Having lived in Philadelphia for the greater portion of my life, I think I’ve experienced the natural hazards at all levels in this region. I’ve witnessed storms with high winds, blizzards, and tropical storms classified as hurricanes. I say “classified” because although we were hit by hurricane sandy, our neighboring states along the shoreline took in most of the damage. Some areas did lose power, and experienced heavy flooding, but Philadelphia, for the most part did not suffer anywhere near as much as people in New Jersey and New York. I don’t think Nathan’s map document is the best to symbolize the natural hazards in my city because it shows an entire region. Even though all of the northeastern states are fairly close together and experience similar weather conditions, when it comes to natural hazards, it can vary dramatically.

Volcanoes have always been something that fascinated me. So while looking through Emergency Disaster Information Service, I saw a volcano eruption in Peubla, Mexico. Fortunately enough, it shows that no one was harmed during this eruption. The site states that the level of damage is unknown, so I think it’s fair to assume that this area may not be heavily populated, or else it might actually be something that we would have heard already. This sort of disaster I don’t think is possible in my hometown. All my years of living, here I don’t think a volcano eruption has ever been a concern for anyone. There are no known active volcanos in this region, therefore being exposed to a volcanic eruption is very minimal. Considering that there been no reported injuries or harm done to anyone, it must be in a remote location. Had it been in a more populous area of Mexico, the results could very well have been fatal. Thinking of if the eruption had been here, in my hometown, it’s hard to imagine something with zero damage regardless of the size of the eruption. I’d assume there are several parts in Mexico that are very remote, but here in the northeast section of the States, it is very crowded. Even if people would have been evacuated, I can imagine a considerable monetary amount of damage done just based on the facts of how crowded it is here. The suburbs in this region are even busier than most other parts of the country. It is known that volcanic eruptions can cause earthquakes, which can ultimately cause cyclones. This region is surrounded by bodies of water, such as rivers, streams, creeks and only one state separates us from the Atlantic Ocean. Had this volcano been anywhere near our downtown center city, the damages could’ve been very extreme. Being right beside the Delaware River, and housing many tall sky scrapers, a disaster which includes a volcanic eruption, earthquake, and cyclone would be catastrophic. There’s been plenty of instances where buildings collapse randomly in Philly, and cause severe damages. I can only imagine what would happen if we were hit by a volcanic eruption or earthquake. This would be a clear result of higher damages from natural causes due to how we humans changed our environment.

There are numerous hazards that the state of Pennsylvania faces as a whole. The most costly for the past twenty years have been the result of transportation accidents resulting in over eighteen thousand deaths. I personally know that my local city and town have been working hard at preventing this by installing cameras at dangerous intersections and having more cops on the road. Speaking for just natural disasters alone, flooding seems to be the most problematic in this area. Whenever we have big rain storms and thunderstorms, I get an alert on my phone for a flash flood warning. Annoying, yes, but very helpful at the end. My parent’s house has been flooded couple of times already due to the way it was built. According to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, floods are second in the list right behind transportation accidents in hazards in all of PA.

Having discussed some of the ongoing hazards in this region, I do believe the department of transportation is doing a great job in attempting to reduce fatal accidents. There’s always constant construction going on our roads and highways. As far as the flooding issues, there can be more work done. One way of preventing this I believe is the all of the local water departments need to work on better drainage systems. I think we have a great one in place already, but there’s always room for improvement. On a personal level I think we all should promote recycling and properly disposing your trash. Walking down city streets, I can’t remember how many times I see trash forced into drain systems. I’m no expert but I’m sure this doesn’t help our flood issue.