Natural Hazards

By Nazareno Hossfeldt9A

What is a Natural Hazard?

• Definition: any event or force of nature that has catastrophic consequences, such as an avalanche, earthquake, flood, forest fire, hurricane, lightning, tornado, tsunami, and volcanic eruption, in many religious beliefs, a Natural Hazard is an Act Of God (outside of human control).

An Introduction (Optional)

• One thing that the world is really concerned about is the safety of its inhabitants. To most of the developed countries, safety lies above everything else; power, population, research, health, wealth, environment, etc. Many things like crime and war are factors that cause the number of casualties to rise. A country’s (or state’s) government can stop these factors with law and punishment, because the factors are caused by crime, corruption, cults that tend to use violence for their personal needs etc. These are people who cause this.However, neither mankind nor animals are responsible or can interfere with a factor that is causing many casualties –Natural Disasters.Natural disasters happen naturally; as dangerous, serious and powerful as these disasters may be, they cannot be stopped (or delayed) with any type of technology, today. It’s as if we tried to defy a force, like gravity or death (but you never know, maybe one day, we may reach that level of heights)

There are several types of different Natural Disasters, each with their perspective sub-categories:

WATER DISASTERSFloodsLimnic EruptionsTsunamisWEATHER DISASTERSBlizzardsCyclonic StormsDroughtsHailstormsHeat WavesTornadoesFIRE DISASTERSWildfiresLAND MOVEMENT DISASTERSEruption(s) –VolcanicVolcanic Ash –VolcanicPyroclastic flows –Volcanic Super volcanoes –VolcanicLaharsEarthquakesAvalanchesWEATHER DISASTERSBlizzardsCyclonic StormsDroughtsHailstormsHeat wavesTornadoes

An example of one of the greatest floods in the United States: THE GREAT UNITED STATES FLOOD OF 1993

• From May to September 1993, one of the most catastrophic floods to ever hit the United States –The Great Flood of 1993. The Flood occurred across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The number of casualties was considerately low compared to many of the other disasters that took place on the United States (such as earthquakes), however, considering that it’s only a flood (which usually cause low number of deaths) it still managed to end many lives; 50 people had drowned (?), this is a really high number, considering it’s a flood which is one of the easiest disasters that people can make out alive. More than 10,000 homes were destroyed in the process, and many towns throughout the state got flooded, almost entirely. The total cost of the damages made were over 15 million dollars, farmlands, acres, houses, buildings got cleaned out. Tens of Thousands left their homes.

An example of one of the greatest floods in Mexico: OCTOBER 1999 MEXICO FLOODS

• Starting from October 12 to October 28, several states in Mexico; Veracruz, Puebla, and Tabasco, suffered the fate of the greatest floods to ever occur in Mexico in the last 50 years. There was inadequate time to evacuate people from towns such as Tulancingo (in the state of Hidalgo), 60 km from Mexico City. The flood caused other dangers to approach the citizens who suffered from this event; mudslides and crocodiles infested flooded streets in Villahermosa (in the state of Tabasco. The Penitas Dam located near to Villahermosa had to be drained to avoid overflowing and added to the flooding downstream where more than 10,000 people were evacuated for safety.Unfortunately, the flood had an amazing impact on the country and its people… The damage costs were estimated to be over 1 billion U.S Dollars. The impact that the floods had caused affected 530,000 people, so in other words, these people either lost their homes and/or family because of the effects the floods had on the country. 476 people were confirmed to be deceased after the event happened.

Now let’s compare, one of the greatest floods to ever hit the United States with the greatest flood that ever hit Mexico over 50 years ago.

Effects and causes that flood(s) had on the countries

Effects that the October 1999 Floods and The Great Flood of 1993 had on Mexico and the United States perceptively

Mexico United States

No. of deaths 476 50

Houses destroyed

Over 50 10,000

Repair costs 1 billion 15 million

Evacuated 10,000 Over 9,000

The number of deaths in Mexico caused by the October 1999 floods and the repair costs were much higher than that of The Great Flood of 1993. However the number of houses destroyed was much higher in the United States, and the number of people that evacuated as well.One of the reasons why Mexico had a higher number of deaths is probably due to the lack of swimming skills that (presumably) children have, and the poor quality houses that they live on (shanty towns). This suggests that being able to swim increased the probability of surviving floods.

“This lucky cat gets fresh food and water after being rescued from a roof top in flooded Villahermosa, Tabasco Mexico”Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/troysnow/2048051274/

1993 STORM OF THE CENTURY

• Known as the Super Storm’93, Storm of the Century or simply as the White Hurricane.The most powerful storm in the past 100 + years, the storm took place mainly across eastern United States and Cuba, but stretched from Canada into Central America. The storm was formed in March 11 1993, and had ended in March 15 of the same year. The blizzard was around for a short amount of time but that did not stop it from causing great damage.The lowest pressure reached was 960 mbar, and the temperature went down to -12 degrees Celsius. The number of deaths is really high on blizzards, much more than floods, there was 300 fatalities.The damage cost that the blizzard caused was over 5 billion U.S dollars (USD).Although Mexico, Canada, United States and Cuba were affected by the blizzard, the countries that suffered the most were the United States and Canada.

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• Blizzards usually take place on the northern hemisphere, and tend to happen in winter and sometimes autumn. There are blizzards that take place in the very bottom of the southern hemisphere, where Antarctica is, but not many people live there and most of the people that go to Antarctica are tourist.In countries like Canada and the northern States of the United States, is where people have to be precautious with this type of Natural Hazard, specially in Canada, where some parts, such as Quebec, is somewhere around 0 degrees Celsius.Seeking shelter and wearing warm clothing can increase chances to survival.

An Example of how this car was covered in thick layers of snow after an aftermath (when a blizzard is over)

The events on the picture took place on the United States.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/73645804@N00/4198547799

An example of a Land Movement Disaster:1906 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

• Known to be the worst Natural Disaster ever recorded on the history of the United States. The earthquake obviously took place in San Francisco, but the Magnitude was so high, that it was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles and as far as Nevada. A depth of 8 kilometers.The main cause of the earthquake was San Andreas fault. The earthquake had an average magnitude of 7.8, however, it went up to 8.25 at times. The disaster took place on April 18 1906 and ended in a matter of time (earthquakes usually last a couple of minutes, in that time, despite this; there is still a lot of havoc).More than 3000 people died on this incident, and these were only confirmed, there was estimated to be more deaths.225,000 people were left homeless, because the majority of the buildings got obliterated by the impact, including homes or any other phisical structures… this affected the damage costs; 8.2 billion.

Other countries in the other hand…

• Japan is really infamous for having earthquakes occasionally, and many times they come in bigger numbers and larger magnitudes than those in the United States. Japan has a history of belief and experience with earthquakes –people believed that earthquakes were caused by some giant catfish underneath the planet getting angry or something: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namazu_%28Japanese_mythology%29

• Despite all the earthquakes that Japan has, the county doesn’t suffer from this disaster as much nowadays, the country has a security programme on almost every house (specially on the Kanto region). The procedures are told when an earthquake takes place and that is it… sometimes there are no casualties and rarely, if any, deaths. The buildings are specifically made to resist earthquakes, so they do not collapse, the technology that Japan has is the most advanced in preparations for natural hazards.

FACT: The costs to make this system for the buildings on regions is more affordable than the damage costs that many other countries get after the earthquake takes place.

The earthquakes on Japan do have an effect on some of the environment, but they are minimal harmless, damages, nothing compared to what happened in Haiti.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpellgen/1896186516/

Thank You For Watching.