1.) My hometown is Williamsport, PA which is only about an hour from State College. Located in the Northeast of the US its pretty clear that the Northeast in general has a pretty mild intensity of natural hazards. Tropical cyclones and earthquakes aren’t even relevant and for other natural hazards it remains in the low zones. For example, for wildfires and extratropical storms its shown as being in zone 1, and for hail storms and tornadoes its a zone 2. I think the NATHAN map is pretty accurate in illustrating natural hazards in regions. I can say that for Williamsport and pretty much all of Pennsylvania, the map is accurate in the sense that we face low degrees of natural hazards and mainly get the aftermaths of natural hazards from other regions such as hurricanes which come at a much lower degree for us in comparison to more vulnerable regions.

2.)The natural hazard I would like to focus on is considered a biological hazard in the city of Beijing, China. More specifically there has been an outbreak of yellow fever and has been confirmed to have infected three people so far. My hometown could absolutely face this kind of hazard. Being that it is biological and disease related, geography really plays no part and any town could become infected. I would say that some cities are more vulnerable to this type of hazard than others. Beijing being that it is a country capital, a high tourist place, and just a place in general where a lot of people are traveling through makes it much more vulnerable than others as a high population of people coming in and out increases the risk of spreading and bringing in diseases. My town is less vulnerable as it is much much smaller than Beijing and isn’t a tourist trap, or a place where a lot of people travel through. However it is still vulnerable to an infectious disease breakout due to potential travelers but not as vulnerable as say NYC or Philly.If we consider the scale of the event, only three people so far have been infected, and Beijing has a very high population of people (approx 11.5 million). So 3 out of 11 million people really doesn’t seem like a major hazard. However if you scale this problem down to Williamsport which roughly has 30,000 people the hazard becomes much larger and is at risk for effecting a greater percentage of the total population of the city.Different people in Williamsport definitely have different levels of vulnerability. First off the geography of different people plays a huge part. Although Williamsport is a city, it is widely spread out consisting of a main downtown/city, suburban areas, and very rural areas. Those who live in the city and suburban areas are generally going to have more contact with people on a daily basis, thus increasing their risk of infection than people who live way out in the country. Socioeconomic status also plays a huge part. People of the lower class are not going to be able to afford precautions like those of the middle and upper classes such as staying home from work, vaccinations ect. For diseases like yellow fever, vaccinations do exist, but without health insurance its going to be very hard for certain people to get them making them more vulnerable. One way to lower vulnerability for this type of biological hazard would be to take precautions for disease outbreak. Educational classes could be offered to educate the community on how to decrease the risks of spreading disease and also how to personally prevent it. If a disease outbreak did begin, health clinics could offer free vaccines to people in need similar to the method of free flu vaccines offered yearly.

3.) As I mentioned above, Williamsport is not in a region of high vulnerability for natural hazards. In fact when I searched this the first thing that came up was an article ranking cities for natural hazards and Williamsport being on the list of lowest risk. Through my experience I have never witnessed a natural hazard in my town. Sure we’ve had big snow storms or small tornadoes, but never anything harmful enough to be a hazard.

Resource: CBS News Features Sperling’s Natural Hazards Ranking. (n.d.). Retrieved March 31, 2016, from http://www.bertsperling.com/2013/06/18/cbs-news-features-sperlings-natural-hazards-ranking/

4.) Although Williamsport is not a common place for natural hazards, I believe education is truly the key to lowering vulnerability. The more educated people of a community are the safer they feel and more prepared they are in hazard or disaster did strike. People of higher power and authority such as mayors, representatives ect should be the ones taking charge and delivering these methods. People are going to listen more if someone they respect is the one educating. Personally, I have learned a lot from this module and although I am not a politician I can certainly educate the people around me and hope they keep spreading awareness.