1.       I have been living in Bucks County for over 15 years and have not seen too many natural hazards.  Since the map is over 5 years old, the environment has changed a lot so I do not think that is it very reliable since it isn’t up to date.  Also, it is really hard to pinpoint exactly the natural hazards in my county because it looks like it generalizes the area.  With this being said, it looks like the biggest threat for my area would be tropical cyclones since we are in zone 4.  Also, we are in zone 3 for hailstorms and zone 3 for tornados.  It surprised me that Bucks County is zone 0 for extratropical storms; I feel like I have seen these more than any of the higher treats!  Earthquakes, volcanos, and tsunamis are no threat in my area.

2.       In Chile on March 29, 2016 at 7:11 AM, the Copahue volcano erupted after weeks of slowly building up.  The ash poses no threat to the people living there, however, they did warn people ahead of time.  This type of natural disaster is not a threat in my hometown.  According to the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards, there are no volcanos near my area.  It reached an altitude of 3.6 km and an area of 35 km east of the volcano.  Compared to Bucks County, 35 km, or about 22 miles, it not very long because we are a big area.  Even though it is not a big threat to the population in Chile, I think it would be more of a threat in my area because even though we have a lot of land, there are a lot of houses, like an automobile suburb.  However, I feel that the wealth in my area could change the vulnerability.  We might be able to afford other safety measures that Chile could not.  Also, we live right next to Philadelphia, which has some poorer people who couldn’t afford certain technologies to help keep them safe from volcanos.  Also, our schools in Bucks County, specifically Council Rock, is rated very high on education.  I think this could help vulnerability too because our teachers could teach us the threats and safety measures to take when a volcano erupts.

3.       With personal experience, I can say that tropical storms are definitely the biggest problem in my hometown.  When a rain storm comes, there is so much rain one can barely see in front of them and there is a crazy amount of wind.  We have a lot of trees around our area so when a storm comes, usually the wind knocks over trees and we lose power.  One storm in particular actually knocked a tree down on our shed and playground in our backyard and crushed them!  We have had storms where our power is out for 5 days; because of this constant problem, we bought a generator since it is a common problem.

4.       I think one of the best things to do is to form an emergency response team.  In particular, these people would be there to help us pre-event prepare, or help us get ready for the natural disaster before it happens.  There have been times that people have died in their house because of a heat stroke or froze to death. This team could be on call at all times and when a storm is coming, they could send out e-mails, letters, and phone calls about how we can prepare and be safe during the storm.  I think that there could also be a free class taught by this team that citizens could take to ask questions and get information.   Education is already very important in our hometown so being educated about natural disasters will be a good thing for our area.