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Comment by throw0101a | Hacker News Reader

I live in a fairly quiet part of the world, but if I had to move someplace else, I think I’d rather be in an earthquake zone rather than a hurricane (or tornado) zone given the choice.

Hurricanes are more frequent, and there’s a lot of drama and dread before their arrival. Earthquakes on the other hand are infrequent, and while they may strike unexpectedly, it’s usually “one-and-done” (plus aftershocks).

In both cases it is prudent to be ready (“prepped” as the kids are wont to say):

* https://www.ready.gov

* https://www.getprepared.gc.ca

Does anyone have any experience with both? Are there "pros and cons"?

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I would 100% live in a tornado prone region over an earthquake prone region. Tornadoes, by their nature are small and very localized. An EF5 tornado could pass within a few hundred feet of your house and you'd come out essentially unscathed. Earthquakes can inflict damage in a massive area. During the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, the fracture happened along several hundred miles of the fault and the resultant tsunami devastated large stretches of coastline.

Since tornadoes are so localized, recovery happens quicker. Additionally, if your area was struck by a tornado, nearby areas likely weren't, which can provide you a place to buy supplies.

I'd rate them from worst to less worse as: * earthquake * hurricane * tornado

The warning a hurricane gives is invaluable. You can evacuate, you can gather up important documents, you can get a refill on any medications you take. An earthquake gives no warning. Even tornadoes give a lot of warning when compared with earthquakes. Not to mention the tsunamis that earthquakes can cause.

Tsunami risk is specific to particular fault zones (subduction), a small fraction of all earthquakes.

And proximity to water.

Effects can be widespread (as with Indian Ocean), though that was a ~50 year event. Awareness, warning, elevation, and robust construction mitigate risk.

Earthquakes are generally infrequent (Japan and Chile are notable exceptions). Up to mag 7 or so, most structures can be designed survivable, though with poor construction, even mag 5 (100 times weaker) can cause widespread death & destruction (unreinforced masonry, stone, brick, etc.).

Interesting perspective. As a native Californian I couldn't disagree more. In 33 years of living in California, the number of times I've actually spent any significant time thinking about earthquakes is very close to 0. I lived in Southern California at the time of the 1994 Northridge earthquake and it wasn't even impactful enough for me to remember it.

The maximum downside of an earthquake is tremendous, but the odds of a catastrophic earthquake occurring in your lifetime are also tremendously low. Earthquakes also have the distinct advantage of not being impacted by climate change. (AFAIK?)

I'm not sure how to think about tornadoes, not living in a particularly tornado-prone area. But with respect to hurricanes, there are certainly areas of the country where you will periodically have significant hurricane-related drama. I'm not sure how that translates into death/destruction in the "equivalent" earthquake zone, but it's certainly much more of a given over time.

Having lived in Oklahoma city for a large part of my life, you just become weather aware when the risk of large tornado's are the greatest. The prediction of conditions favorable for tornado's is pretty accurate these days, and make it easy to know when to pay attention to the weather.

If you have a storm shelter the risk of death is extremely low. Even without a storm shelter all but the largest tornado's are survivable, even if your house takes a direct hit, by following the recommended precautions the weatherman will tell you about every time there is one.

Each tornado is much less dangerous than an earthquake, but there vastly more tornadoes than (serious) earthquakes.

Having lived in the Bay Area since 1995, I've lost more respect for quakes than is probably healthy.

Wikipedia [1] tells me that most tornadoes are less than 250 feet across, and even the biggest tornadoes are only 2 miles wide.

So basically the area of effect they have is similar in size and shape to a roadway.

Yes, you don't want a tornado landing on you. But two blocks over it'll be nothing more than a windy day.

Perhaps you should lose some more respect for tornadoes as well :)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado

It's not a dichotomy though, most of the world is stable in terms of earth and weather. We get the odd storm once in a while, worst case is some roof tiles and/or fallen trees.

Haven't been around earthquake zones much, but I will say that the pre-hurricane drama is all media hype. They can mostly be ignored, leading you to at least as good of an outcome.

IMO, it's well-known that the media will hype up the danger for pretty much a whole state worth of area / coastline. But the really serious damage from a hurricane is mostly limited to a medium size town worth of area. Trouble is, nobody knows exactly what area that will be. Hurricanes can be very large, but most of the area of them doesn't amount to much more than a pretty hard rainstorm. Possibly a few tree limbs down and some power outages. Not likely to be much major damage to houses or cars outside of that small high-intensity zone.

Yes it's best to buy and/or check your hurricane supplies around the beginning of the season and avoid the buying panic in the days before a predicted strike. Having supplies for a few days to a week without power, water, or ability to buy food from stores is prudent.

In Florida, we see hurricanes as some of our only excitement each year. People take their plants and furniture in, stock up on gas and water, and then if it doesn’t hit it or isn’t that bad, mostly it feels like a disappointment. Historically we’ve gotten used to rebuilding things pretty quickly after a bad one. Plus, many buildings are engineered specifically to withstand hurricane force winds. So yeah, I’d rather live in a hurricane prone area in FL with a decent history of rebounding quickly than in California where an earthquake could strike at any moment and people generally just pretend they don’t happen.

Come to the US Midwest, we don’t have earthquakes or hurricanes.

Except for this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811–1812_New_Madrid_earthquak...

"The 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes were a series of intense intraplate earthquakes beginning with an initial earthquake of moment magnitude 7.2–8.2 on December 16, 1811, followed by a moment magnitude 7.4 aftershock on the same day. Two additional earthquakes of similar magnitude followed in January and February 1812. They remain the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in recorded history."

Blizzards and tornadoes, yes, but no hurricanes. There is always the New Madrid fault--about 25 or 30 years ago some seismologist was scaring people about how it was ready to let go again.

Yep, right after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

I distinctly remember as a third grader in Radcliff, Kentucky doing several science and writing assignments related to earthquakes in the United States because there was all this news and speculation about New Madrid.

It's probably just the natural attentuation towards chaos in every American boy, but there was a distinct flavor of "wouldn't it be cool if ...?" to it all.

Needless to say, it was an extemely disapponting summer that followed.

Colorado here in Denver is nice. No earthquakes or hurricanes. Tornadoes are possible but exceedingly rare in the front range. The last one that touched down was in 1988. We do get snow storms, but they tend to melt quickly. :)

I always wondered, why don't they build houses level with the ground in the midwest to protect against tornadoes? What I'm envisioning is a single floor home that has skylights level with the outside ground, which is either level with the surrounding area or slightly build up to prevent flooding. This would prevent needing to worry about your home getting torn up by tornadoes.

Seems like you're trading one risk for the certainty that you'll eventually flood your house. Flooding basements isn't uncommon, if you move your living area downstairs then you'll be flooding that instead.

Also, most people don't want to live in daylight bunkers to mitigate a risk.

> I always wondered, why don't they build houses level with the ground in the midwest to protect against tornadoes?

In no particular order:

1. Expense

2. Flooding

3. Radon

4. No one aspires to be a basement dweller.

Because tornadoes are extremely rare.

And when they do occur, the area they effect is very small.

This. The reason we hear so much about them is that they're so flashy - they appear rapidly, can cause pretty major destruction where they hit, and disappear rapidly.

You also don't get days of build-up like a hurricane, it's only around 10-15 minutes to go from "a storm that might make tornados (like many are)" to "one is likely to appear at X" to "hopefully you're already sheltered, it's here". Hunkering down has to be done rapidly, which is stressful and memorable, even if nothing happens to you.

People like to have windows, rather than everyone living in a basement. And tornadoes aren't that common anywhere in the US midwest.

New England too. We get nor'easters (big storms from the Atlantic that create a lot of rain, snow, and wind) but these aren't close to disastrous like a hurricane or an earthquake. Even Hurricane Sandy, that rocked New York and New Jersey, ran out of steam before reaching New England.

> Come to the US Midwest, we don’t have earthquakes or hurricanes.

I live by the Great Lakes: we don’t have earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes.

Plus I don't have to worry about an aquifer running dry.

Yes, but you do have Ohio.

Significant areas of Midwest can have floods though and they tend to be able to affect much larger areas than in less flat areas of the country.

All that fresh water can certainly cause problems.

Well now apparently you have to worry about derechos.

But tornadoes...

What does this have to do with the article, other than the word 'hurricane' ?

Hurricanes are more profitable. When a hurricane is coming all manner of business opportunities open up. You can install shutters on homes for a few hundred bucks each. Scalp essential supplies. Cover your roof in blue tarp and claim "damages" on insurance. Can't do that with earthquakes probably.

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