Earthquake or Tornado?

[kick-ass-bob]

Which would you rather face?
(these are your only choices, as they are both "little warning" disasters)

[bertha katzenengel]

1. Earthquake. Any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Morning, noon, midnight. Whatever the weather. Give me an earthquake any day. Been through both -- dear GOD, gimme an earthquake!

Am I being clear? ;)

[WindRavenX]

2. earthquake

There's something that strikes some sort of primal terror in me when I think about facing a tornado...:scared:

[progmom]

3. "face"?

how strong an earthquake? does the tornado touch down near me?

[kick-ass-bob]

5. I was assuming an equal level of possible destruction

on both ends.

Obviously, I would rather see a china jingling earthquake than an F5 tornado.

Maybe I needed to specify.
:shrug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. As a long time California resident, I can say with a LOT of confidence...

I'll take an earthquake ANY TIME!

We build to the codes...we have spare food and weater around...and

WE DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT...THEY WILL HAPPEN WHEN THEY HAPPEN...

Life's too damn short to worry about things over which we have no control...

:kick:

[MuseRider]

6. Tornado

because I am very used to them. Earthquakes scare the crap outta me.

[Bluzmann57]

7. Never been through an earthquake

but have been through several tornadoes. I can face a tornado, I even saw one skip across the Mississippi River once, but an earthquake? Don't know about that. Sounds scary to me. All of a sudden, the ground shifts? No thank you.

[shanti]

12. ground shifts

it's not that simple. sometimes it's a rolling motion, sometimes a shaking motion, but it's usually not really abrupt where you would fall or anything. i've been through several and would take an earthquake over the destruction of a hurricane any day!

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. Tornados

are generally more selective and do not directly affect everyone in the area. Meanwhile, an earthquake affects everyone in the region. I'd prefer to avoid both but the odds are better with a tornado - it could actually take another path and miss me. Also, tornados are sensitive to geography. If tornados typically approach from the west then a house built on the east side at the base of a large hill will tend to be fairly safe from tornadoes. Here in JOklahoma there is also much Native American fokelore about rivers and bodies of water affecting the paths of tornadoes.

[Terran]

9. As a native Californian transplanted to the MW

I'll take tornadoes. You can run away from them. They don't usually cause freeway overpasses to fall down on top of people. They don't usually affect cities, period.

And I've been through several earthquakes. Sylmar 1971 and Loma Prieta 1989. I have the merit badges.

[Taverner]

10. But if the tornado wants to get you, it will

You can be driving, and you can never outrun one.

I'll take the happy death of not knowing the world is literally falling apart

[Coyote_Bandit]

11. You shouldn't be driving in a tornado

Come to JOklahoma and go to one of the wild weather shows that the tv stations do each spring to educate the public about storms. Learn how to identify a wall cloud and look for the telltale cloud lowering and rotation that precede tornados. Tornadoes don't just come out of nowhere without any indication of severe and possiby tornadic weather. If you understand mother nature and have a bit of advance warning you can almost always keep yourself safe in a tornado. Though, admittedly, you may have to find yourself a frady hole and hide until the storm passes.

[Terran]

13. Er, first of all...

Tornadoes don't "want" to get anyone, so that's not a problem. There aren't packs of feral tornadoes roaming the plains states and the Ozarks (where I live), hunting innocent humans for, um, food or whatever.

Second, as the other person said, only storm chasers and fools drive anywhere near a tornado. But in fact tornadoes don't move all that fast, and I think you probably could outrun one in a car, given the right head start.

My thing here is: 1) you can tell when a tornado is coming. Despite theories about earthquake weather, they are always a huge surprise. Tornado weather is obvious to anyone who knows what to look for. And 2) the area of effect is much smaller. Sure, they rip to pieces anything they touch, but a bad earthquake will do that over an area of a hundred square miles. A tornado will only affect a few thousand square meters.

[slackmaster]

14. Tornados always hit trailer parks

And I've been through several earthquakes. Sylmar 1971 and Loma Prieta 1989. I have the merit badges.

I felt the Sylmar quake in San Diego. You've been through a lot worse than I have.

[mvd]

15. Assuming equally strong

Probably an earthquake. Tornadoes freak me out.

[Sean Reynolds]

16. Tornado...but because of the warning.

Most tornados, albeit not all, at least give you time to get to safety. An earthquake can strike with little to no warning and leave you devastated.

The largest earthquakes kill more people than the largest tornados for a reason. People just aren't ready when an earthquake hits.

[bigwillq]

17. Earthquake (nt)