Several days of severe storms are going across the Southern US.
LA Times coverage

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that there were 211 tornadoes that hit the region Wednesday into Thursday."

I would still rather have a good-sized earthquake than live in a live pinball machine like that!

And here I thought Thursday was bad when my hair dryer started shooting sparks and set my hair on fire... You know that smell?

If all these disasters don't prompt more people to make some survival preparations, what will?

Sue

Crimeny, now I have to add "bathroom fire extinguisher" to the to-do list.

I'll take tornadoes over earthquakes any day. Even 311 of them collectively produce a fraction of the death and destruction of an earthquake. Tornadoes are a terrible force force but they are focused. If a tornado misses you by a quarter mile you are pretty safe and as bad as the path it travels gets mauled a few hundred meters away life goes on as usual.

In the majority of cases emergency services, hospitals, power, gas, water systems are still relatively intact.

In an earthquake or hurricane the zone of devastation can stretch for scores, even hundreds, of kilometers. Disabling or destroying most infrastructure and disrupting emergency services. With a tornado there is likely to be a ready supply of trained people who are not conflicted by having family involved. In Haiti a big problem was half the responders were injured or killed and those who were intact frequently had family who were entirely dependent on them involved. Forcing the choice between saving strangers of saving their own families.

Isn't it wonderful that we have choices in life? It is also great that there are localities that feature earthquakes, but that are relatively free of tornadoes (southern California and the West Coast) and others that are relatively free of earthquakes, but do offer spring time excitement.

The "zone of devastation" is a tricky concept. In the 1994 Northridge quake our community was without electricity for 24 hours. If you can't handle that easily, you are just not in the game. Damage away from the epicenter often drops off sharply with distance. A surrounding robust emergency infrastructure, much more so than that of Haiti, aids greatly in relief efforts.

The key is adapting to the local hazard profile and taking reasonable and/or mandated precautions.

Actually what bugs me are hurriicanes, even though now they are exquisitely predictable. Remember that historically our greatest disasters in terms of loss of life are water related (Galveston hurricane and Johnstown flood).

Pinball machine!

What an excellent image!

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Crimeny, now I have to add "bathroom fire extinguisher" to the to-do list.

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You have one - Its right above the tub

Safety Note: That particular extinguisher is Class A and only for use on small "ordinary combustible" fires. Do not use on electrical or flammable liquids.

So it would be a poor choice if the hair dryer is having a very bad day.

- Eric

Indeed - it would be a shocking choice....

I heard many of these tornadoes were preceded by 20 mins of warning on the NOAA alert system