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Natural Disasters
There are many different natural disasters. The main ones I will be talking about are: Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis. Natural disasters have always interested me.
To me, from most destructive to least destructive, I put them in order like this: Tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes. Although tsunamis only go about a mile onshore, they are definately the most destructive. Tornadoes are probably the most powerful, but are so concentrated that it can rip out an oak tree 25 feet from your house and not even touch your house. Earthquakes are extremely powerful, but usually just give a little shake. Hurricanes also, like earthquakes, are usually weak. We had a few last season that were strong like Charley and Frances and even Andrew which went through Homestead some time ago. I am not saying that Hurricanes or earthquakes are weak, I am just comparing them against each other.
That giant tsunami was scary around Asia, but it was big because it hit a lot of surface. Tsunami's don't go more than one mile on shore. What they do hit, though, is flattened and sucked back into the ocean.
Tornadoes are the strongest. They get 300 mph winds. Scientists say they can drive a drinking straw clearly through an oak tree. The only problem making them second on my opinion is that they are so concentrated. To show how concentrated thest things are, draw a piece of your neighborhood on paper. Now, get one of those skinny markers, and with only obtuse angles (no acute or right angles!) try to destroy as much as that neighborhood as you can. Also, tornadoes rarely last over a minute so make that colored line representing the tornado path only about the length of 10 houses on your picture. That is what a tornado is like.
Earthquakes have the ability to destroy anything that touches ground but rarely get this strong. It can destroy the strongest buildings. They are somewhat unpredictable and are hard to escape.
Hurricanes are powerful, but you can prepare for them. You can bring all your stuff inside and put up hurricane shutters. But when they get to category 5, there is just about nothing you can do to protect yourself. They rarely become cat. 5 and if they do, they usually don't hit land.
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