In my hometown of Philadelphia, Pa does not face many natural hazards. There are no volcanoes or serious hazards that affect the area very much. The worst it gets is heavy rainfall and hurricanes, as well as occasional tornado warnings. I have lived here for all of my life before moving to state college and I have never felt that I was in danger while living in this area. The Nathan World Map of Natural Hazards does not do a precise job at showing specific points of the world. I think it is useful when researching hazards in broad parts of the world, but not in particular specific areas such as towns and cities.

After viewing the Hungarian National Association of Radio Distress Signaling and Infocommunications’ Emergency and Disaster Information Service website, the disaster I chose was the tornado that occurred in Alabama. Fortunately, there have not been any tornados in my hometown for a long time. However, this natural disaster could definitely happen in my hometown at some point. There have been tornado warnings in Philadelphia, but nothing has seriously affected the area very badly. In addition, there have been tornados in my hometown and not very much damage was caused, which is why I do not believe there would be a lot of damage if one were to occur again. I also do not believe that this would be extremely harmful to human population in the area, because there are many precautions that are well known and can be taken into consideration once there is a tornado warning.

There are not many natural disasters that occur in my hometown. However, in the past there have been severe rain and snowstorms that have caused many problems for the town. Hurricanes and heavy snowfall have affected the area numerous times in the past. The most common damage that has been caused is flooding, power outages and car accidents. When the roads become slippery from the snow and rain, it is common for car accidents to occur. In addition, flooding and power outages happen often because of the wind and the heavy snow or rainfall.

I believe the best way to reduce vulnerability is to be aware of the problems in advance, and take action in creating a plan for when the storm occurs. People can find the right resources that will help from any destruction these storms may cause. My family had our basement checked for possibility of flooding before the storm came, to make sure that it would not happen to our house. This is a good idea for people to take into consideration so their homes do not get destroyed during the storms. In addition, having a back up generator is also an important thing to consider, because it is not certain when the power will come back on once it’s lost, which is a common effect that is caused by heavy storms. One year, my family lost power for over a week, due to a strong hurricane that hit our hometown. We did have generator, but it was not very strong so it only worked throughout a few rooms in the house. This was helpful, but we decided that next time we would need a stronger generator if our power would be out for longer than a week. In addition, construction workers could be helpful by making sure buildings and homes are in safe conditions to prepare for the storm.