Week 10: Disasters. Did you experience any natural disasters in your lifetime? Tell us about them. If not, then discuss these events that happened to parents, grandparents or others in your family.
Avalanches, diseases, cyclones, earthquakes, famine, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, etc are what I think of when I see natural disaster. As far as I know no one in my family has been affected by any of those. If you count blizzards as a natural disaster then I remember the Blizzard of 1978.
I was a junior at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The snow started as I was walking home from class and people were getting their cars stuck. I had a short 5 minute walk to my apartment. It continued to snow throughout the night and by the time it was over Kalamazoo had about two feet of snow. Drifts reached the top of some buildings. The college closed which was a rare occurrence.
It was days before people could get out. The cars in my apartment complex were buried. I remember, eventually, getting to the grocery store. The shelves were pretty bare. I remember the bread aisle was decimated. Also, there wasn't any milk either.
Luckily, no one I knew died or was hurt from the blizzard. I haven't seen snow like that since. It was a storm to remember. (I can't believe I don't have any pictures from it.)
Recently, the local newspaper featured an article where they listed the 10 worst storms of the area. Having lived in the location only 25 or so years, we decided we had been here for 6 out the 10 storms, and that doesn't count last years back to back 20 and 22 inch storms. My oldest will never forget their 5th birthday. We had to cancel all birthday festivities due to 22 inches of snow.
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