I'm 41 years old and I have never experienced a natural disaster.
Most of my life has been in California but I haven't been in a large earthquake.
My life is far from perfect, but I have been lucky in this department.
How about you?
never had a disaster, power outage, survival situation, never have I experienced crime (onto me/family), or any other negative experience at all. Guess that is not the norm these days?!
About a decade ago the maintenance workers had to shut off the main water supply for 30 minutes, that was the worst I have seen so far. The worst things I see are large potholes that nobody bothers to fix.
We roughly get 20 or more typhoons a year, some earthquake every now and then. Worst power outage was 3 days after a powerful storm with trees literally uprooted and fell down on the streets and power lines.
Rode out Irene and sandy here in ct. lost power for 8 days during Irene. Minimal damage during both storms to our home - we were lucky.
I’ve seen a few real snowstorms, the kind where all movement requires a tracked vehicle. Navigating in heavy snowfall is hard and dangerous though, so you just stay inside until the storm calms down (houses in Sweden are built for it).
Never seen natural disaster though.
The worst I’ve seen first hand is probably civil war in Angola in the late 80:ies. The scary part is how fast you get used to seeing dead people around you…
When I was 15 (in 1995) our family got evacuated because of the high water and the risk of the levees breaking (I live in The Netherlands). In total 250.000 people got evacuated, but the dykes did hold. When the levees did break, the water would be 5 meters high at my parents house…
We stayed over at a friends house for a week, which I really enjoyed (I wasn’t that worried). Kind of felt like a short holiday, although I remember that my parents and grandmother we’re really worried about their properties.
In the end, I didn’t experience a natural disaster, but this is the closest I got.
Went through a hurricane in Panama City Beach, Florida. Not as bad as the one in Texas now but the only people staying at out motel were me and my friend, two TV newsmen with a satellite van, and one employee of the motel. Flooding in my Goergia hometown also from a hurricane, lots of very nice homes on the river were completely washed away. River was something like 30 feet above flood stage, Interstate 75 was closed with lots of road underwater.
I’ve had a couple of scary experiences with near misses by flooding and experienced one really small earthquake. The flooding was expected and didn’t get into the house, just kept us from leaving the area for a couple of days. None involved power loss or flashlight use. 
Nothing big and nothing widespread, but others were killed or injured in some of what I’ve experienced.
I’ve been very near two tornadoes. One skipped over our house, no damage but neighboring houses lost some shingles. I was in a van stuck on the road with nowhere to go in the other one, just barely in the debris cloud with zero visibility from the intense rain. Again no damage. My worst was the ice storm when I lived up in the hills. Trees were breaking constantly for days, sounding like gunshots on a battlefield, and with the ground and everything else coated with ice there was no possibility of going anywhere except very cautiously on foot. No power for days, but again no damages as it was well predicted in advance and we were ready. I’ve see near-blizzard snowstorms, severe thunderstorms with outflow winds of amazing strength, and 2” (50mm) hailstones, several very close lightning strikes, summer hailstorms which totally covered the ground like a winter snow, wildfires 300m away burning up the mountain which I lived at the base of, and raging rivers about to leave the banks.
Being ready helps considerably but that can’t always happen. Not a nice feeling when you realize that you’re in the mess and there’s no way to escape it. It’s a different kind of fear you feel then as you realize just how puny and helpless us humans really are compared to nature.
Phil
Yes, hurricane Andrew.
Hurricanes were normal around here growing up—Rode out dozens some bad - some were nothing—I fortunately was talked into evacuating for Katrina—- stayed in Baton Rouge at my girlfriends house (wife now) for a month —power outage and mayhem lasted much longer
We live outside Baton Rouge in my wife’s house and my house is our camp now—Last year with all the River flooding we were very lucky neither house got water—Our house in BR is 3/8 mile from the Amite River—one of the biggest contributors of the flooding—Our neighborhood was like a tiny island among all that water—2 streets over people had 24” in their houses—- Lots of friends and relatives weren’t so lucky
When I was a younger I lived a pretty wild life—my mom use to say —he has a good guardian angel—I think I have two
To all the people in Texas—-We here in Louisiana feel your pain—Our hearts go out to you
Let’s hear it for the Cajun Navy—These every day guys during last years flooding through social media got together and evacuated Thousands of people-seeing what was unfolding in Houston - they rushed there and are hard at it again Saving Lives
Hurricane Agnes 1972, could not live in our house for 7 months.
Stayed in our Church for a week, then into an apartment complex in the next town while repairs were made.
Flooded again in 1976 with just enough on first floor to make life miserable, stayed with relatives for 1 month.
Moved from that house the following year.
At least we had a home to repair unlike the folks in Texas who have lost everything.
Wouldn’t wish flooding on anyone, just the smell of Flood Mud brings me back to that time in an instant.
Best Wishes to all.
Thanks,
Keith
I have gone through Several hurricanes, several floods, have been rescued in boat from a flood and have stayed with friends as a flood refugee.
I live in Katy and feel very fortunate that it has not been the case this time around and feel bad for all the people that are being put through this disaster.
My ex girlfriend
LMFAO!!! Good one! :laughing: 
Been through a blizzard or two in NY, nothing crazy. Been there for Hurricane Sandy but it wasnt terrible where I was, couple of downed trees on cars and that’s it. I was an electrician at the time and spent months afterwards on Long Island, we had a job there inside a massive chocolate factory, Hershey’s, Dove stuff like that. Entire facility got wrecked, imagine working in ankle deep moldy chocolate for weeks trying to replace and restore power. Smelled so bad. . .
If it counts… a couple of F3 and an F4 tornado. Helped with the cleanup each time within 5 miles of home. A couple of severe blizzards in the 70’s that dropped power for days and the only way we could go anywhere was by snowmobile for almost 1.5 weeks. We do not get the hurricanes in Illinois, very thankful!
I got married 3 times, disaster, natural or otherwise.
Edit: yeah, lots of smallish tornadoes that wrecked things, both here and at neighbors. An F5 that hit Jarrel TX, watched that one form and go colossal (it eradicated a small community, even removed the asphalt from the sreet, as a builder I was shocked to see bare slabs with not so much as anchor bolts sticking out of the concrete… over 40 concrete slabs without a trace of the house that sat on em. Wall clouds with their wind damage, a couple of Hurricanes coming into Mississippi while I was running out…
Mostly storm type, with wind damage and trees to cut up and clear roads. Haven’t been in an Earthquake (and DO Not wish to be!) and haven’t seen a Volcano in action. Seen a couple of blizzards, in Virginia and one here at home (big surprise, that!) Used to ride my motorcycle to work regardless, would take the battery inside if temps were going to be below 20ºF, have ridden it at 12º before, had to have a trouble light under the oil pan so the oil would be warm enough to allow the engine to turn over and start. Rode a bike home in snow, over an overpass, feet sticking out like outriggers and sweating that 30’ drop to the main road below…
Drove a forklift for a truss plant, left early with my feet frozen and had to clear ice off the winshield to leave, had to stop twice more on the 5 mile trip home to again clear ice off the windshield. Nasty day, that one! People were wrecking all over town, an inch or more of ice coating virtually everything.
This planet is indeed a violent place.
Living in a tropical country
All of us have, and will, experience disaster, from just heavy rain to flood, storm
Been through a bunch of hurricanes in my life but nothing as bad as Sandy. We lost power for 2 weeks and back side of my next door neighbor’s roof blew off. Luckily, my house wasn’t damaged in any way. I had a generator with only 15 gallons of fuel. I was able to get by using it sparingly just to keep my refrigerator cool enough so my food wouldn’t spoil.
BTW, My stove and hot water heater are natural gas fired and do not require electricity to work.