again. This has been a nightmare!!! There is so much to tell but this kind of sums it up! Thank god we received some help from FEMA and from the country western singers who put on a concert to collect money. Truly we appreciate all the prayers, love and concern people have shown us! By the way they have a tentative date to move back in on July 20, 2018. We have a lot of work that has to be done as soon as we can get back in. No bodily harm and no lives were lost and we now can see light at the end of the tunnel!

Jennifer Lowry, Austin, TX, Hurricane Odile, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, September 2014

I had never witnessed that level of destruction or devastation before. The eye of the storm hit around 10:30pm, so most of the guests (including myself) were sheltered in the hotel ballroom. What made this storm unique (and the reason it caught the Southern Baja Peninsula so off guard) was the fact that it rapidly intensified and changed course. It was originally forecast to head West and weaken as it went out to sea, but instead it made an almost 90 degree turn and headed directly for Cabo San Lucas as a Category 4. It was a Category 3 when it actually made landfall, but the millibars of pressure in the eye were extremely low for a Category 3, and the hurricane slowed and caused massive destruction.

Because of the initial forecast, people were not being encouraged to evacuate. Our hotel was prepared as possible and technically designated as a hurricane shelter with the ability of a Cat 3 storm, and had excellent safety procedures in place. But no one expected the storm to be as bad as it was.Â The hotel had a shelter set up in the hotel ballroom, but also told guests that if they felt more comfortable staying in their rooms then they were more than welcome to do so, so long as they kept the windows and doors completely shut and did not venture outside. (At the point of their original instruction, the hurricane was still not expected to be such a massive threat.)

My friends and I originally thought we would "ride it out" in our hotel room, and were almost poking fun at the evacuation room that was set up. We figured we would hole up in our room with food and wine and watch movies until the government formally shut down the power grid, as planned and mentioned in the bulletins they were sending us. Everything was going "as planned" for us until about 8:30pm. The sliding glass doors were shaking violently, and then all of a sudden a large portion of a palm tree snapped off and hit our window. It didn't shatter, fortunately, but the scare was enough for us to put all of our things in the bathroom, grab our passports and wallets, and make a beeline for the hotel ballroom. At that point in our room, there was water already starting to gurgle get sucked out of the toilet, and the shower was making a howling noise. It also took 3 of us to pull the hotel door open because of the low pressure suction. (The hotel hallways were partially outside and exposed to the elements.)

By the time we (safely... thankfully) made it to the hotel ballroom, the hotel staff were already running rescue operations to retrieve people from their rooms. They were taking attendance on the hotel room roster, and rescuing accordingly. There was an elderly couple being carried in with blood all over them from being cut by glass, and some other injuries. (None of them major, thanks to the incredible care and rescue effort of the hotel staff.)

The pictures on link below will tell the story of the destruction, but the main reason I felt that this was an important story to share is because Odile was a storm that took everyone by surprise... We were incredibly lucky to be in the care of the hotel workers who slaved away all night to keep us safe, but a lot of people were not so lucky and the widespread destruction over the Baja Peninsula was immense. So for anyone else who doubts the power of Mother Nature and doesn't take weather warnings seriously, just take some advice from anyone who experienced Odile. Weather forecasts can change in a heartbeat, so always err on the side of caution.

We were stranded in Cabo for an extra week because the airport was completely destroyed, there was no phone service, internet, or any other form of communication. Our friends and family feared the worst after they didn't hear from us for several days. Food and water had to be rationed. The Mexican military had to perform food drops for the local residents because all of the roads were washed out.

I could write a book about all of the experiences of that week, but I will let my photos do the talking. Needless to say, I made some lifelong friends during that week, and saw things that I couldn't imagine even in my wildest dreams. Mother Nature is beautiful and amazing, but give her respect before it's too late and she demands it from you. You can see my hurricane photos online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NOAA does not validate these stories. They are reprinted with permission from the sender. In November of 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit our forested property near the Delaware River in New York. We had thought that since we lived a couple of hours inland and over 1000 feet higher than sea level, we were fairly safe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hurricanes only form over really warm ocean water of 80°F or warmer. The atmosphere (the air) must cool off very quickly the higher you go. Also, the wind must be blowing in the same direction and at the same speed to force air upward from the ocean surface. Winds flow outward above the storm allowing the air below to rise. Hurricanes typically form between 5 to 15 degrees latitude north and south of the equator. The To learn more about hurricanes, Prepare a disaster supplies kit for your home and car. Include a first aid kit, canned food and a can opener, bottled water, battery-operated radio, flashlight, protective clothing and written instructions on how to turn off electricity, gas, and water. Have a NOAA weather radio handy with plenty of batteries, so you can listen to storm advisories. Have some cash handy as well, because following a hurricane, banks and ATMs may be temporarily closed. Make sure your car is filled with gasoline. Hurricanes

What is a hurricane?
A hurricane is a huge storm! It can be up to 600 miles across and have strong winds spiraling inward and upward at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. Each hurricane usually lasts for over a week, moving 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean. Hurricanes gather heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters. Evaporation from the seawater increases their power. Hurricanes rotate in a counter-clockwise direction around an "eye" in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. The center of the storm or "eye" is the calmest part. It has only light winds and fair weather. When they come onto land, the heavy rain, strong winds and large waves can damage buildings, trees and cars.

>Click Here to get your very own Hurricane Tracking Chart.

How do hurricanes form?
Coriolis Force is needed to create the spin in the hurricane and it becomes too weak near the equator, so hurricanes can never form there.

What is storm surge?
Storm surges are frequently the most devastating element of a hurricane. As a hurricane's winds spiral around and around the storm, they push water into a mound at the storm's center. This mound of water becomes dangerous when the storm reaches land because it causes flooding along the coast. The water piles up, unable to escape anywhere but on land as the storm carries it landward. A hurricane will cause more storm surge in areas where the ocean floor slopes gradually. This causes major flooding.
As you watch the storm-surge animations, notice the effect that the physical geography of each coastline has on storm surge. Also, note the waves on top of the ocean's surface. Wind, waves, and sea-level rise all contribute to storm-surge damage.

Shallow-Water Coastline

Deep-Water Coastline

With technology the way it is, there are computer models that allow forecasters to predict the amount of storm surge that will affect a coastal area. These are called Slosh Models and take into account a storm's strength, its path, how the ocean shallows, and the shape of the land. Then it calculates how much storm surge a hurricane will probably cause.

The Atlantic hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30, but most hurricanes occur during the fall months. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season is from May 15 to November 30. (Below is a graphic that shows you when hurricanes are most active across parts of the world.)
When does hurricane season start?

Who names hurricanes?
From 1950 to 1952, tropical cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean were identified by the phonetic alphabet (Able-Baker-Charlie-etc.), but in 1953 the US Weather Bureau switched to women's names. The rest of the world eventually caught on, and naming rights now go by the World Meteorological Organization, which uses different sets of names depending on the part of the world the storm is in. Around the U.S., only women's names were used until 1979, when it was decided that they should alternate a list that included men's names too. There's 6 different name lists that alternate each year. If a hurricane does significant damage, its name is retired and replaced with another.
Atlantic Hurricane Names
Eastern Pacific Hurricane Names
Nothing except geography. Tropical storms occur in several of the world's oceans, and except for their names, they are essentially the same type of storm. In the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Eastern Pacific Ocean, they are called hurricanes. In the Western Pacific Ocean, they are called typhoons. In the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and Australia, these types of storms are called cyclones.
What is the difference between a hurricane and a typhoon?
(This is a satellite animation of Hurricane Georges, which struck the Mississippi Gulf coast in 1998.)

The brave "hurricane hunters" work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Each mission lasts about ten hours, with the crews passing four to six times through the storm. The planes carry radar, sophisticated computers, and weather instruments that determine characteristics such as temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and wind direction inside the hurricane. The crews also release instruments that measure temperature, air pressure, and wind at different levels as the devices drop through the hurricane toward the ocean. By mission's end, NOAA can warn everyone in the hurricane's path. (Below is a satellite image of Hurricane Mitch back in October 1998. The Hurricane Hunters flew into the eye of Mitch just as this Category 5 hurricane with winds of 155 mph smacked right into Central America.)

Who are the "Hurricane Hunters"?
Coastal beach erosion is the wearing away of land, the removal of beach or dune sediments by wave action, tidal currents, wave currents, or drainage. Waves are generated by storms, wind, or hurricanes and can cause coastal erosion. This may take the form of long-term losses of sediment and rocks, or merely the temporary redistribution of coastal sediments.

What is coastal beach erosion?

Hurricanes...Past and Present
Tropical Tracks: Click to see the tracks of this year's storms.

Know the Lingo Past Hurricane Info: Click to find all the data and information about a specific hurricane by just knowing the year.
HURRICANE WATCH - Hurricane conditions with sustained winds of 74 mph or greater are possible in your area within the next 36 hours. This WATCH should trigger your family's disaster plan, and protective measures should be initiated. Especially, those actions that require extra time such as securing a boat and leaving a barrier island.
TROPICAL STORM WATCH - Tropical Storm conditions with sustained winds from 39 -74 mph are possible in your area within the next 36 hours.
HURRICANE WARNING - Hurricane conditions are expected in your area within 24 hours. Once this WARNING has been issued, your family should be in the process of completing protective actions and deciding the safest location to be during the storm.

COASTAL FLOOD WATCH - The possibility exists for the inundation of land areas along the coast within the next 12 to 36 hours.

COASTAL FLOOD WARNING - Land areas along the coast are expected to become, or have become, inundated by sea water above the typical tide action.

SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY - A small craft advisory is a type of warning issued by the National Weather Service, most frequently in coastal areas. It is issued when winds have reached, or are expected to reach within 12 hours, a speed marginally less than that which is considered gale force, usually 25-38 mph.

Click Here to see if there are any active warnings in your area.
Hurricane Stages
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

Category

Winds (MPH)

Pressure (Millibars)

Pressure (Inches)

Storm Surge
(Feet)

Damage

3

111-130

964-945

28.47-27.91

9'-12'

Extensive

Click Here to watch a variety of videos teaching you the ins and outs of nature's fury. I would like to give a special thanks to Pinellas County Emergency management for putting these instructional videos together.
Hurricane Safety Tips

BEFORE A HURRICANE: Have a disaster plan and a pet plan ready. Before a storm threatens, contact your veterinarian or local humane society for information on preparing your pets for an emergency. Board up windows and b ring in outdoor objects that could blow away. Make sure you know which county or parish you live in and k now where all the evacuation routes are.

Stay away from low-lying and flood prone areas. Always stay indoors during a hurricane, because strong winds will blow things around. Leave mobile homes and to go to a shelter. DURING A HURRICANE: If your home isn't on higher ground, go to a shelter. If emergency managers say to evacuate, then do so immediately.
AFTER A HURRICANE: Stay indoors until it is safe to come out. Check for injured or trapped people, without putting yourself in danger. Watch out for flooding which can happen after a hurricane. Do not attempt to drive in flooding water. Stay away from standing water. It may be electrically charged from underground or downed power lines. Don't drink tap water until officials say its safe to do so.

Evacuation Tips: Here is a list of tips on what you should do, if you chose to evacuate as a hurricane approaches.
Hurricane Activities
Hurricane Supply Checklist: Here is a list of what what you will need if you chose to stay at your home during a hurricane.
Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about hurricane safety. In this activity, Owlie teaches kids about hurricanes and quizzes them about what they learned. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on understanding hurricanes. Students will learn how wind speed increases the height and why higher waves occur in shallower water. This activity is for grades 6-8.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great interactive lesson plan on allowing kids to create their very own hurricane. It lets you try to create ideal hurricane conditions by changing the winds, latitude, moisture, and sea temperature. It even keeps score! This is a great activity for 5-8th graders.Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on elementary reading comprehension. This lesson contains a broader vocabulary, more hurricane facts, and more thought-provoking writing prompts. It works well for grades 3-5. Note: This is a PDF file, so you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Lesson Plan: Here is a great interactive lesson plan that lets kids aim a hurricane. It lets you move the hurricane symbol, high pressure symbol and low pressure symbol to track your very own hurricane. Sometimes your hurricane will make landfall, other times it misses the U.S. all together. It lets kid understand how important the setup of weather impacts where hurricanes go.

Pressure Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows how pressure is created in our atmosphere by sucking an egg in a bottle. This is a very cool experiment!
Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.
Make A Barometer Experiment: Here is an experiment that allows the kids to make a barometer.

Evaporation Experiment: Here is an experiment that shows kids how evaporation takes place.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Science >> Earth Science for Kids

Weather - Hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones)

What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a large rotating storm with high speed winds that forms over warm waters in tropical areas. Hurricanes have sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour and an area of low air pressure in the center called the eye.

Different Names for Hurricanes

The scientific name for a hurricane is a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones go by different names in different places. In North America and the Caribbean they are called "hurricanes", in the Indian Ocean they are called "cyclones", and in Southeast Asia they are called "typhoons."

How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes form over the warm ocean water of the tropics. When warm moist air over the water rises, it is replaced by cooler air. The cooler air will then warm and start to rise. This cycle causes huge storm clouds to form. These storm clouds will begin to rotate with the spin of the Earth forming an organized system. If there is enough warm water, the cycle will continue and the storm clouds and wind speeds will grow causing a hurricane to form.

Parts of a Hurricane

Eye - At the center of the hurricane is the eye. The eye is an area of very low air pressure. There are generally no clouds in the eye and the wind is calm. Don't let this fool you, however, the most dangerous part of the storm is at the edge of the eye called the eye wall.

Eye wall - Around the outside of the eye is a wall made up of very heavy clouds. This is the most dangerous part of the hurricane and where the highest speed winds are. The winds at the eye wall can reach speeds of 155 miles per hour.

Rainbands - Hurricanes have large spirally bands of rain called rainbands. These bands can drop huge amounts of rainfall causing flooding when the hurricane hits land.

Diameter - Hurricanes can become huge storms. The diameter of the hurricane is measured from one side to the other. Hurricanes can span a diameter of over 600 miles.

Height - The storm clouds that power hurricanes can become very tall. A powerful hurricane can reach nine miles into the atmosphere.

The structure of a hurricane

Where do tropical cyclones occur?

Tropical cyclones occur over the ocean in areas near the equator. This is because there is plenty of warm water in these areas to allow the storms to form. There are seven major areas in the world that tend to produce tropical cyclones. See the map below.

Locations of tropical cyclones throughout the world

When do hurricanes occur?

Hurricanes that form in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean occur between June 1st and November 30th each year. This is called hurricane season.

Why are hurricanes dangerous?

When hurricanes strike land they can cause huge amounts of damage. Most of the damage is caused by flooding and storm surge. Storm surge is when the ocean level rises at the coastline due to the power of the storm. Hurricanes also cause damage with high speed winds that can blow downtrees and damage homes. Many hurricanes can develop several small tornados as well.

How are they named?

Hurricanes in the Atlantic are named based on a list of names maintained by the World Meteorological Organization. The names go in alphabetical order and the storms are named as they appear. So the first storm of the year will always have a name that starts with the letter "A." There are six lists of names and each year a new list is used.

Categories

Tropical cyclones are categorized according to the speed of sustained winds.

Tropical Depression - 38 mph or less

Tropical Storm - 39 to 73 mph

Hurricane

Category 1 - 74 to 95 mph

Category 2 - 96 to 110 mph

Category 3 - 111 to 129 mph

Category 4 - 130 to 156 mph

Category 5 - 157 or higher mph

Interesting Facts about Hurricanes

Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This is due to the rotation of the Earth called the Coriolis effect.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used for the first letter when naming hurricanes.

The names are alternated between boy and girl names.

Weather forecasters draw a cone showing where they think the hurricane is most likely to travel.

You can always find out the latest information on hurricanes at the website of the National Hurricane Center which tracks and forecasts hurricanes.

Activities

Take a ten question quiz about this page.

Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Earth Science Subjects

Science >> Earth Science for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones) including how they form, names, eye, eye wall, rainbands, locations, seasons, facts, and categories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is an earthquake?
Earthquakes are the shaking, rolling or sudden shock of the earth's surface. They are the Earth's natural means of releasing stress. More than a million earthquakes rattle the world each year. The West Coast is most at risk of having an earthquake, but earthquakes can happen in the Midwest and along the East Coast. Earthquakes can be felt over large areas although they usually last less than one minute. Earthquakes cannot be predicted - although scientists are working on it!

Click Here to learn more about earthquakes from USGS.

What causes an earthquake?
There are about 20 plates along the surface of the earth that move continuously and slowly past each other. When the plates squeeze or stretch, huge rocks form at their edges and the rocks shift with great force, causing an earthquake. Think of it this way: Imagine holding a pencil horizontally. If you were to apply a force to both ends of the pencil by pushing down on them, you would see the pencil bend. After enough force was applied, the pencil would break in the middle, releasing the stress you have put on it. The Earth's crust acts in the same way. As the plates move they put forces on themselves and each other. When the force is large enough, the crust is forced to break. When the break occurs, the stress is released as energy which moves through the Earth in the form of waves, which we feel and call an earthquake. (Graphic Credit: Wheeling Jesuit University/NASA Classroom of the Future)

Click Here to see an animation of an earthquake. It's great for kids, because they get to see how it actually happens!

What is a fault?
A fault is an area of stress in the earth where broken rocks slide past each other, causing a crack in the Earth's surface. There are the major types of faults: dip-slip normal, dip-slip reverse, strike-slip, and oblique-slip.

What are plate tectonics?
The theory of plate tectonics is a interesting story of continents drifting from place to place breaking apart, colliding, and grinding against each other. The plate tectonic theory is supported by a wide range of evidence that considers the earth's crust and upper mantle to be composed of several large, thin, relatively rigid plates that move relative to one another. (See plate tectonic graphic above.) The plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds. Sometimes the plates crash together, pull apart or sideswipe each other. When this happens, it commonly results in earthquakes.

Continental Drift: To see this animation again, just refresh this page! This animation shows you what our planet looked like millions of years ago and what it looks like now! (Graphic Credit: Geology Department at University of California, Berkeley)

What is a seismograph?
A seismograph is an instrument used for recording the intensity and duration of an earthquake.

Click Here to calculate the strength of earthquakes!

What is a tsunami? A tsunami is a large ocean wave usually caused by an underwater earthquake or a volcanic explosion. Tsunamis are NOT tidal waves. Tidal waves are caused by the forces of the moon, sun, and planets upon the tides, as well as the wind as it moves over the water. With typical waves, water flows in circles, but with a tsunami, water flows straight. This is why tsunamis cause so much damage!

Know the Lingo

EPICENTER - The point on the earth's surface directly above the source of the earthquake.

SEISMIC WAVES - The energy created by the quake travels in waves from the epicenter, where they are the strongest. The waves shake buildings, structures and the earth vertically, causing them to move horizontally!

RICHTER SCALE - A measurement of an earthquake's intensity. Each one-point increase on the scale indicates ten times the amount of shaking and 33 times the amount of energy. The energy released by a large earthquake may be equal to 10,000 times the energy of the first atomic bomb.

4

Minor Earthquake

5

Moderate Earthquake

6

Strong Earthquake

7

Major Earthquake

8

Great Earthquake

Richter Scale

Earthquake Safety Tips
BEFORE AN EARTHQUAKE: Have a disaster plan. Emergency preparedness can save lives. Choose a safe place in every room. It's best to get under a sturdy piece of furniture like a table or a desk where nothing can fall on you. Practice DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON! Drop under something sturdy, hold on, and protect your eyes by pressing your face against your arm. If you live in an earthquake prone area, bolt tall furniture to the wall and install strong latches to cupboards. Prepare a first aid kit for your home. By taking special precautions and checking for hazards before a disaster strikes, you will be much more likely to stay safe. DURING AN EARTHQUAKE: DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON! Stay indoors until the shaking stops. Stay away from windows. If you're in bed, hold on and stay there, protecting your head with a pillow. If you're outdoors, find a clear spot away from buildings, trees and power lines. Then, drop to the ground. If you're in a car, slow down and drive to a safe place. Stay in the car until the shaking stops.

AFTER THE SHAKING STOPS: Check for injuries. Inspect your home for damage. Eliminate fire hazards, so turn off the gas if you think its leaking. Expect aftershocks. Each time you feel one, DROP, COVER AND HOLD ON.
Earthquake Activities
Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan on learning about how thrust faults are responsible for the uplift of many mountain ranges across the world, including the Los Angeles Basin. This is a great lesson plan for middle and high school students.

Lesson Plan: Here is a great lesson plan keeping track of earthquakes around the world. In this activity, kids keep a record of the location of earthquakes for a week and learn about plate tectonics.

Earthquake Experiment: Here is a great experiment that explains how to prepare for an earthquake.Science Fair Ideas: Here is a list of science fair project ideas that deal with earthquakes.

Science Fair Project Ideas: Here is a complete list of science fair project ideas. Discover the science behind the weather that impacts us every day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Weather Wiz Kids weather information for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Weather Wiz Kids is a fun and safe website for kids about all the weather info they need to know. It contains tools for weather education, including weather games, activities, experiments, photos, a glossary and educational teaching materials for the classroom.