1. After looking at the map I could see that the Dallas Fort Worth area that I currently live in suffers from droughts, tornados and wildfires. I thought the map was useful on a larger scale if you’re just looking in a certain region. I was curious to see what natural hazards occurred more closely to where I currently live but that was not offered on these maps. For this task it allowed you to gather a general idea of what the area you live in usually expects to get hit by. I know that we have flooding that occurs when we do get hit with a lot of rain and many lives have been lost because of it.
2. The hazard I picked was a biological hazard in Guinea in the region of Nzerekore in a village called Korokpara. The biological hazard that they are facing is the Ebola virus. Yes the town I live in can experience the same type of disaster. We are not as vulnerable as the region of Nzerekore because we have better medical facilities that have the vaccine on standby just in case we have more people that carry the Ebola virus into our country. Since the previous scare with the Ebola virus in Dallas there is more effort to keep people safe. When we go to the doctor now we have to fill out a questionnaire of our most recent travels overseas. The scale of the Ebola virus has a total of 4 infected people that they are aware of in their region. If we too had 4 people that were infected with the Ebola virus the scale would be the same but the response time to try and stop the virus would be quicker. The people in my city have different levels of vulnerability because there are some communities that are more poverty stricken than others which also could alter their awareness of such diseases or the means to get the news. One way to reduce the vulnerability in such a disaster it to make the information readily available, in newspapers, news, and where everyone can read it. It would also help if the doctors could keep the patients informed at clinics and other medical facilities. People that have no means to a tv or to a local clinic would hopefully have a way to be informed but I fear that that is not the case and they would be the first ones to suffer in such a disaster.
3. In the Dallas Fort Worth area we suffer from severe weather and tornados. Within the past couple months I have experienced more severe weather with hail and tornados than I have since I moved here 10 years ago. We also have massive winds that have torn off my sheds roof and ripped down fences. We have had a hail storm once a week in the past two weeks that have left a path of destruction and millions of dollars in damages to cars (Osborne 2016). I personally did not experience any damage to my vehicle but I have supervisors that ended up with severe damages to their trucks and windows.

References

Osborne, Ryan. 2016. “The cost of hail: Car damage hits $300 million in Tarrant County.” Star-Telegram. March 18. Accessed March 28, 2016. http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article66940187.html.

4. The actions that could be done to reduce the vulnerability to natural disasters in my city would be getting the knowledge of what to do in certain situations to those that live in more poverty stricken areas or people that live further out from the city and suburbs that may not hear the sirens or warnings as quickly. I think the best people to inform others is the local weather, if it’s a meteorological hazard. If it’s a biological hazard then the best people would be healthcare officials. The one thing I can do is to be prepared for anything and always be aware of what is going on wherever I am. People need to be more aware of their surroundings and understand what is currently going on.