Natural DisastersGlobal Geography 12

Natural Hazards vs. Natural Disaster

•Hazards: aspects of the physical world that have potential to cause harm

•Hazard event: the hazard in action•Disasters: occurs when the Hazard is

activated and destroys human communities

Natural Disasters

Disturbing Trends:

•Natural disasters around the world have been causing more deaths and injuries and wiping out more buildings and cultivated land than ever before.

•WHY?

Factors used to profile Natural Disasters:

1. Frequency2. Duration3. Extent4. Speed of onset5. Spatial dispersion6. Temporal Spacing

Four Categories used to Compare Disasters:

1. # of people affected2. Property loss3. Size of the area affected4. Duration of the event

Three Categories of Natural Disasters:

•Brainstorm types of natural disasters•How would you group them?•How do scientists group them?

▫Atmospheric▫Biological▫Geological

What determines RISK?

•RISK = hazard + vulnerability of population

•http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16287-death-map-usa-natural-disaster-hotspots-revealed.html

Vulnerable populations: who is most likely to suffer and why?

•Obvious answer: people that live where there are hazards.

•Real question: when a disaster happens, who is most affected?

•List of suggestions?

Hurricane Katrina: 2005, $31.1 billion dollars•Hurricane Katrina,

2005 $31.3 billion

• One of the worst disasters in US history, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast on Aug. 25. By the time it reached New Orleans a few days later, the Category 5 storm had developed enough power to break the city's levees and cause widespread flooding, death and property damage.

Katrina death toll:

• As of May 19, 2006, the confirmed death toll (total of direct and indirect deaths) stood at 1,836, mainly from Louisiana (1,577) and Mississippi (238).However, 705 people remain categorized as missing in Louisiana, and many of the deaths are indirect, but it is almost impossible to determine the exact cause of some of the fatalities.

Flood Waters

City Underwater

Pleas from Survivors

The Superdome

The Tsunami – Southeast Asia 2004

2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake

NOAA

•Undersea earthquake

•Magnitude 9.0 (Moment magnitude scale)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

Epicenter 150 KM west of Sumatra

Some people think a tsunami is like the image on the left…but it is more like the image to the right.

Actual video of the Tsunami

•YouTube - Tsunami Thailand (Koh Phi Phi) – 2004

Aftermath…

European Heat Wave 2003

• Highest death toll from natural hazards in 50 years.

• With a death toll estimated to exceed 30 000, the heat wave of 2003 is one of the ten deadliest natural disasters in Europe for the last 100 years and the worst in the last 50 years. Elderly people were most affected.

No escape from the heat…

Hurricane Juan

Path of destruction

What was “White Juan”?• White Juan was the unofficial name given to the

Atlantic Canada blizzard of February 2004.

• It was a strong nor'easter that affected most of Atlantic Canada between February 17 and 20, 2004—only five months after Hurricane Juan devastated central Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

• The storm coated much of the Nova Scotia peninsula and Prince Edward Island with 50 to 100 centimeters of snow.

White Juan

JAPAN: 2011EARTHQUAKE, TSUMANI, NUCLEAR DISASTERhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlLnGi5rong&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDpTEjumdohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceym2c18OQM&feature=relatedhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/mar/10/japan-earthquake-tsunami-video