Glad to Live in the Mountain States

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
On this anniversary week of Hurricane Katrina, let me just say: I'm very glad to live where I do. Check out these natural disasters:
  • Hurricanes. Um, no. Land-locked, don't you know.
  • Tsunami. Again - land-locked, baby.
  • Tornadoes. Not usually around here - we're too close to the mountains.
  • Flood. Colorado's a pretty dry state. With the notable exception of some mountain communities, we don't have that many rivers, and flooding is pretty rare. Plus, I live on hill.
  • Earthquake. We're right in the middle of a tectonic plate. Old rock.
  • Blizzard. We do get occasional blizzards, but we've never been snowed in for more than a few days. 
  • Volcano. This is the only one that gives me pause. Not to be all end-of-the-world-is-nigh, but Yosemite Yellowstone does harbor a Super-Volcano. Given the frequency of eruptions, however, and the inevitable result if it does erupt, I'm going to try and not lose any sleep over it.
 I wouldn't mind living someplace a bit warmer when we retire, but not if it means living someplace less stable.

15 comments:

Shawn Powers said...

I feel much the same way, but I get to add "No poisonous snakes" to my list. w00h00!

Wangs: Well, you know. Teehee!

mom in northern said...

Make that Yellowstone not Yosemite.
That place sits on top of a geologic 'hot spot' same same as Hawaii...Still and all life is good here.

Eric said...

Tom Tancredo.

Sorry. Felt like I had to keep you humble about your state's alleged lack of natural disasters. :D

Alex said...

Also remember that all our towns named "springs" are due to hot sulfur springs which is a bit of a telltale of volcanic potential. Just hope any eruptions are on the other side of the continental divide.

Janiece said...

Mom, thanks - I've fixed it.

Eric, that was just unkind. It could be Florida, where we have natural disasters and whackadoodle politicians...

Carol Elaine said...

Well, I like not knowing from day to day if I'm going to wake up one morning with my apartment building in rubble around (and on top) of me. Makes life exciting!

Matt said...

Obviously, you didn't see 2012. Otherwise, you would know that you're going to get it from the super-volcano and the earth covering mega-tsunami. Of course, I believe New York is due to have the British Isles dumped on top of it, so I'm not going to fare any better.

Janiece said...

Vagabond, you are correct. I did not see 2012. From all accounts it was a craptacular movie, and one I have no interest in wasting a single minute of my life on.

Matt said...

Well hell, Janiece, just piss all over my end of the world scenarios, will ya?

That link was better than the movie. I am now following Rachel.

The movie was still pretty cool from an eye candy, two hours of shit getting destroyed perspective . . . So there!

Thordr said...

Actually, you are under more threat from the Long Valley Caldara volcanic system than Yellowstone, its cycle is much shorter and more frequent than Yellowstone's complex.

mom in northern said...

whackadoodle are not limited by geography...

mom in northern said...

make that whackadoodleS

Matt said...

I should have also mentioned that my mental soundtrack to that post was "Rocky mountain high".

Janiece said...

Vagabond, the fact that Colorado has medical marijuana dispensaries on every corner has nothing to do with natural disasters.

Jeez.

WendyB_09 said...

Well, Georgia isn't all that safe either...
>Tornados - yep, sometimes in herds
>Hurricanes - frequently get the leftovers from both Atlantic & Gulf storms, so nice of those areas to share...
>Floods - Please refer to last fall where we had 1000-year floods in some areas
>Tsunami - if an asteroid hits in the Atlantic, we'll flood at least to Atlanta
>Earthquakes - according to the USGS mostly minor, 3.0-3.5 at most. Since we sit on a granite plateau we frequently don't even know we've had one.
>Drought - the 4 years that preceded the above-mentioned floods and aggrevated the water rights war between GA, FL & AL.
>Volcano - Nope, thanks to the granite plateau (see also Stone Mountian)
>Blizzards - Occasionally, last really big one here was March 1993, they called it a land-based winter hurricane. Shut down the whole region for over a week. Waffle Houses with working power were our salvation!
>Political Wackadooz - Newt - need I say more?