2010 chilean Earthquake and tsunami (8.8), and the 2016-17 forest fires too
Chile has an extreme propensity to natural disasters, but Chileans have learn to deal with them so they aren't that bad, like after the 2010 8.8 quake there was an 8.5 or so in 2015 that caused little damage because lessons were learned, consider that quakes over 6.0 happens every year or two in chile, also we have floods, forest fires? Volcanoes, landslide, etc.
My grandma felt the 9.5 Valdivia quake (biggest earthquake recorded in world history) and shortly after started working in the ministry of infrastructure, she always says she had to type "devastated area" a lot lol, my mom also felt her fair share of quakes too, and my parents were just away from Santiago (the city where we live) when a enormous flood hit here and caused a ton of damage, and we're not talking about the natural disasters that happened in other areas of the county, like more quakes, floods, forest fires and volcanoes...
Yeah, if you want to safely-ish experience natural disasters, come live in chile! Lmao.
The 2019 Memorial Day tornado outbreak. Less than a week away from the 5 year anniversary of it.
My apartment is located roughly 500 feet (152 meters) from the end point of an EF4 tornado that hit and about 1500 feet (~450 meters) of the start point of an EF3 tornado that hit. One ended and the other began within minutes of each other.
I recall I looked out of my front door and could only see the sideways winds. I had just woken up after sleeping all day because I was tired, having stayed up late the night before, burying my cat which had eaten mouse poison, which I was unaware of the symptoms for until it was too late. I had to bury my cat a second time then next day and broke my hand in frustration while doing it.
My power was out for 10 days and I had no water for 6 days. I didn't own a car and public transportation had halted in my area from trees blocking the roads. I walked 4.5 miles to a nearby Urgent Care for my hand but they had closed due to damage. From there I walked 9 miles to the nearest hospital. They had too many people. I gave up waiting to be seen after 8 hours and went home, then wrapped my hand with bandages myself, around an old brace I had from a previous unrelated broken wrist.
When my power came back, I learned that a power surge had fried the power supply of my computer. I eventually managed to check my email at the community college, which is when I learned my health insurance coverage through Medicaid had ended, thanks to an order from the president at the time.
My absentee landlord never checked on the building. Less than a month later, the in-wall A/C unit fell out of the wall, leaving a hole large enough for me, a 6'3" 250 lb man, to easily crawl through. It was there for 6 months before it was repaired by the landlords maintenance person, who bought a cheap window unit A/C and stuck it in the hole then filled in around it with expanding foam.
The hole was 'fixed' around the same time I was able to buy a replacement power supply for my computer. My data storage drive had also stopped working and I learned an important lesson regarding backups. That was right around Christmas time.
Unrelated to the tornados, that's about when I started passing kidney stones. I tried to go to the hospital for them but without insurance, they turned me away. It wasn't considered an emergency. I missed several days of work while I passed them at home. Work said because of the amount of time I missed, I needed a doctors note to return to work. Work would schedule me 6 hour shifts, 6 days a week, which comes to 36 hours. Employees needed 40 hours a week to be considered full time and to qualify for the company insurance. Without insurance, I couldn't find a doctor who would see me. I was terminated and the reason they listed was that I abandoned my job.
My official last day with the company was 31 December 2019. I was ready to start a new year. 2019 had not been kind to me. I remember thinking to myself on New Years Day "At least 2020 can't possibly be worse, right?"
I've been through some significant droughts, which are probably worse overall that the few minor floods and forest fires.
Perth hailstorm of 2011. Every car was pockmarked for about a decade after, and some lawn chairs fell over. In the grand scheme of things, not that big
Either the worsening wildfire smoke blankets (do these have a name aside from just saying its smoky af?), one of the heat domes from recent years, or one of the bouts of terrible snow storms/deep freezes
