Our building didn’t collapse but so many others did.
Thousands of people died in that earthquake."
We could not run over it since the fire was super deep.
Unsplash / Casey Horner
I_like_earthquakes
2.
Our building didnt collapse but so many others did.
Thousands of people died in that earthquake.
Unsplash / Casey Horner
xkathmandu
3.
After that we heard a lot of shooting.
Roughly 4 years ago I was lucky enough to immigrate to Sweden, very nice country with nice people.
LemonBarf
4.
We lived on the coast at this time and it was like the whole ocean had just lifted out.
My dad grabbed me and ran towards a block of apartments at the end of the street.
punking_funk
5.
The story: My mother owned a few aircraft and hangar at our small towns airport.
One warm summer afternoon in the mid-1980s we planned to take a short flight in her Piper J-3 Cub.
I sat in front due to the better view and my mom, the pilot, sat in back.
I remember the pre-flight, and some taxiing to the runway, but nothing else.
Now the rest of the story I received second hand.
Engine cut out, not really sure why.
Well, we dropped like a brick and proceeded to hit the ground in a rather quick manner.
The ambulance drivers who arrived on the scene thought we were done for.
Things did not look good for us.
I spent about 5 weeks in the hospital, but only remember the last two.
At this point in my life I can say I would not.
Such things are not worth remembering.
And did we ever fly again?
geneaskew
6.
We were stuck inside of a deadly Australian bushfire
I was stuck in a bushfire here in Australia.
Fire was coming on the right side of the road.
Smoke everywhere, could hardly see.
SO was driving and luckily saw the truck in front of us and stopped in time before hitting it.
A semi-trailer truck (18 wheeler) had jack-knifed in the road and was blocking the way.
The fire started to blow across the road and ignite the bush on our left.
There were embers raining down on our car, we just stared at them bouncing off the car bonnet.
SO managed to get in touch with the firies on the UHF to alert them to our presence.
Saw the news in hospital where they reported two deceased people found in that semi-trailer truck.
Volunteer firefighters saved our lives.
pedazzle
7.
This was right before easter.
About a 45 min trip.
When I turned around the nose was floating a couple of meters away from the boat.
This was by far the scariest moment.
Her husband managed to launch 2 emergency rockets before the boat vanished below him.
After that we basically dodged waves and made bad taste jokes.
We saw people on the shore, cars stopped on the highway.
The last thing I remember before blacking out is a boat aproaching.
Apparantly I had a temp of 27 degrees when they brought me in.
My mom was awake the whole time.
Even though though this is a scary story there are some awesome elements to it.
An old fisherman in a house by the shore saw the whole thing.
So he had to take care of her, and have a go at get us help.
The most badass part of the story is how we got rescued.
One of my moms husbands friends got a call about what was happening.
Got in his boat with his 8 month pregnant wife, and went full speed to our location.
The boat he had was not designed for high seas.
It was a summer pop in cabin cruiser.
So he had to steer it towards the waves at all times.
His wife then proceeded to pull 3 fully clothed people up to safety.
Including an unconscious me.
If anyone has ever tried to pull someone out of the water, you know how difficult it is.
Mom tore a bunch of stuff in her back.
Husband swallowed about 4 liters of saltwater and was sick for week.
Codvodka
8.
After a while, I noticed that the engine had lost 300 RPM.
I pushed the throttle to max… no change.
Turned on the carb heat (if I remember correctly)… nope, still nothing.
Conclusion: I had to get that bird down somewhere.
It was night time.
Beneath me were patches of fieldsorforest, and I couldnt tell which was which in the evening darkness.
I opted for the only well-lit place in the circumstances: the freeway.
Huge black bars suddenly showed up in my field of vision, followed by bright white flashes of light.
The aircraft had just struck high-voltage power lines.
Ambulances arrived within a minute, pulled my dad and I out, and raced us to the hospital.
My father had a few broken bones, but was judged stable and set to recover.
However, he suddenly and unexpectedly succumbed to his wounds a week later.
I havent piloted an aircraft since, and have no desire to.
Shurikane
9.
Life and death situations are no joke and they can happen at anytime.
LordLogan27
10.
10 year old me remembers seeing the oil temperature gauge in the red, but not understanding the significance.
As the rattling got worse, my dad shut the engine off and radioed Mayday to the tower.
Thats when I started to pray.
My dad exchanged a few other words with the controller and then shut the rest of the plane down.
We hit the ground a little fast at 80 knots (normal is 65-70 kts).
Our front gear struck an irrigation pipe running across the field which caused it to shear off.
Without a front gear, our nose hit the field and we went belly-side up.
When I came to, everything was eerily dark, and I was hanging upside down.
My dad basically ripped the doors off the back of the plane to get my brother and I out.
My family was shaken up, but okay.
The farmer appeared minutes later, absolutely astonished.
Then, five news helicopters starting circling.
Traffic was backed up for miles around the field as people strained to get a look.
Then the paramedics arrived.
And my parents got some bruising from seat belts a few days later.
iforgottoeatlunch
11.
I survived a shooting a few years ago
Survived the Isla Vista shooting of 2014.
I still get jumpy when I hear fireworks or other loud noises.
My immediate response is almost always to scramble under the nearest table.
PTSD is a bitch.
gnadanaid
12.
A tornado swept across our state
I survived a nearly EF-5 tornado.
A few years ago, living in rural Arkansas, the weather got bad.
This is hardly an uncommon occurrence.
We lived in a duplex.
our phones started alerting to severe weather, and we switched on the TV to watch the radar.
I threw my cats in the bathroom, while my partner went outside to watch the weather.
Never heard such heavy rain before.
And then the rain stopped.
He texted his parents: Tornado.
They say it sounds like a freight train, and theyre right.
The building was shaking, and there was thisroar.
He said he was quite certain we were about to die.
And then… it stopped.
Our duplex was fine, some minor stuff only.
A tree had fallen within inches of both another duplex and a neighbors vehicle.
But no one in our immediate neighborhood was killed or injured.
Had it stayed on the ground, wed surely be dead now.
hockeypup
13.
In the morning I was getting ready to go to school.
She tells me to unplug the christmas tree lights (we love decorating).
It all blew up.
The fire place was pushed out of the wall in one whole piece.
The wall was destroyed.
The mantle over the fireplace flew clear across the room.
The Nutcrackers we left on the fireplace flew across the room and 2 got embedded in the wall.
The Christmas tree (luckily a fake plastic one) was knocked over.
The side facing the wall was curled, melted, and burned.
Almost every ornament made of breakable stuff was shattered.
Rather from the boom, or the fall, hard to tell.
All throughout the house were stress cracks in the sheet rock.
I got minor burns on my face.
I was just off to the side of said blown up wall.
My mom was sitting on a chair near the door, far away from it all.
There was no real fire.
It was more of a blast of really hot air, really fast.
BloodySpies
14.
Well, they were eventually picked up by the Exxon Valdez, which was fortunate.
LatrodectusGeometric
15.
About 10 of my friends were at a party at a buddys house for the 4th.
The deck was about 30 feet off the ground (2nd floor deck, sloping back yard).
Id just sat down and I heard what sounded like a tree falling.
I remember looking a friend to ask, What was that?
but I barely got what out of my mouth when the deck went out from under us.
Turns out, it was the deck separating from the house.
Luckily, they had metal patio furniture which kept the deck off of us or wed have been crushed.
I busted my lip, broke my nose and a tooth.
Friend that owns the house busted her whole face open and had to have reconstructive surgery.
That was the worst of it though.
Were super lucky no one died.
cyberlich
16.
When boats sink, they SINK.
Fortunately we had life vests otherwise I have no doubt wed all be dead.
We decide our best chance at survival is to keep swimming towards the island.
We get out of the water maybe an hour later and can barely walk.
No sleep, just shivering and trying to stay warm.
Finally the sun comes up and we are able to stop shivering.
I tossed my lifevest into a tree just in case someone spots it.
The hike takes us a few hours over two ridges and through some pretty thick brush.
Fortunately there were a few more streams.
Thats when we spot a guy walking to work on the farm.
Theres a lot more that happened in that whole 72hour period, but you get the idea.
It was all over the news for like 2.6 minutes, like everything these days.
Even though we all survived, I still have PTSD from that event, which sucks.
Well see… nevernottraveling
17.
It was a small plane, with only my dad and I being the only ones in the plane.
The plane had 4 doors and a propeller.
That kind of plane.
We were about 1000 feet over the San Francisco Bay, and the engine quit.
The plane proceeded to fall, as would be the case.
The shoreline was miles away at least, however we had no other options.
One was horribly off the mark, but we were able to grab one.
This led to our rescue!
When I got home, I took the best shower of my life.
This anxiety has led to me being incredibly jumpy, and on edge constantly.
The cause of the crash?
Condensation in the fuel bladders of the plane put water in the engine, killing it mid flight.
The plane was far too damaged to be anything other than scrap at that point.
Life each day like it could be your last!!
critty15
18.
Im not really sure how much later but the same thing happened again but even more violently.
They took some details and told us to come to the station in a few days.
FatCunth
19.
We were close to death during a plane crash
I was in aplane crashin 2013.
Once we reached 2000(?)
feet above takeoff we began losing airspeed.
Now at a few hundred feet and descending rapidly the pilot took aim at a farmers field.
They managed to level out at around tree-height but we were quickly running out of field.
I ended up walking away essentially unscathed, minor bruising from the seat belt and some small scratches.
The pilot had a pretty good cut, and bashed their knee up on the dashboard.
The front passenger (my gf) took pretty much the brunt of it all.
Her seat ripped off the floor, smashing her against the roof.
It shredded the ligaments in one side of her neck, compressed her spine, and concussed her badly.
The ligaments were bad, and are still causing issues now 5 years later.
But the post concussion issues were far worse.
It took a solid 2 years before things started returning to what I could call normal.
cactussword
20.
I was at a his house, helping him move of all things.
There was smoke everywhere, but we couldnt tell where it was coming from or how close it was.
We wore face masks to help with breathing outside.
Once daylight was starting to go away, the darkness made it easier to see where the fires were.
To our surprise, the fires were all around us going up and down mountains.
Once they did a mandatory evacuation, it was already to late for a lot of people.
We started down the mountain and the further down we got, the more fire we saw.
Trees, bushes and brush were all on fire all around us.
Trees and power lines were falling.
We got to a place on the road were a tree had blocked the road.
We couldnt back up, because the roads were small and there were people behind us.
The inside of the truck was so damn hot.
We wanted to pop fire up windows but then the smoke would get in.
We were able to make it off the mountain in one piece.
Its still surreal to me that I was that close to death.
