LARGEST WORLD DISASTERS: 2011

At 2:46pm Pacific Time, on March 11, 2011 on a Friday, the fifth largest quake recorded hit off the east coast area of Japan, registering 8.9. The quake hit 240 miles away from Tokyo. While the Japanese people were still reeling from the effects of the largest quake to ever hit the area, a series of massive tsunami waves started to hit the shore within as little as 8 minutes. They never knew what hit them. As of 08/15/11, the death toll reached 15,698 with an additional 4,666 missing.

The town of Christchurch, New Zealand experienced four large earthquakes in 2011. On February 22, 2011, Christchurch experienced a 6.3 quake with 182 report dead and massive structural damage. On June 13, 2011, Christchurch was hit again with a 6.4 aftershock with 6 minor injuries reported. On December 23, 2011, Christchurch was yet again hit with 2 enormous aftershocks on the same day. The first registering 5.8, followed by another at 6.3. With these enormous quakes and aftershocks there have been thousands of smaller aftershocks leaving the people of Christchurch fearful of seeing no end in sight.

April 25-28, 2011 - The largest tornado outbreak ever recorded hit the Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern regions of the United States from Texas to New York. The National Weather Service reported 359 tornadoes hitting 21 states. Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia and Mississippi experienced the tornadoes, with Alabama being the hardest hit. With April 27 being the most destructive day, with 208 tornadoes touching down that one day. Four registered as F5's, the highest rating possible. Normally, F5's are reported once a year, if at all. Enormous wide-spread destruction was seen in over six states with 346 reported dead.

Australia - January 2011 saw continuous heavy rainfall, causing tsunami like flash floods. The floods took the lives of 35 people and destroyed over 30,000 homes. The flooding hit with no warning and swept away everything in it's path.

When reading about these horrible natural disasters, I put myself in the place of these people. In 1992, my husband and I were living in Desert Hot Springs, California. Our son was 3 and I was 8 months pregnant with my daughter. At 4:57am on June 28, 1992, my husband was driving to work, I was shaken awake by what seemed to be the end of the world. Having been born in Palm Springs, California and living there until I was 31 years old, I was "used" to little quakes and had even been in a 6.1, earlier that year in April. I had never felt or seen anything like what happened that morning, a 7.3 earthquake hit the area. It's epicenter was Landers, California, just 50 miles from our home. As I stood in the kitchen with my son clinging to me, I could literally see the tiled floor rolling. The shaking lasted for what seemed 30 minutes, but was only .35 seconds. When it was over, the electricity shut off and we endured a series of massive aftershocks in the dark. Originally, the quake had been registered as a 7.6, but downgraded later and was the largest to hit California in 40 years. Around 10 or 11, that same morning, with the electricity on, we sat on the couch huddled together watching the news, when another massive quake hit. This earthquake felt as though the hand of God gave our home a shove, it felt quicker and far more jolting, where the large one had felt that it would never end and was a continuous rolling. This jolting quake epicenter-ed in Big Bear, California and registered 6.5. Right after the Big Bear quake hit, we looked out the window and could see in the mountains the line of a fault with dirt flying in a vertical line spraying into the air as the fault shifted. In the months that followed, we experienced well over 2,000 aftershocks, with none as large as the initial 7.3, but still ranging as high as 5.9. We should have been dead, had we lived in a more populated area, we probably would have been. I will never in all my life forget the feelings of panic, terror and helplessness that we endured. I equate that feeling to being an ant whose hill is being stepped on by a human. I cannot put into words the feeling of sheer terror that I felt.