Friday, May 23, 2014

Nicky Guyton's view on Our Society's Vulnerability to Natural Hazards

            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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