Throughout
my essay I will be discussing our society’s vulnerability to natural
hazards. I will focus on my personal
experiences with natural hazards and give a few examples of our society’s
weaknesses towards natural hazards.
There have
been multiple natural disasters that have caused our society major losses in
population, along with property and other miscellaneous losses. These natural disasters include floods,
tornadoes, tsunamis, and much more. Due
to some recent natural disasters it is clear to me that we cannot be fully
prepared to fight against or be fully prepared for natural disasters, nor can
we predict exactly the damage it may cause to our society. This to me is a huge vulnerability we have as
a society. If we had better technology,
or possibly more knowledge on certain storms, then maybe we can be more
prepared for what may come. Or are we
ever going to be fully prepared for what nature brings us, or is our society no
challenge for nature?
Since I was
a little girl I have always been completely frightened of tornados. It may be due to the movie Twister, as I did watch it at a young
age. But, I believe it is a mixture of that
movie giving me nightmares, along with my family being from the south and that
being an area where they are most susceptible to tornados. This natural hazard has always been a fear of
mine because I believe us as humans and as a society; we are very vulnerable to
tornados. Yes we may be able to predict
when and where the tornadoes may hit, but what can we do to prevent a
disaster? What can we do to protect
ourselves and our homes? As I stated
previously my family is from the south, to be more specific they are from
Alabama. A few years ago now, Auburn,
Alabama was hit by a tornado. My family
did not have underground safe houses, so my aunt and my cousin sat in their
home in complete terror as they watched the storm brew outside.
Not only
was there trees flying sideways through the air but there was water flying
sideways and slashing against their windows like the sound of rocks being
thrown at your window nonstop at high speeds.
A large tree went through their roof with a trunk the width of around four
feet. Luckily none of my family members
were hurt. Sadly they lost a few of
their animals, their yard was a disaster, and there was a tree through their
roof, but they were ok. This proved to
me that there are no controlling natural hazards and we as a society are
vulnerable to most natural hazards. As
much as we try to be prepared, we cannot be fully prepared nor can we prevent
disasters from happening.
Within my
essay I included how vulnerable our society really is towards natural
hazards. Included were personal
experiences I have had with natural hazards and some input on my opinion
towards our society and the vulnerability we have towards natural hazards.
References
Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014) Environment the science behind the stories. United States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Slingo,J. (2012) Environmental
science institute. UK
Retrieved
From: www.esi.utexas.edu/faculty/conferences-a-symposia/
Alexander, D. (2012) Models of Social Vulnerability to Disasters.
RCCS Annual Review
Retrieved
From: http://rccsar.revues.org/412
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