1) My city of Seoul, South Korea is located in the east part of the Asia. To be more specific for the people who may not know, it’s the country right next to Japan and the country below China. According to the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards, the biggest threats that we face is the tropical cyclones and the sea level rise. We are mostly threatened by the tropical cyclone beneath the country which is labeled as zone 4 and 5 but most of the country’s land is classified as zone 3 and 2 which may also need to be cautious about it. For the sea level rise, it’s beneath the country but the arrows indicate it strikes the country. Using the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards was somehow difficult to effectively and clearly read the map but it was simple enough to read if my city and country could be threatened by natural hazards.

2) The event I chose was the biological hazard that occurred on March 18^th, 2016 in an area of Guinea, Africa. This event was specified as the biological hazard because of the Ebola Virus Diseases. In my opinion, I don’t think it is possible for my hometown to experience the same type of biological hazards, Ebola Virus. This is because when the Ebola virus occurred and alarmed several countries like the United States, our country did not worry about the disease spreading towards our country. What is more, there are very less number of people from Africa who visits our country or Korean citizens visiting Africa unless it’s a volunteer matter. Therefore, when this event occurred the Korean volunteer workers or the visitors to Africa were tested and alarmed by the government to them. Also, when Ebola was alarmed, the government ordered a very high security in the airport to check the disease. However, I think if the disease spread throughout my city and country, our government wouldn’t have been prepared for event as we haven’t faced or experienced such big epidemics. The even only concerned 4 people but was considered a 4/4 level Biohazard. Africa has a much larger scale than my hometown, however I think if the virus spread in my hometown, it would have been worse because we are a small city with a massive number of population. Human contact and spread would have been much faster than the event. I think there would be a less severity of the disaster in my hometown because of the age and the hospital or health system. According to the module, the older you are the higher risk of hazards you face. I think my hometown has younger population compared to Africa. Also, we have better health and hospital system compared to the area of the event occurred. It would have saved more people or have had faster action to prevent it to spread so fast. An idea that would reduce my city’s vulnerability could be fast government’s action of alarming the citizens and having free tests available to the citizens at the near by hospital.

3) Seoul is located in South Korea. South Korea is located at the east part of the Asia. I believe my city and country does not have many threats on natural hazards. Therefore, I want to talk about the recent disastrous diseases or epidemics we faced. The disease was called MERS and was first found in Korea around mid May 2015. It is an abbreviation for Middle East respiratory syndrome epidemic and is a newly emerged beta coronavirus that was first founded in Saudi Arabia which spread gradually around the Middle East. The MERS was first founded in Korea when a single Korean traveler to the Middle East who believed he sought treatment after returning home. He was diagnosed after couple of days but the virus already spread among health care workers and patients in several hospitals. As a result, 186 laboratory-confirmed infections and 186 patients were recovered and been discharged but 36 patients have died. I think this was one of the worst epidemic in South Korea and I know how bad and scary it was because I was living few blocks away from the hospital that could treat the MERS and where MERS infected patients was found. The whole country was alarmed to not go out often and to wear mask, cough with handkerchief and to carry around sanitizers. There was shorten supplies of sanitizers and masks around the whole city, especially the city Seoul and were making citizens to worry much worse. I think diseases spread faster than any could have thought because the government avoided formally declaring the diseases to the country.

Citations:

Normile, Dennis. “South Korea May Not Be Declared MERS-free until September.” South Korea May Not Be Declared MERS-free until September. AAAS, 31 July 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/07/south-korea-may-not-be-declared-mers-free-until-september>.

“2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Outbreak in South Korea.”Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Middle_East_respiratory_syndrome_outbreak_in_South_Korea>.

4) In my opinion, the major way to reduce the vulnerability to natural hazards in Seoul would be faster communication and warnings of hazards or epidemics from the Korean government and the pre-event preparedness that was mentioned in the Module. I thought that the government should communicate the citizen of Korea in a faster and accurate pace. Like I mentioned above in question 3, the country lost 36 lives because the government did not warn the country earlier when they knew the MERS was occurring inside, did not mention the hospitals that the MERS patient contacted with and did not spread an accurate information about the disease and preparation to the citizens. If this would have happened, it would have saved more lives. Therefore, I think faster communications and warnings with an accurate information would help my city and country to reduce vulnerability. Moreover, I think the education system should promote more campaigns and teach students from a young age about natural hazards that may struck the country. Schools can prepare more education to children. As an early childhood major and future teacher, I think I should prepare more lessons to children about safety and drills incase of natural hazards.