Natural Disasters

The west coast of North America is filled with many different environments and the various natural disasters present there. The effects of these disasters can be seen through the myriad bridge collapses we have had in the last 100 years. California is rife with earthquakes and they have caused many different bridges, such as the Antelope Valley Freeway Interchange or the Cypress Viaduct to collapse. Landslides and floods have also caused many different bridges to fall including the John Day River Bridge, the Tex Wash Bridge, and the Pfeiffer Bridge. Natural disasters are not the only thing that can take down a bridge; in fact, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the Skagit River Bridge, and the Peace River Bridge were taken down through human error.

In this text the author talks about some major hurricanes that have affected us. First, we have Hurricane Harvey. Harvey started as a tropical storm August 17th and 56 hours later it was a Category 4 Hurricane. Harvey hit the city of Rockport on the 25th and pounded Houston for 4 days straight. Harvey ended up bringing 1.3 metres of rain and killing 82 people. Next up was Irma, by August 31st Irma was a Category 5 hurricane. On September 6th Irma ravished the Caribbean islands. Barbuda was hit the hardest, being wiped out by a 2.5 metre storm surge. In the Florida Keys, there was a 4 metre storm surge. In mainland Florida, 106 million litres of sewage was released from pumps due to power outages. The text said that winds were 300km/h, and that

It is difficult to even imaging how serious hurricanes can be. “Category 5 hurricanes are the strongest storms. Winds howl at more than 155mph.” (33) “They can be more than 300 miles from one side to another.” (6) In this nonfiction book, Wood begins with a description of Hurricane Katrina. He describes how it was one the worst storms in U.S. history. It devastated the Gulf coast with 140 mph winds ripping apart buildings and tearing down power lines. The main damage to New Orleans was due to big holes breaking through the levee and Lake Pontchartrain’s water flooding the city. Some areas were 20 feet deep, which left people stranded on their roofs for days before help arrived.

Citizens of America seek thrill and excitement. Whether this is in the form of concerts or snorkeling in the waters off the coast of Hawaii. However, others choose to go to the extreme and participate in the utmost endeavours. These thrill seekers may go through intense training before taking place in these activities. Accidents, although, do happen. Individuals cannot predict all that will transpire. People have a moral obligation to save others in need.

It is generally understood that each type of disaster requires a specific type of response. In the last twenty years floods and storms caused approximately fifty five percent of all worldwide natural disasters (Leeuw, Vis & Jonkman, 2012). Due to the fact, that floods are typically preceded by conditions such as heavy rains or high waters, generally it is easier to predict the possibility of flooding when compared to other natural disasters. Thus, due to the nature of floods preventive activities may be implemented that may prevent the flood form occurring. Some common practices such as filling sandbags or the use of dams are prime examples of preparatory activities. Unfortunately as demonstrated with hurricane Katrina, disaster preparedness is quite challenging.

Natural disasters affect thousands of lives each year, and have the potential to drastically alter a country/state and its people. Because of the destructive force Mother Nature can bring about, it is imperative to have mitigation plans set up in populated areas to protect people and reduce the structural damage to buildings, houses, etc. There are some mitigation plans, however, that have been unsuccessful, resulting in catastrophic disasters. Best examples of these are the Connecticut Flood of 1955 and Hurricane Katrina. Even though these are two different types of natural disasters; the level of destruction, preparedness, mitigation strategies, and the overall aftermaths had profound and lasting changes on the areas inflicted, mainly Connecticut and Louisiana.

The time I helped someone out of their house during a natural disaster was about 7 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. Hot, Wind-fed tornado swirled around southern California. The lady that I saved had been through a natural disaster before and never been harmed. So the lady stayed put.

Before I looked into this topic of these crazy natural disasters I did not know that much about Hurricanes and all that imply. When Br. Little gave me the option to choose whatever natural disaster case I want this was easily my first choice. I have used information from cites but will probably will most likely be quotes because I cannot summarize science all that much so if it looks like plagiarism it was not intended to be. As we were talking about it in class it really interested me and how much it can impact a city or a country. Hurricanes are so fascinating to me. As we were talking about it in class it really interested me and how much it can impact a city or a country. We get the term Hurricane from the word ‘Taino’ a Native American word meaning “evil spirit of the wind” (40 Facts About Hurricanes - Conserve Energy Future).

Catastrophic events were surrounding Burnham, in both his personal life and his work life. Everything seems to be falling apart, which creates a anxious mood in the book. The author also creates a melancholic mood since everything around him is not going the way he imagined it going at all, and is instead going the complete opposite. Losing a friend is tremendously difficult alone, and Burnham is having to deal with the stress of the fair and the loss of his friend, which made me feel empathy toward him. This part of the book also made me realize the way life can suddenly, without warning shift, and produce a feeling making you think it is the end of the world, and how many people do not cherish or are grateful for friends and family until

Natural disaster occurs across the world and create damage across our nation. They have affected us mentally and physically. Natural disaster are event or accident created by the environment resulting in a lot of damage sometimes. Destroying Our house, lives and communities. Natural disaster can range from a flood to a hurricane or cyclone. Over the past twenty years there has been thousand even millions of damage created by disaster across the U.S. There are many ways a natural disaster occur. We focused on three main topics of Natural disaster which are the types of natural disaster, how they affect us and how we they have affected the US.

The authors, Jacqueline Adams and Ken Kostel, who wrote the excerpt “Super Natural Disasters of the 21st Century,” adequately describe the causes and effects of disasters in different ways. For example, in paragraph 10, it states that “Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans sits in a

Hurricane Katrina left the world, and of course America, wondering what happened and how could a situation like this occur? From beginning to the very end the level incompetence and disregard for people was astonishing. Several rap artists, political analysts, media contributors, and eye witnesses were vocal about their outrage of the situation and how disturbing it was to watch most of the population of the city, which was black, suffer and be subjected to these harsh and inhumane conditions for so long a period without any real relief or help. Not only did this controversy show the utter lack of ability to handle a natural disaster of a hurricane, it also showed the level of respect and consideration from the Bush administration at the time.

A natural disaster is a critical phenomenon of a natural process from the earth such as an earthquake, flood, drought or typhoon which impacts significantly on human life and human social activities (March, 2002; Hutton, 2008). These natural disasters suddenly disturb a population everyday life placing them into a helpless state of emergency and suffering. The greater magnitude of the disaster is, the bigger it exerts pressure on the local resources and infrastructure to a breaking point where provision such as medical and nursing care, transportation of food and protection against harsh weather condition is shortage. Also by overwhelming the local resources, the normal smooth running of the community becomes a catastrophic stage (Dilley, et al., 2005; WHO, 2018).

Hurricanes have been long regarded as the epitome of natural disasters, as the epicenter of danger. They have the power to clear out entire cities, to flood neighboring states, to take lives. Hurricane Harvey is not an exception, rather, it is a prime example of how much damage a natural disaster can do to the modern world. From their humble beginnings as thunderstorms, to their final raging stage, hurricanes must follow a set of steps in order to become the monstrosities that have tormented humankind before them. Yet the people prevail, they come together, they rebuild, they survive.

This paper will discuss the differences between two different natural and man-made disasters. The disasters that will be discussed are Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Additionally, this paper will look into the specifics of what constitutes a natural and man-made disaster. Specifically, this paper will look into each disaster to include the events surrounding them; the risks; and the assessments. Furthermore, this paper will look at some of the details of each disaster and why there was so much devastation. Finally, this paper will look at a few similarities, but mainly the differences between the two, and how the effects of each still linger today.