Earthquake Environmental Problems

Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.

In California, there are school programs that will help prepare the children for the disaster. Not just that, the program are placed to help them gain knowledge on the mechanism of natural disaster, to be specific an earthquake disaster. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Service (Cal OES) (2008), developed a program that

I propose that the state of California enforce stricter regulations concerning earthquake safety before, during, and after the quake. Scientists are preparing by studying the earthquake to help predict how much land area that the earthquake will cover and how strong the shaking will be in order to help prepare for The Big One. The government of California, however, has not made many changes to the safety regulations and rules for emergency preparedness to accommodate these findings (California Seismic Safety Commission). If anyone in California wants a chance of surviving the earthquake to come, then some changes need to be made concerning building regulations, emergency routes and safety procedures, and emergency responders’ training in responding

While we do not have historical record of all of the natural hazards that have impacted the United States, we do know that for multitudes of years, the United States has been hit by many natural hazards – hurricane, tornado, drought, wildfire, flood and earthquake, to name a few. As each of these natural hazards occur, multiple issues arise – relative to the core components of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. Yet, even with prior knowledge from years past and the destructive events that have occurred, we as a nation continue to struggle with natural hazards that more often than not become natural disasters. For too long it seems as if we have settled in to a rhythm of responding, attempting to recover, rebuilding and then repeating the cycle as another natural hazard strikes.

In order to map earthquake hazard zones correctly geologists found that not only should they be mapping historic earthquake epicenters but also a detailed map of every single fault line. Not until the deadly Long Beach earthquake of 1933 did politicians and engineers feel the need to start earthquake proofing the structures around them (Mualchin 2011). With the passing of the Field Act school buildings in particular were constructed with earthquake safety in mind. But the Field Act only covered schools. It wasn't until the San Fernando earthquake of 1971 where major infrastructure and hospitals were severely damaged that more policies were put in place to earthquake proof these structures (Mualchin 2011). The schools which were structurally designed to withstand earthquakes from the Field Act faired surprisingly well during this earthquake. The new policies that followed the San Fernando earthquake required hospitals and infrastructure to be designed to withstand an earthquake, also they required rupture hazard zones to be mapped so that development here would be

Disasters are bound to strike at a given time and they more often find us unaware, this is the sole reason why the majority of the disasters that happen are usually fatal and destructive. This then calls for the need to try as much as possible to prevent these disasters and in particular in our cities. This is due to the fact that in the cities there are large populations that live close to each other or work in offices crammed together hence the likelihood of a disaster turning absolutely fatal if and when it strikes. However, due to the inevitable nature of these disasters, it is upon us to make adequate preparations that can enable us to minimize the effects of the natural disasters as much as possible when and if they happen.

There are many earth hazards everywhere on earth which both humans and nature share a role, natural hazards such as volcanoes, floods, forest fires, and avalanches, and purely of human origin like the chemical leak, oil spills, and human made earthquake. But one of nature's most dangerous hazard that we have to live with in California must are earthquakes. A earthquake is when two tectonic plates slowly slip past each other and get stuck which creates friction. The point where the two blocks slip is called the fault or fault plane. When the earthquakes start is at the hypocenter, and the point above the hypocenter is called the epicenter. After a earthquake, there are aftershocks that are smaller earthquakes, some aftershocks can be as large

Earthquakes are a nationwide hazard. When considering earthquakes today, most Americans assume major earthquakes only threaten areas such as California, over the San Andreas Fault, but few realize there are at least four active seismic zones across the United States. According to seismologists, all of these zones have delivered historic earthquakes, and any of them could awaken and strike again at any time. The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is the most active earthquake region in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The New Madrid Fault lies in America’s Heartland, stretching from St. Louis, Missouri to Memphis, Tennessee. Whereas fault lines in California are at or near the surface to be studied, the active faults in the NMSZ are

“Effective mitigation requires that we all understand local risks, address the hood choices, and invest in long term community well-being. Without mitigation actions, we jeopardize our society financial security and self-reliance.” (FEMA) The programs that FEMA have in place for mitigation help to reduce the impact of events. There is also Hazard Mitigation which takes action to reduce and prevent future damage before a disaster happens.

California is suspected of experiencing a killer quake, one that reaches the magnitude of 7.5. However, it is impossible to predict an earthquake. The Puente Hills Fault is one of the most dangerous “sleeping monsters” (if it were to) create an earthquake. It is located in the Los Angeles basin, where it can cause approximately 45 seconds of rippling instead of just 7 seconds because it is on softer ground, cause thousands of deaths, and potentially destroy the city of Los Angeles.

Natural hazards have long been something that American have become desensitized to over the years. The reason for this desensitization is largely due to the predictability and immediate response to these disasters. We recognize the parameters of these forces and have developed ways to counteract them. This provides the American people a form of calm assessment when it comes to a natural hazard.

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

Another human factor is the earthquake mitigation through education and community awareness. Schemes such as the one in Sichuan, China helped to save thousands of lives. The weekly intervals of training in case of an earthquake, educated children and adults of what to do when the quake struck. Evacuation schemes such as the window slides or hiding under tables was reported to have saved thousands when the magnitude 8.0 hit the area in 2008. However, some were not saved due to their unwillingness to move and evacuate the area. Some people of the village, notably the poorer and elderly refused to leave as they didn’t want to leave all they owned behind.

Specific measures taken before disasters strike, to ensure effective response constitute preparation. This phase may include specific contingency planning, emergency exercises, training, installation and use of warning systems.

The most important hazard mitigation strategy is to inform the community about the risk associated with the nature of the hazards surrounding their locale, along with educating and motivating them to diminish societal risk by taking risk-reducing action. It is critical for scientists to play a role in active hazard education by keeping the officials and the general public aware of realistic hazard situations by assisting in risk-reduction evaluation strategies, engaging in informative hazard reduction dialogue with public officials and community leaders, and by