Kevin Hosterman – Module 8

I will be talking about State College again in this module, because I grew up here and this is the town I know best. State College is a fairly unique area when it comes to natural disasters and hazards solely because of its location. Due to being decently inward and surrounded by mountains we have a lot of protection, but it definitely doesn’t stop everything. Some of the different hazards we face here in State College include tornadoes, hailstorms, earthquakes, and sometimes very heavy rain can be considered a hazard. Although these things happen around here, they are usually rather minimal and don’t cause too much damage. The Nathan map does a very good job of giving a global look at natural hazards, but not too much for specific towns and cities.

I will be looking at a tornado that touched down today in Northern Alabama. State College is at very minimal risk for tornadoes, due to surrounding mountains not letting them become very powerful. The damage level of the event is considered medium and therefore if it were to directly hit the middle of State College it would cause severe damage due to the density in the middle of town. The area where it is currently occurring is more rural and can withstand something like this more easily due to most of the population being spread out. State College has a mix of a lot of different people and the most at risk would be the elderly. Everyone would try to leave and the elderly would be the most at risk due to not being able to escape. Reducing vulnerability in State College could be done by making all of Atherton a one way out of town to increase speed of people exiting.

I believe the two biggest hazards to State College of all natural disasters are tornadoes, and earthquakes. Although State College has never been impacted by a big enough one to cause severe damage they are the biggest possibilities when compared to other threats. A tornado could cause severe damage if it were able to land in a very specific spot and harness enough power without being torn down by the mountains. The likelihood of this is extremely low, but not impossible. I collected my information from USA.com.

The two major hazards to State College are earthquakes and tornadoes, so those would be the best options to work on protecting the town again. One way State College could work towards reducing vulnerability to both of these would be increasing building codes to mandatorily be able to resist high level tornadoes and earthquakes. The best people for this would be local agencies combined with people at Penn State due. Penn State would need to be involved because a very large majority of people in State College live on or near campus.

2 thoughts on “Kevin Hosterman – Module 8

  1. Hi Kevin! My name is Jacqueline and here’s a link to my blog!
    https://wp.me/p3RCAy-dgd

    Your post caught my eye because you’re from State College and I thought it would be interesting to learn about somewhere that I live a majority of the year! The natural disasters that affect State College area are very close to those that affect my hometown Bucks County, PA. I have family who live in Alabama and I remember a few years ago when there was a disastrous tornado that tore huge areas apart including where my family lives. Making structures that are able to withstand these types of natural disasters is something that I also talked about in my blog. I agree with you that by starting with the structures, it will only be more beneficial in the future when natural disasters occur.

  2. Hello Kevin,
    I enjoyed reading your post, because I am familiar with State College. I liked that you recommended to increase building code requirements. This is great for when building new buildings, but maybe there should be more inspections of older buildings to make sure they are safe. Penn State has many resources and is already involved in storm tracking, and the use of their enhanced alert system can help save lives when a storm approaches. Check out my blog post at: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-dbH

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