1. My hometown is Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which does not experience many national hazards. Looking at the Nathan World Map of National Hazards, even though the scale is pretty large, and hard to map my town exactly, I can estimate the approximate location. My town is in zone 2 for hailstorms, zone 1 for winter storms, zone 2 for tornados, zone 2 for wildfires, and zone 0 for earth quakes. We are about 1 hour and a half from the Coast of New Jersey, which according to the map we would have some exposure to Tropical Cyclones, which would be in Zone 4. Again I was not able to zoom on the map to see my town exactly, but it the map seems pretty accurate.

2. The disaster I choose is a biological hazard in Beijing China. It has been reported that people have been infected with Yellow Fever. The time that the first person confirmed with the virus was reported with March 13th, with a recent update on March 20^th, which indicate that there have been a total of 3 people been confirmed with Yellow Fever. Luckily there have been no reported deaths from the virus. Generally the virus spreads mostly through mosquitos, a virus such as Yellow Fever could defiantly impact my home town. People in the United States travel to cities across the world and can bring back a virus. If you look at scale of the event, Beijing China is a highly populated area, which if the virus is not caught early, it could spread quickly. However, when you look at 3 people infected out of over the 11 million people in Beijing, it is not a huge impact. My town is not nearly as populated, if we did have such a virus, although it could spread and impact the area, it would not spread as quickly because our population is lower. But if you looked at a comparable scale, 3 people infected out of 18,000 in my town, if it did spread further than that it could have an impact on the overall population of Doylestown. If we did have the Yellow Virus in my hometown, the human population that could be most vulnerable would be people who our outside a lot, especially in the evening when Mosquitos come out. Also those people who live near water such as lakes, ponds or streams since mosquitos lay their eggs in water, those areas have a tendency to have more mosquitos. Ways to reduce the vulnerably would be educate residents on how the virus is spread and how to prevent exposure. There are also vaccinations that can be given to prevent the virus. However, not everyone has healthcare or even afford to go to the doctor and get vaccinations so socioeconomics can lead to disproportionate impact to people in the community. Because such a virus could impact the entire community, we could have the local business and community sponsor a health fair and provide free shots to those could not afford to get it at the doctors.

3. As you can tell from my analysis of the Nathan World Map of National Hazards, my town is not subjected to many national hazards. Being close to New Jersey when that area is impacted by hurricanes, we can be somewhat impacted with rain, thunderstorms and winds. However, in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy hit the North East, Doylestown did get hit pretty hard. Although it was nothing compared to the Jersey Shore area, we still had major damage in the area. Trees, large branches and power lines were down everywhere. Many homes, including ours were without power for four or more days. The storm impacted schools, business and public transportation. According to the New York Times over a half of million electric customers in Pennsylvania were without power for days. People close to low-lying areas were asked to go to shelters. I remember our finished basement was severely flooded during the storm, but again we were lucky that the water did not rise high enough to impact our main floor.

Citation

Preston, Jennifer, Sona Patel, and Maira Garcia. “State-by-State Guide to Hurricane Sandy.” New York Times. October 29, 2012. Accessed April 01, 2016. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/state-by-state-guide-to-hurricane-sandy/?_r=0.

4. Since Doylestown can be impacted by Hurricanes educating residents in my town could be taken to reduce vulnerability. I know at times the news will indicate that if you live in a low lying area, to seek shelter, however people may not really realize if they live in such areas. Our county has a website for disaster preparedness, but I am sure many residents are not aware of it. The county could get the awareness out there by distributing flyers or even adding a link to a social media website (such as Facebook). In addition, people can ensure that they take down rotted trees and keep trees trimmed to reduce trees falling on homes and power lines during high winds. I can take action by educating myself on our county disaster plan, ensuring our trees are properly taken care or, as well as sharing and educate my friends, family and neighbors.