- Looking at the Nathan World Map of Natural Disasters, there are a few things that this map says about my state/town in particular. The map claims that NJ has faced an increase in heavy rain, or that we will face this problem in the near future. The map also says that this state is in Zone 1 for hailstorms, zone 0 for winter storms, zone 1 for tornados, zone 1 for wildfires, and that there are more storms during La Nina, and less storms during El Nino. The map also notes that we have usually normal amounts of precipitation, and our weather stays mostly the same. This map indicates that there are very few natural disasters that occur in my area. This holds true, which leads me to think that the Nathan map is well suited for this task. It seems that this is a reliable source to use.
- On March 28, 2016 there was a chemical spill in Chicago’s Far South Side. 500 gallons of sulfuric acid were spilled at a building, but the firefighters that arrived at the scene were able to clean it up before anyone was harmed. This resembles a hazard that could definitely occur in my town, or near my town. The large city of Philadelphia is located very close to me, so there are highly traveled highways within minutes of my house. There is a large risk of something like this occurring due to either a tractor trailer transporting these chemicals could turnover, or there could be a factory spill. Due to our location, and the heavily traveled and populated area there is a high vulnerability for this occurrence. This disaster that occurred in Chicago was not on a large scale, and mainly just affected the people near the building. This is relevant to my hometown because there are many places where something like this could occur. Since the scale would be similar in my hometown, I do not believe the impact would change, and firefighters would be able to tend to this issue. This disaster could be severe if it involved other people that would be harmed by the chemical spill. It could also be severe if it leaked into a major source we use such as our water system. Due to the possible severity of the issue, there are many different vulnerable people in my town. Some are not economically stable, so if there was a chemical spill that contaminated our water supply, these type of people would not be able to buy other water possibly. Or, if people do not have house/car/health/any type of insurance, and there was a chemical spill on the highway that impacted their car/health this would make them extremely vulnerable to this situation. Others that are very stable might not be as vulnerable to these situations. My town’s overall vulnerability could be reduced by creating regulations on the amount of chemicals one is allowed to transport at a given time, so if something like this was to occur it would result in only a small scale problem.
- Resources:
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“RSOE EDIS – – Event Reports (Earthquakes, Events, Tropical Storms, Tsunamies and Others).” RSOE EDIS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
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Versio, 2011. NATHAN (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
- Looking at the Nathan map, there was a small risk for wildfires in my area. This holds true, as there are rarely wildfires that occur. On rare occasions, there could be a wildfire, and to reduce the vulnerability our town has a sign stating the likelihood of a wildfire for any given day based on the confounding variables. Looking at the RSOE/EDIS page, there are a few chemical spills located near my state. This makes sense as explained in number two above. Something seen on the RSOE/EDIS page that interested me was that a lot of places in the US have earthquakes without most people noticing. This leads me to think that these natural disasters could occur in my town without most of us knowing, and in face this has occurred before.
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- Looking at the natural resources such as wildfires, and earthquakes (along with other weather related disasters) there are things that can be done to reduce vulnerability. In my town particularly, awareness can be made. It is not as common for people to watch the news anymore, so there could be more updates that get sent to the cell phones of the people in my town. These updates could be informing people if any natural disasters were going to occur in the future, and how to prepare for them. Having the population educated about the disasters would reduce the vulnerability, and the impact because they could prepare for the disaster in advance, and not be taken by surprise. The best way to perform this action would be for the government to link with the phone companies, and create some sort of agreement where if there is a natural disaster that will occur, the government officials could inform the cellular companies to send out the notifications to inform the general population. Personally, as one individual, I can do my best to constantly keep up with the current news, and other factual information about natural disasters. I can educate my family and friends on what I know so that they hopefully educate their families and friends, and a domino effect is created to overall reduce the vulnerability.
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Hello Madison I’m Wenjie, I am interested in your discussion about a chemical spill in your area. Your idea about a turnover accident on chemical transportation vehicle sounds really practical. I agree that awareness and information is the primary action to take to reduce the vulnerability of a natural hazard. I talked about the earthquakes and water shortages in Ankara, Turkey in my post. I also set the information accessibility as the primary principle for reducing the vulnerability.
Here is the link to it.
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/28/m8la_wzz5097/