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.
I wonder if the answers are heavily influenced by where people live. I live where tornadoes are common and didn’t chose that answer because I know what to do when there is a tornado warning. The damage can be extensive but rarely do we hear about lives lost because of tornadoes, at least not in my area.
Agreed. We live near Edmonton, Alberta, and have lived as far north as Yellowknife NWT. I don’t fear cold, blizzards, or even freezing rain (except pulling a TT in freezing rain), but earthquakes and hurricanes are foreign to me. So are cockroaches…
Tornado would be high on the list. Very short warning and unpredictable paths. Hurricanes have fairly predictable paths and plenty of warning. Fire just because.
Blizzards! Just ask those who live in Buffalo NY or northern Michigan like I do.
I live in the midwest, floods and tornados are what I know best. Although derechos (a type of straight-line wind) can be pretty terrifying, too.
Earth quakes are no worry to me as RVs are designed to shake and rattle as you go down the highway. My first earth quake I woke up at 4am the rig was shaking I listened for wind heard nothing so I went back to sleep
Have lived through earthquakes, blizzards, extremes of heat and cold, and 2 tornadoes. Nighttime tornado weather scares me most.
I picked tornadoes and floods. Where do you shelter your coach and yourself when in a small town whose sirens are blaring? Likewise with a flooded road. Disconnecting the toad and backing up for a mile isn’t fun and that’s assuming the road didn’t flood behind you.
Earthquakes don’t usually destroy RV’s and the rest of the disasters typically have ample warnings in advance of them.
Fire (not wildfire) would be a close third as its warnings might not be obvious.
Tornados and been through the unannounced in the middle of the night. Fire was the second scared to death of fire. Trying to flee and everyone else is doing the same and really getting no where. I been through the big earthquake in Australia in 91 and a hurricane in Hawaii. Floods in both NM, AZ and NH. And snow ice and freezing temps in the east coast. Make the two mentioned in the beginning go away I’d be a happy camper.
Great survey. It got me to thinking about how blessed I am regarding the likelihood of each of those calamities. I wish the survey would have also included volcanoes, given the ongoing events at Yellowstone. I’m just curious to see how many people contemplate the possible ramifications of that calamity at their home when/if it happens.
Not sure what you are talking about. I see the weekly updates about volcanoes. There is nothing going on at Yellowstone. Most likely the next eruption will about 10000 years from now and most likely will be a small effusive eruption. Alaskan volcanoes is another story
You didn’t list exploding mountains for those of us who live in the NW😁
Every year we hear about terrible hurricanes, I’ve been in 3 hurricanes, had a weeks notice to get out of Dodge but couldn’t in 2 of them because I was in the Marines, the 3rd one was my choice. But tornadoes, all you can do is pray, you can’t tell which way it will go as it’s subject to change direction without any notice. Never been in an earthquake, never plan on being somewhere an earthquake is. Not going to get stupid enough to build a house on an ocean beach, a forest, or on a fault line.
I lived in South Florida and experienced 4 major hurricanes in a 14 month time period. Shortly after I moved back home to Texas. I still have PTSD just watching coverage of a hurricane on TV. But now that I know when NOT to be in a hurricane-prone area, I don’t have as much fear about them as before. But, I do live in an area that gets tornadoes, and I did almost lose my sticks-and-bricks home to a brush fire once. So, those are the two that still keep me on my toes.
I said fire only because it can ruin your entire itinerary covering many states. The others, with the exception of a volcano you can generally rearrange your schedules.
Flood and Earthquake – There isn’t much you can do about either. A flash flood can originate many miles away from where you are at and be on you before you can react. You can’t run from an earthquake, it is just there! For the most part you know when you are in a fire area, you know when a hurricane is coming and you can keep yourself aware of tornado activity and choose to be elsewhere. I’m aware tornado’s can come up suddenly, I grew up in KS and live in NE but also know how to keep my eye on the weather forecast!
We’ve had three occasions where we encountered tornadoes while camping. Two times was when they suddenly developed without much warning and one of them the funnel cloud tracked right over top of us. This was prior to doppler radar and computer technology being used. The third time was the scariest because it was in Dec in SW Missouri. Not normally tornado season. I have been trapped twice in campgrounds because all the roads getting out were under water. We still had power and we had food so we were good to stay.
It depends where I am. Here in Fla it is hurricane and fire. When in the mid-west it is tornado and fire.
The question stated “natural disaster”, so unless you’re struck by lightning, fire is always man-made.
As a firefighter turned arson investigator, my Chief always insisted that there were only three causes of fire…”Men, women and children”.
You’re in a camper, there is only one natural disaster you can NOT avoid…✨
I live in the PNW so I selected earthquakes (we are overdue for the next big one) and fires. Wildfires can start without warning and, yes, they can be a “natural disaster” if they are caused by lightning. If volcanoes were on the list I would have chosen it.
Agreed, sitting here on the Oregon coast, waiting for Cascadia to break loose one of these days. Also just returned from a trip and dodged two fires’ worth of smoke and detours.
Excessive Heat, at 110 AC can’t keep up. So I go north and run into Hail and High Winds.
There should be an additional choice for “Hail”