What's scarier to you? Tornadoes or Earthquakes?

[Leros]

Tornadoes are scarier in regards to the amount of damage they do.

Earthquakes are scarier in regards to time, because you get less warning.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

Tornadoes I guess.
Used to live in farmland area known for being a tornado alley. Day we were moving out of that place, tornado literally passed through our backyard.
5ish years ago, had tornado mess up a few blocks, jump .5 mile, tear up block west of us, then jump over our house, and tore up the block east of us. Cars destroyed, garages flipped upside down, threw neighborhood into chaos for a few days.

 

[sdifox]

Earthquake. No running away from earthquake.

 

[Synomenon]

Tornado. An earthquake won't kill you. A tornado most likely will if it gets you.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Earthquake. No running away from earthquake.

There's no need to run away unless you are talking about something catastrophic.

 

[sdifox]

There's no need to run away unless you are talking about something catastrophic.

we are only talking about the catastrophic ones no?

 

[HeXen]

guess you kids missed San Fransisco earthquake back in 89.

 

[coxmaster]

I'm not that concerned about tornadoes honestly. I guess growing up and watching them on TV (live helicopter coverage FTW) made me realize that you've really got quite a bit of time before you get hit.

 

[Paladin3]

For some people the unnecessary worrying and obsessive over-preparedness can be worse than the actually disaster. And I say that having lived through several So. Cal. earthquakes and having spent time in an Oklahoma tornado shelter once.

 

[nanette1985]

Falling debris (earthquake) - scary
Flying debris (tornado) - scarier

 

[Locut0s]

Given I live right next to the Cascadia subduction zone and we are expecting a 9+ some time soon I'm going to go with earthquake. But it depends on exactly what the scenario is. An F5 tornado hitting your house will just about kill you 100% so if you are talking about the tornado actually striking your home while you are in it then yeah I'll take the earthquake. But tornadoes do so little damage overall compared to earthquakes.

 

[gophins72]

a tornado would be scarier to me, because it means i live somewhere in which i've never had a desire to live.

 

[Locut0s]

a tornado would be scarier to me, because it means i live somewhere in which i've never had a desire to live.

Deep south? D:

 

[Powermoloch]

Tornado - usually there's a warning and if people are smart enough. Leave the affected area

Earthquake - OMGWTFBBQ too late already

 

[amdhunter]

I love tornadoes because they always seem to take out Teabagger settlements throughout the country. It's like God is telling them something.

 

[zanejohnson]

to me, earthquakes are scarier...i guess because i've never been in one.. or even felt the ground shake for that matter..

i've seen lots of tornadoes in my day... just gotta be safe, you see a wall cloud.. you get to cover.

 

[zerocool84]

Only huge earthquakes do any damage and they're super rare. You can't build a building to survive a tornado, you can build a building to survive a quake. There's many more tornadoes than there are quakes. An earthquake never stole a burger from someone's hand.

 

[jupiter57]

Neither.
Not afraid of dying.
Storms here all week, wife wringing her hands, driving me nuts, me calmly surfing (When the power is on).
When it's your time to go, it's your time to go.

I just wouldn't like surviving a tornado & having to scavenge around trying to find my stuff, or being blown out of the bed in my skivvies 1/2 mile away & surviving!

 

[SonnyDaze]

West coast = earthquakes.

East coast = tornadoes.

Having just recently had F2/F3 tornadoes touch down in our county....they can be devastating.

 

[qliveur]

Earthquakes.

Tornadoes are easily distracted by trailer parks.

 

[Locut0s]

Only huge earthquakes do any damage and they're super rare. You can't build a building to survive a tornado, you can build a building to survive a quake. There's many more tornadoes than there are quakes. An earthquake never stole a burger from someone's hand.

World wide earthquakes are much more common than tornadoes. In fact tornadoes are really only common in the southern US. While they do occur elsewhere in the world they are very rare.

 

[Locut0s]

World wide earthquakes are much more common than tornadoes. In fact tornadoes are really only common in the southern US. While they do occur elsewhere in the world they are very rare.

And even small earthquakes 5-6 can do damage if they are shallow and near where you live. Also there are a shit load of blind faults around the world, you don't really need to be living near the ring of fire necessarily.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Having been through a million earthquakes including a couple of 7+ dingers... I'd say tornados are much scarier. I'd rather dodge falling objects than have 2x4's & cows flying at me at 100+mph.

 

[zerocool84]

World wide earthquakes are much more common than tornadoes. In fact tornadoes are really only common in the southern US. While they do occur elsewhere in the world they are very rare.

Of course worldwide quakes are common but not ones that cause the amount of damage we're talking about.

 

[Muse]

On average, more people are killed in the USA every year by tornadoes than by earthquakes.

That could change when the big one hits in CA. There could be two big ones coming, one on the San Andreas in So. California and the other on the Hayward up north. It's not exactly improbable that those two could hit within the next 15 years, both of them.

I believe there was an 8.x quake in China in 1920 that killed around 230,000. The 8.x I got from a book written around 1970, so it's probably been revised according to today's systems. According to the site below, the 2004 quake in Sumatra was more deadly than the 1920 China quake.

Earthquakes with 50,000 or More Deaths:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/most_destructive.php