Vili asked a question on her thread here, that got me to thinking.
Aemi has a series of threads on characters suffering physical maladies; but what about natural disasters?

Tell us about any experiences you've had with tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, drought, flooding, or even big thunderstorms that may help us when writing about them
Lots of details, please. We love details.

*chuckles * Funny thing, I've lived through every one of those natural disasters you've listed.

We lived in Texas for a year, so I might know a bit about things like this...

The rain was literally too heavy to see your hand through at times, the lightning so often that the streetlights turned off, and the thunder so loud that the car alarms would go off and the top stories of buildings would sway. It was fun.

There was one real tornado warning while we were there, and before it came we saw the clouds stirring – not scudding, all going one direction, but going all directions at once, roiling and twisting together. The sky didn't actually get green (though it certainly does sometimes – Jay saw it in Tennessee on several occasions), but that might have been because it did not come altogether near us, but over a different area of Dallas.

But when the tornado warning was in effect we stayed inside we stayed inside and didn't see much. We heard hail rattling on the windows at intervals, off and on like a switch. That was all that I remember.

What was the tsunami like?

Well, in Japan, everyone is set up for Tsunami evacuations. If there are signs of one approaching, they get everyone off and away from the shores. Survival is rare if you are anywhere near the beaches.

A tsunami is a massive wave that is very strong and powerful. It is caused by a major disturbance underwater, which causes the water unexpectedly to rise or sink (earthquakes are common reasons). The waves are so destructive that they can often carve away parts of land that they hit, or even uproot massive trees, carrying the tree back to sea.

I have a scrapbook in which I collected all the photographs, headlines and articles from natural disasters in our area over the past few weeks. I wrote up my own report when I was about sixteen I think.... I've attached that for your edification. I've never actually been through a tornado, or close enough to see one, but I know a lot about the worry of being in danger of one.

Drought is another thing I have experience with and it's very simple. It doesn't rain. And it keeps not raining. And the grass stops growing. And if it's really bad you have to feed the cattle hay, which isn't good, because if the grass isn't growing you won't get a second hay cutting, and if you're feeding them the winter hay now what will you feed them in the winter? And it's hot and it's dry and it doesn't rain. Mostly it doesn't rain.

Cool, thanks, Airi and Katie.
Anyone else..?

And so what we can learn from that is:

If you want to kill off your character with a natural disaster, do not base that character off of Kaitlyn.

*laughs heartily * You know us Marine kids, we are resilient and hard to eradicate, kinda like a weed.

Actually, I have a natural disaster that happened last night which I thought might be an interesting thing to portray in a story.

Well, to set up with, we are under a high fire warning, due to the drought. Then, last night, there was a lightning storm (no rain) which struck a tree down in one of the fields by our house (I live in a farming community, so there are fields and barns everywhere). The tree caught fire instantly. Thankfully one of our neighbors saw the whole thing happen and called the fire department immediately. They were able to come and put it out before it spread to the soy fields, but it grew very rapidly. Had they not been there, the results would have been disastrous with how dry everything is.

*grins*

Interesting.

I'm going to call you Weedy! Just kidding.
(o.O that was a lot of rofling)
Ahem. *regains composure*
That must have been scary, Airi. (I made a rhyme! Sorry, random tonight. I'm tired. XD)
It's raining here in VA right now, actually, and I feel so bad that I can't send it over there.

*chuckles *

Oh we would love the rain if you could transport it!!

Hmm. Rain transportation...
That's a bit too science fiction, though...

I wish. I feel guilty living here in all this rain... VA and WA could spare some for IA and IN.
Anyway, any other information about storms?

We usually have a lot of storms in the Midwest, although this year has been a dry one.

Thunderstorms are pretty common here. I used to really love being outdoors and watching the lighting snake across the sky and feeling the roll of thunder, but when I was shocked by lightning in 2006 it's been a fear of mine. Nowadays, I react less severely. I think thunder is still really cool if it doesn't sound like a bullwhip. (It did that once this summer while I was on someone's porch and the next thing I knew I screamed and crouched with my hands over my face.) Like others have mentioned, the rain will pour down so hard and in great volume that your vision is quite limited. Hail can also accompany a thunderstorm. We've had hail about the size of a quarter that I've seen. My friend's dad brought back a piece of hail the size of a softball from a city an hour north of us! That can be really dangerous because with hail that size, it was taking out people's windshields (or windscreens for the Europeans ).

The month of May, I believe, is tornado awareness month so the city sounds the sirens and tornado warning tests every Wednesday that month. The rest of the summer the sirens only go off twice on the first Wednesday of every month.

I've never seen a tornado, but know one was only a few miles out of town. The sky, in that case, did indeed turn a strange shade of avocado-like green with foreboding puffy black clouds. When there's a storm like that, the wind will rip across the land with great force and then suddenly is will stop and all will be still. It's incredibly eerie. The wind will usually pick up again but blow in the opposite direction.

Droughts aren't fun because dust is everywhere and everything is covered in it. At least in the farming communities like the one I live in. The dirt cracks open creating little canyons throughout the garden and the plants all wilt and die.

On the opposite side of the spectrum too much rain can be a problem too. Last year we had lots and lots of snow. My dad had to help the city plow and he would work all night moving snow from hospital parking lots and commercial businesses. When spring came it all melted, creating flooding and the plentiful rainfall didn't help the situation. Farmers were all trying to tile their fields to drain the water from it because the rain water would sit stagnant in the fields drowning their crops. It flooded out parts of cities and took out land bridges.

That's all I've got for tonight...er this morning.

~Calen