I lived in every region of the country, including California and Florida, and yet managed to go all my life without experiencing a single natural disaster. And then I came to the Czech Republic. The geography of Central Europe makes it much more prone to political and economic disasters than natural ones. Where hurricanes and tornadoes went missing, invading armies usually kept things churned up. So when a natural disaster does hit, it warrants a grand, almost biblical title, like the Millennium Flood that hit Moravia and Silesia in 1997.
Timing has a lot to do with it.
Had the Millennium Flood come three years later, it might've had to wait a thousand years to see if the title would stand. As things turned out, some residents affected by the flood could have easily waited that long before finally getting the warning to evacuate. The delay ended up costing them just about everything, including whatever faith they had in their local government. When one such community angrily denounced the authorities for not warning them sooner, an official lamely told them that they, the city, wanted to get the word out, but none of them could find a bullhorn. When asked why they simply didn't send city employees out to tell the people in person, he replied that, well, they couldn't find them either.