I've experienced most of the major types, but the one that terrifies me the most is earthquakes. I was vacationing in Istanbul, Turkey in the summer of '99, and fall semester classes were about to start less than a week later back home. I was with a bunch of friends and we had just come back from a night on the town with our respective girls, when the entire apartment jolted as if struck by something massive. For the next 15-20 seconds, but what felt like half an hour, the whole floor felt like a tiny boat on stormy water while the waves just kept getting bigger. The horizontal and vertical motion were haphazard, and it felt like hell after a night of drinking. That terror of sheer helplessness has never left me, and the girl I was with have kept touch over the years because of that night. I haven't experienced any EF5 tornadoes or Category 5 hurricanes, so those might be scarier.
The worse was the "Black Horde" after Katrina, that migrated to Texas. That was definitely the worst.
The only natural disaster I've come close to experiencing first hand is Hurricane Ike a couple of years ago. And the damage in my area wasn't even that bad.
I've been through several small earthquakes, a couple of tropical storms and just this winter alone about three snowmaggedon sized blizzards but the worst I've personally been close too was a wildfire in the Oakland Hills in 1991. I remember being at Cal and seeing the flames shooting up out of canyons in the hills and wondering how soon we would have to evacuate the campus. Luckily it never got down to the campus.
I haven't experienced it but a massive hurricane or earthquake can combine several of those disasters. A big enough hurricane can create a tsunami like storm surge, floods and spin off tornadoes. A subsea earthquake like what we saw in Japan can create a tsunami, landslides and also fires from breaking gas and power lines.
One of these things is not like the others. Anyway, you should have made it multiple choice. I've been through a few blizzards, hurricanes and floods, but they honestly weren't too problematic for me. I got the most damage from a tornado.
The 2010 Texans season? I guess I would have to say Ike, even though I was passed out drunk while the eye went over my house.
I've had big tornadoes near, blizzards, floods, and hurricanes. None were as bad as the 13 days with no power AFTER Ike.
