Discussion Natural Disasters: Do you have to deal with them?

[Gold Knight]

I'm sure most of you have heard about it by now, especially since most of us here are living out East, but Indonesia recently suffered a disaster: the loss of over 5,000 lives and 200,000 houses due to a massive earthquake on the island of Java yesterday. This is in addition to the Indonesians' recent battles with the bird flu crisis, Islamic militant terror attacks, and the ongoing threat of eruption from Mount Merapi ( Indonesia is the world's largest island chain AND has 76 volcanoes, the most in the world! ...the "Ring of Fire" certainly is an appropriate moniker for that area of the Pacific Basin... )

Also, this quake was the fourth destructive temblor to hit Indonesia in the last 17 months, including the one that gave birth to that horrible tsunami that killed 230,000 people across Asia two Decembers ago.

First of all, my deepest condolences to all Indonesians for this awful tragedy! I know we have a few Indonesians visiting the board, and I truly hope you guys are doing all right.

If you'd like to talk about any natural (or even otherwise) disasters that has befallen your country or home, this is the place to talk about it! Does your home experience earthquakes a lot, or do you live close to an active volcano? What about hurricanes and flash floods? Cold weather? Let us know here!

As for myself, I live in a relatively quiet valley by the Smoky Mountains in Eastern United States, the most we have to worry about here are thunderstorms and the occasional flood. I do consider myself lucky.

 

[NeoShweaty]

I live in new york and we never have to deal with any life threatening weather. Im going to college in LA which is basically the same. I count myself among the lucky ones, definitely

 

[rodnylee]

i live in Kansas City, Kansas, and we really don't get much in terms of hazardous weather. the worst we've ever gotten is perhaps freezing rain now and again. although my little neck of the woods hasn't suffered from damaging weather, i know that some of the more rural areas occasionally are hit by tornadoes, as Kansas is smack dab in the center of Tornado Alley. Overall, im pretty lucky.

 

[Megy]

I was just reading about those earthquakes, it's crazy. I live on the East coast of Florida right where 2 hurricanes hit within 2 weeks. The roof fell on the grill (so we had no food), we couldn't use the bathrooms, and the electric didn't come on for weeks. Then the next year, hurricanes wollop the Gulf Coast and tsunamis devastate the East. So I'm really not complaining.

 

[Ashen]

i'm in miami and hurricane season is coming, so yea, i hope for a good year

 

[Gold Knight]

Good luck to all you Floridians, being from there originally I do know how it goes. Seems like it's getting worse, though...

 

[CheckMate]

First of all, my deepest condolences to all Indonesians for this awful tragedy! I know we have a few Indonesians visiting the board, and I truly hope you guys are doing all right.

thanks GK, I appreciate that..

my families are all fine in indonesia, as they live far away from the quake-location

and i dont know what really is happening in Indonesia..
one after another problem appears in the surface, while the prev. ones haven't been solved yet.

hope everything is going ok from this point onwards

 

[Gold Knight]

That's good to hear, ykw

 

[Leen]

I do know a bit about Indonesia. In fact, if GK had not make this thread, I would have done so after that earthquake in Jawa.

In 1997, Asia was attacked by George Soros making the whole Asia's economy tumbled down just like that, causing a huge huge economy crisis to Asia region. Developed country like Japan could stand up pretty easily but Indonesia wasn't one of them. Besides, they had this useless President by the name of Suharto who was corrupted and dirty. He was a useless scum to eat up all those Indonesian money. Well, he did got caught and now, he spent his day in and out of court and hospital. His successor was not much better than he was. President Habibie did not improve a lot. He tried to ban Indonesians from studying abroad while he himself studied abroad. He was forced to resign pretty soon. He was later replaced by a not-so-active president, Abdulrahman Wahid. He couldn't even walk properly, leave alone taking care of the whole nation. No offense, Indonesian friends. Then, we had this iron lady of Indonesia stepping up as the first female president of Indonesia. Her name is President Megawati SUKARNOPUTRI. I'm emphasizing SUKARNO because she is the daughter of the first president of Indonesia. Well, I actually thought that she did quite well with Indonesia but because not much really improved, she later lose out to the current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. I am still wondering what this person will do to Indonesia. Already, he had to face Tsunami and earthquake. We are still unsure about Gunung Merapi. So many uncertainties. His service for this country will be judged by his transperancy and also his effort in helping these people in natural disasters.

A bit about Indonesia there. As for natural disasters, from my religious point of view, I will say that it has something to do with our own behaviour and actions. That's from my religious point of view. For example, if we know Pompeii, then we will know its story. It's a place in Italy and that whole town was sunk by volcano. After so many years, people dug out that ancient city. To their surprise, they found pictures still hanging on some places, undamaged. Guess what? It's a naked lady. Besides, there were a lot of others evidences showing that this city was a sinful city and that's the reason GOD punished them but destroying the whole place. However, from my scientific point of view, I do not think that natural disaster has anything to do with us. It's NATURAL disaster afterall. Indonesia is situated in the Ring of Fire. Besides, being a country of islands simply make the whole country exposed to all kinds of disasters. It has Pacific Island and Hindi Island that can cause mishap to it anytime without any warning. So, the blame cant be put onto our shoulder, can it?

My message to all Indonesian friends out there, be strong and have faith. My condolences to you all. Rupiah might be weak now but it is up to YOU all to change it. Study smart and be a great leader next time. Your previous few presidents might be shit(in my opinion), but you have a chance to clean up the image and tell the world that Indonesia is not just about terrorism, natural disaster and superb Badminton players. Show the world that you have more than that. Tell the world you have the highest builiding in the world. Show them one day that the next Bill Gates is an Indonesian. Make your country proud. Let these natural disaster not pull you down but make it a motivation for you to move forward. Try and see this from a positive point of view and the world will smile back to you. Full of hope.

OK, that's too much. *malu* I'll stop here then.

Eileen, upload that *malu* smiley sometimes if you ever find it. That way people will understand why you *malu* so much, eh? XD - GK

 

[white silver]

Wow, Eileen You sure can say a lot about Indonesia (despite claiming you know a little); how modest.

Anyways, I didn't realize Indonesia was such in a terrible state (ever since my Mom owned the T.V. I don't even know what the hell is happening in Hong Kong now. But, I feel sad to those Indonesian's out there condolences to all and those *gulp* that are victims in that terrible disaster. My manager happens to be Indonesian by the way, and I can't imagine how she's feeling.

Hmmm..... Interesting story about Pompeii, I never realized that! Thanks for the info Eileen

*By the way, are you Indonesian too?*

 

[Leen]

No, I'm not an Indonesian. I'm just someone with a wide range of interests, especially in historical facts and world news. XD

 

[EvilSniffles]

My natural Disaster is named Khal XD

 

[Akasun]

I live in Manitoba, Canada - Near Hudson's Bay. So the worst I get is cold weather. But it does get SUPER cold here, like -30 degrees celcius. (aka frostbite weather)

 

[white silver]

Ummm.. nice to meet you Akasun. So aside from frostbites do you experience like really dangerous weathers and all?

 

[LadyHatake]

I live in Virginia. We get the occaisonal tornado, and at least one hurricane a year. Isabel hit about 2 or 3 years ago, and we were out of school for nearly 3 weeks because of flood and wind damage.

Last year was fairly quiet, so I have no clue what to expect this year....

 

[littlekarl]

T_T yeah, it is so sad and we just had the second tsunami in south java! and the newest one is earthquakes in sulawesi island, bali island, and emm.. i forgot XD all in the same day July 23 if i am not wrong.

 

[segua]

I just have to say folks, get use to it because what we are experiencing now are incomparable to what will happen. Not implying that what is happening should be brushed off but how I see things, the weather is going to get much worse year after year.

I'm really worried about the food and water supply over the entire world. I keep hearing of famine, drought and early frost. I don't know if anyone heard but in some costal areas, the fishes are mysteriously disappearing. I'm pretty sure that there will be a world-wide famine within a few years if this keeps up.

Did anyone read how the Amazon rain forest has one more year to save it? The article, sorry if I don't have the source, says that due to the natural weather down there, the rivers have dried up though I'm sure it's not all the rivers. It goes further to say that if the Amazon rain forest dies or so, it could be a major impact on the quality of the air in the whole world.

 

[midnight789]

I live in Florida, so we got the Hurricane season going on, but apparently there was a 6.0 earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico today, off the coast of Ft. Meyers. It didn't do any damage that i've heard about, but the fact that it happened is kind of strange, we don't get too many earthquakes around here.....

 

[Gold Knight]

I live in Florida, so we got the Hurricane season going on, but apparently there was a 6.0 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico today, off the coast of Ft. Meyers. It didn't do any damage that i've heard about, but the fact that it happened is kind of strange, we don't get too many earthquakes around here.....

I have a friend in Ft. Myers who said it was nothing, just light rain. But could have been much worse.

 

[The Boff]

not much natural disasters where i live but last year we had a hurricane here.
that was pretty freaky. the first night wasnt so bad but the following two were a bit too much.
341 000 households were without power for a couple of days. my boss lost his for a week.
75 million kubicmeters of forest were decimated and thats as much wood used for export for 3 years.
the worst winds were measured up to 40 meters per second. (all info from my local newspapers homepage)

so that was a bit freaky. but thats a once in a lifetime thing.