Natural disasters, especially for us RVers, can be incredibly terrifying. Especially ones that happen with no warning!
Between the options in the poll below: earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, which two do you fear the most? (Yep, select two answers before voting in this poll).
After you vote, please leave a comment and tell us why those two are the scariest for you. Is it because you’ve lived through them or know someone who has? If so, tell us about that experience, if you’re okay doing so.
– Fire: it’s all-encompassing, can travel fast, and is a danger here in any dry season
– Tornado Season is active here and has been in several places we’ve lived. Tornados have passed close to us – less than a mile – and Don an incredible amount of damage. M
– For Floods and Hurricanes, we don’t live near rivers, lakes, streams or oceans
– For Earthquakes, I believe the nearest fault line is several hundred miles away. Our dogs and cats felt/sensed the last one, and the dogs patrolled and smelled all over the yard a few hours later. Nothing was disturbed but the animals and me.
Live in SoCal!!
Hurricanes and fires generally have a heads up and flooding usually does also. We don’t live in a high risk of fire or earthquake area but tornadoes are a real risk. You really don’t get much warning and, in a RV, your options are limited. I have experienced a tornado more than once so I am very alert when conditions are prime for one. Preparing is the key to any of these threats. “As a friend puts it, A RV has wheels. Use them!”
Perhaps fear is the incorrect word? I fear the colossal volcanoes such as that underlying Yellowstone; but, tornadoes concern me a great deal.
Been through tornados and an awful experience and no real warning. Was in fire country one summer. Was on look out all sprung and summer.
We are full timers and have dodged fires out west for the past 3 years. They start and spread so fast. We’ve had fire fighters knock on our door to leave immediately!
We’re also leery about camping near rivers. We stayed at one in TN that the lower section had been wiped out in the spring. Our reservation was for the fall and they had reopened, but our site was right next to the river and you could still see remnants of houses & RVs in the river, very unsettling. Not staying there again.
Had our brick house destroyed by a tornado with my family in the bathroom.
Answered based on traveling in motorhome. Definitely tornados.Have had a number of too close for comfort incidents.Fire next as it can be unpredictable as tornados. Live in California, so experienced with earthquakes. The Loma Prieta in 1989 was the biggest one I’ve experienced. Driving at the time. Beautiful day, no wind, windows down, listening to the start of the Giants/A’s World Series. Huge gust of wind, trees swaying, thought I had 4 flat tires. Radio went out. Only a few miles from home. Didn’t know for sure until I got there and neighbors were out. A small TV on my night stand was on floor. That was it in a 2 story home 3000 sq ft home. Husband’s home (hadn’t met yet), a 100 yr old Victorian. Lost his brick chimney. That was is it for him. 7 miles away the town of Los Gatos had major damage. Only time I worry is when I start to feel some rolling/shaking/movement. You hold your breathe and wait for it to stop…usually less than 10 seconds. Seems like an eternity.
3 years ago on July the 4th, we had a 6.4 earthquake. No damage and thought glad that’s over. The very next day, we had a 7.1 quake that dd indeed do some minor damage. From those two very large quakes that we only experience very minor damage, I have lost a lot of my fear of them that I’ve harbored most of my life. Since we don’t get tornadoes or hurricanes, that only leaves fire to worry about.
With home at 175 ft above sea level, I don’t think floods are much of a problem. If we flood due to rising water, the entire State of Florida is gone.
Watch hurricanes, with RV packed and ready to run. At least, hurricanes give you a good deal of warning.
Tornados on the other hand, very little warning or path direction. Cannot outrun them.
Having lost tour home to fire due to aluminum wire at the panel – it is a constant fear. However, tornado’s and blizzards along with floods are also an annual seasonal threat and fear. Blizzards/ice storms and the follow-on -30 to -35f temps. mostly due to possible loss of electrical power for up to a few weeks. The only good news is we do get relatively good advance warning time to get prepared and be vigilant.
I chose Tornado and Flood.
Tornados often strike in the middle of the night without much warning and in an RV we would be highly susceptible to injury.
For floods, I’m not talking about slowly rising waters like we tend to see on major rivers. I’m talking about flash flooding that can hit even many many miles from the storm or event that caused it.
Basically time to react and propensity for serious injury is what drove my answer.
Agree. We had to leave a campsite on a little river when a hurricane dumped huge amounts of water in the mountains. Flash floods and tornadoes always seem to come in the dark.
Grew up in Oklahoma, so tornadoes don’t worry me; they rarely occur here in the Puget Sound. That said, we have to worry about wildfires, quakes and the three volcanoes within 120 miles of my home – the closest only 45 miles. I picked fires, because that has the highest chance of impacting me, but the sad fact that many wildfires are caused by humans and are exacerbated by human activity (invasive species, warming climate, poor land use practices, pollutants) makes me more angry than afraid.
Having lived in Florida for 52 years I have never understood people’s fear of hurricanes. You get at least 7 days notice to prepare and if you are ground zero,24 hrs to evacuate. Tornados and fire have no warning. Yes hurricanes can spawn tornadoes, but that is what my insurance is for.
So you would be happy losing it all-maybe every other year and count on ins to make you whole?
Wow that was uncalled for.
I agree! Not what Darla said at all.
Having lived in Hurricane prone areas most of my life, I do not know anyone who has lost a home every other year. Yes, we lost a home DUE to human error, (I call blowing up an earthenware dam to save your own farming fields from flooding and everyone else be tdb.)
I also think ins should only provide one replacement, every one after that is on you.
Earthquake and Fire, the other three are something you can track with a good weather app
I chose fire and tornado because they are the most likely ones in my situation, but I don’t fear them. They just require quick direct action not panic. We did have a brief small fire in our previous home but had it out by the time the firemen arrived. Been in the basement multiple times but never had tornado damage. Life is too short to be afraid of things you can’t control but have a plan to react to those you can.
Floods kill so many people. The worst hurricanes are the ones that drop the most water on one area. Loss of power, mold and mildew, water can create a real mess. While I fear earthquakes and tornados they are sooo rare where I live.
Tornadoes are the worst, they can appear so quickly and are very unpredictable. Dangerous weather warnings are much better today than 30 years ago but if you’re on the road traveling your warning is when you see the sky turning different shades of colors. By that time it may be to late to find shelter. With the exception of earthquakes everything else gives plenty of warning.
Since I live in the Northwest where we don’t have hurricanes or tornados, I fear fires and earthquakes the most.
Blizzard.
I would have picked this if available.
Tornados and Earthquakes. All the other natural disasters usually have enough time warning you can prepare. and if you choose NOT to prepare or evacuate, you made a choice. Better safe than stupid, i always say! now I went with the notion that fires are like a forest fire, and not a fire in my RV. that would be a different category.
Exactly what I was going to say. I’ve been within a 1/4 mile of a 7.2 earthquake and they are unbelievably frightening …. plus the aftershocks go on for months.
Wildfires driven by extremely high winds are our primary concern in Colorado. Proven by last December’s Marshall Fire (119 mph winds recorded in Boulder) that took out 1,000 homes in Boulder County.
So high winds and blizzards should have been included in the poll.
Tornadoes because of the very limited warning times and fire just because I e always been afraid of fire. We live in FL so hurricanes are a way of life and there is plenty of time to prepare and if needed evacuate
Having seen first hand the devastating effects of tornados that is number 1. Floods are likewise destructive and sudden.
Here in central New Mexico (south of Albuquerque), our main concern are fires and high winds. However, after that, it depends on where we are travelling
A tornado is too capricious – you never know which direction it will go so there’s little you can do unless there’s a storm shelter around. Fire is just plain scary, especially if you’re in an RV, because it just consumes everything and moves on.