Coming close to disaster

[Shakermaker]

What is the closest you have come to a big disaster?

Let me elaborate. I was in Khao Lak, Thailand 3 weeks before the Boxing Day Tsunami struck there. A friend of mine literally flipped a coin almost 3 weeks later to decide if he was going to Khao Lak / Phuket or East Thailand. The coin decided east so he escaped witnessing the tsunami in person.

My closest call was in Paris, july 1995. On my way to Brittany I passed through a metro station that was bombed a couple hours later, killing 8 people and wounding 80. I didn't even find out about that until a couple days later.

 

[Ennui]

I stood on top of the World Trade Center in 1998... so not very close.

However, I've nearly died several times, but only because the possibility of myself dying at that point made itself apparent, they weren't even necessarily close calls.

 

[Shakermaker]

I stood on top of the World Trade Center in 1998... so not very close.

I had drinks in the Windows on the World restaurant on top of the WTC in december 2000, so I beat you on that account.

 

[PvtRyan]

Guess it doesn't exactly fit the topic, but I saw the plane of the Bijlmer plane crash fly in the distance when I was with my parents and sister driving along the highway. It was pretty obvious the plane was in trouble.

 

[Shakermaker]

Guess it doesn't exactly fit the topic, but I saw the plane of the Bijlmer plane crash fly in the distance when I was with my parents and sister driving along the highway. It was pretty obvious the plane was in trouble.

I'd say that's pretty close. In viewing distance even.

 

[Solaris]

When I was in croatia the whole city was surrounded by a forest fire that threatened to engulf the city.

 

[Absinthe]

Can't remember where exactly, but I remember driving through a large tunnel and then hearing reports an hour later about how it collapsed and killed/trapped a number of people.

 

[The Monkey]

Was in WTC in 1998. Not very close, but still.

 

[Shift]

Traveling on the motorway after a car show with my dad, a lamborgini rocketed past us, almost knocking us off the road, the car lost control and slammed into central barrier breaking the car in two, luckily there was just us and a lorry nearby. We had to both slam the breaks on causing all the other cars coming in in the distance to stop also. Amazingly, the driver wasn't killed, but had there been more cars together when it happened, wouldn't have caused a massive pileup.

 

[CyberPitz]

I've been in a car crash, the idiot thought taking a corner at 60 mph was funny, and impressive, and it spun out of control, the ass of the car hitting a tree at 50 mph. I was in the back seat still, and if the car had been going any faster, some parts of the body would have came through the back seat and through me....People wonder why I hate this individual.

 

[Vegeta897]

My dad drove along this highway where soon after there were reports of a sniper picking shots at the cars on that same highway.

 

[Baserape>]

A decade ago I was dragged about half a mile out to sea by strong currents. It took me about one and a half hours to swim ashore. I was ****ered and nearly died of a heart attack when I reached dry land.. A few weeks after that I was walking around a exposed coastline investigating caves etc when a freak wave came in and nearly smashed us against the cliff wall. If we hadn't climbed 12 or so feet up the cliff wall we would have been dragged out to sea.

 

[Bad^Hat]

When I was in croatia the whole city was surrounded by a forest fire that threatened to engulf the city.

What were it's demands?

 

[repiV]

Nearly ended up under a car yesterday when I ran wide on an unexpectedly sharp bend (oval roundabout) into the other lane just missing it by inches.
Lots of "nearly been T-boned by blind idiots pulling out at junctions" stories in reserve, also...

 

[lePobz]

I don't think i've ever been close to disaster. One time I got my foot caught in the mechanical lift on the back of a lorry, but I had steel toe cap boots on that saved my foot... If I hadn't had them on, it would have sliced the front half of my foot off.

Makes me cringe thinking what would have happened if i'd decided to wear trainers that day. That would have hurt.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

What were it's demands?

I have nothing to add to this thread I just needed to congratulate Bad Hat on that one. Nicely done.

 

[bam23]

I remember being in a pretty heavy earthquake that only lasted a couple seconds.

 

[Krynn72]

A florida hurricane.

 

[Ennui]

Oh, I've been in several hurricanes, if those count. Southeastern USA = weather badasses.

 

[Wanted Bob]

I've been in a hurricane while being airborne. I was too young to notice the danger, but I loved watching the lightning.

Other than that, I flew from Ottawa to California the day after the crackdown on the London terrorists planning to bomb major US cities. Not really that close...

 

[The Brick]

In 2005 we would go to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on vacation, but a while before it (can't remember how long, probably about a month), it was bombed. We decided to go to Crete instead. On crete, we were close to getting all killed when our car lost track in the rain. We slipped off the road, but it was towards the rock wall. If the turn was the other way, we'd have dropped a pretty lethal height.

 

[Bad^Hat]

This thread is kind of turning into Final Destination: HL2.net.

I don't think I'm gonna take a shower for awhile D:

 

[The Monkey]

I came to think of another one.

I was boarding a plane at the same airport as Flash Airlines Flight 604 just two days after it had crashed.

 

[Social Bacon]

I got hit by a bus while riding my bike a while back, it sent me flying and I rolled through an intersection. I was lucky not to end up squashed beneath someone's tires.

 

[Muffin Man]

One time I almost ate at Arby's.

Fixed.

omg15char

 

[Kakashi]

When I was probably 7 or 8 years old, I wasn't too bright. I took one those shoe sticks, (the stick that helps you slip your foot into your shoe without bending down), it was made of metal. We had this massaging chair, and my mom told me to unplug it for some reason. But me being the dumb kid I was, I decided to use the metal stick to pry it out of the wall, immediately a shock of electricity went into the metal rod spraying sparks everywhere. Luckly the end of the stick was a wooden extender taped on with ducktape to make the stick longer. Had that wooden piece not have been there, I would have been a goner.

The wall had a big black spot around the socket and the wooden part of the stick burnt severely. I was one lucky kid.

 

[Havok1610]

Hey guys, this is my first post

Well, anyway, I was in two car crashes, one being in a friends van when we crashed head on into a tree, the second being crashing into a ditch in a BMW going 140km/h...too close for my liking, but got out of both with only minor whiplash...

 

[Krynn72]

I got hit by a bus while riding my bike a while back, it sent me flying and I rolled through an intersection.

I read that as "sent me flying and I rofled through an intersection."

and I lol'd

 

[Jerry_111]

i was IN a big disaster. big earthquake in taiwan in year 2000. it was like 7 point something magnitude. damn apartment building shook all night, aftershocks and all.

Now I live in california. hope the same thing wont happen anytime soon.

 

[Escaep]

A florida hurricane.

Where about in Florida do you live. I live near Titusville. Mims actually. But Mims is just one exit with one road.

But one time i was like 5 or 6 i think. I was riding my bike on the front porch in circles. I fell off my bike and landed face towards a pigmy rattlesnake about 3 feet away. I about crapped my pants.

 

[Asus]

Flood of 1993 was the closest to a disaster I've seen. Our property was fine, others near by not so.

I've been in an accident before, T-bone. /curses other driver
No injuries although the car was totaled.

 

[ktimekiller]

Closest call was probably one of many car crashes, and they werent that close calls, they were just.. normal car crashes.

 

[Taboo]

One time I was stopped at a light under an overpass and this one van tried to cut off a car on the road above me, but it couldnt so it somehow ended up swinging around the edge of the road. Its hard for me to desribe how it happened because I wasnt really paying attention until I saw the bottom end of a giant van above me. Id say that was pretty close.

 

[Raziaar]

Well there's been a lot of times I've come absolutely close to dying. But disaster, on an epic scale? No, not really.

 

[Ridge]

^^^ I concur.

I had a hood on my car fly up at 70mph (113kmh) and implode the windshield...I had looked down to turn down my stereo because I heard rattling, and the windshield exploded into the top of my head...lots of blood, lots of shard of glass...I'd hate to think what wouldve happened had I not looked down...

 

[Ennui]

Damn, that must have sucked.

 

[Ridge]

Yeah, it sucked...insurance totalled it (seriously, they said it was $5 more to repair than it was worth) so I bought it back...they gave me $1600 for my trouble (twice what i paid for it) and I spent $300 and a week to get it back on the road, with a new windshield, new seats front and rear and hood pins...kept th ecar for another year and a half until the tranny blew this past Feb...