I come from West Nyack, New York, which is located approximately 30 miles north of New York City. According to the Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards, my town is most at risk of sea level rise, and hurricane. It is located near the ocean on the east coast, where the entire east coast is at risk for a sea level rise. Additionally, West Nyack is the category 3 for tropical cyclones. New York is often hit with hurricanes, so I definitely understand why we are in this category. New York is in a seismologically calm part of the world, so it does not really experience earthquakes.

Boca De Yuma is a village located in the Dominican Republic. According to the RSOE EDIS, Boca de Yuma experienced a magnitude 3.3 earthquake on April 2^nd, 2016, at 7:15 A.M. Typically places located on tectonic plate boundaries experience Earthquakes, for example Japan and California which are located on the edges of the Pacific Plate. Boca de Yuma is located in between the South American plate and the Caribbean Plate which explains why it experienced seismic activity. West Nyack is located on the North American Plate, but not near the plate edge, which explains why we do not experience earthquakes in this area of New York. The scale of the event was very small, and on the order of the village of Boca de Yuma which affected a population of 2,342 people. My hometown has approximately 3,439 people, so the scale is relatively the same (no listed population density on Wikipedia for Boca de Yuma, but 1200/square mile for West Nyack). The impact of the disaster would therefore be the same if it were to occur in my hometown, however it is very highly unlikely that an earthquake would occur. My town is generally comprised of many wealthy areas, but there are some areas of lower socioeconomic status. I actually believe that the people living in the poorer areas would fare better in a disaster like an earthquake due to the structural integrity of the apartments and homes they occupy. Wealthier people tend to live in big houses, but those houses are made of wood, which I believe would not be as structurally secure as apartment buildings in the case of an earthquake.

According to the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, New York and my hometown can be subjected to Environmental hazards such as winter storms, drought, floods, mud/landslide, hurricanes, tornadoes, severe summer storms, and space weather/astro-hazards (Cornell University Cooperative Extension). Living in New York for 22 years confirms many of these hazards such as winter storms, drought, floods, hurricanes, and severe summer storms. In my limited experience, however, I would not predict that mud/landslides, space weather, and tornadoes really pose any significant threat to West Nyack. I imagine that the hazards I experienced will continue happening very frequently in New York, but the ones I did not experience will not pose any significant threat for many years.

To increase decrease the vulnerability of all the hazards that could potentially occur in West Nyack, I believe that significant funding needs to be put in place toward construction of high wind force resistant infrastructure, and more efficient recycling of the water treatment and facilities for water recycling. In my experience droughts and hurricanes are the biggest danger to West Nyack, so building buildings that resist hurricane winds, and being able to recycle water better during a drought should significantly decrease the extent of the damage that could occur from these events. The politicians and contractors living in West Nyack, working in conjunction with industrial and mechanical engineers, would best suit addressing the problem. I can use social media to inspire some advocacy in the people in my town, to educate them and the garner support to push for these changes.