When I looked at the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards, to be honest, I found it very difficult to tell what the natural hazards were even for my state, let alone for my city. It was very blurry when I tried to zoom in, so I did my best to guess what was on there. What I think was on there near the Pennsylvania area was that there is an increase in heavy rain. Also, it seems like we may be at a higher risk for hailstorms, and possibly extratropical storms (winter storms). Again, I’m not positive, but that’s what I look away from the map.

The disaster that I chose was the Power Outage in Kentucky, USA. I think that my hometown of Plymouth Meeting, PA could definitely face this kind of disaster. In fact, we have experienced power outages before. However, I don’t think there have ever been any severe ones. The most that will happen usually is that the power will go out for a few hours and the return to normal. However, that’s what I can remember and maybe there have been others before my time that I just didn’t experience. But if such a disaster were to occur, it could really affect major business, and like Kentucky, close down schools and really affect traffic lights, which could be dangerous. The scale of the disaster in Kentucky I think would be much higher than Plymouth Meeting because there is a much bigger population. My hometown is small, so it wouldn’t affect as many people, so it wouldn’t be as severe. I also don’t think that we are at big of risk for a power outage to happen in my hometown, though, because there are a lot less people, so we’re not using as much energy as a bigger city may. The reasoning behind the power outage is unknown, however, but I think that using too much energy could play a huge role.

When doing research about the hazards that Plymouth Meeting should be aware of, the main ones that came up were weather-related. The big ones were blizzards, winter storms, thunderstorms, and flash floods, as described in “Emergency Preparedness Guide for the Residents of Montgomery County.” From my own personal experiences, the ones that have affected our area the most in the past were winter storms. As a matter of fact, we had a pretty bad one this past winter. I, obviously, was not home, but my mom was telling me about it and sending me pictures and they got a tremendous amount of snow. My mom sent me a picture of our door when you opened it and you couldn’t even walk outside it was so high.

I think one of the most important things to do to reduce vulnerability is what was described in the module as pre-event preparedness. As the saying goes, it is better to be proactive than reactive. In planning ahead for disasters, you will know how to better handle them if the time ever comes. As far as winter storms, which I think is the most relevant threat to Plymouth Meeting, I think that one of the best ways to prepare yourself for a winter storm would be to go out beforehand and get all of the essentials that you may need, such as enough food and batteries and flashlights and such incase anything happens to the power. Along with doing things to prepare yourself and your family, I also think it is very important for the county officials to have a good communication system in order to warn people far enough in advance of hazardous warnings along with updates as things happen.

Reference List

• Shapiro, Joshua and Richards, Leslie and Castor, Bruce. Emergency Preparedness Guide for the Residents of Montgomery County. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/1300991022_717.pdf.