Examples Of Reasons For Disaster Preparedness

Please bear with the PTSD posts if they don't particularly interest you at the moment. They are quite relevant to disaster preparedness, because most people get PTSD during and after a disaster. If you are in a disaster, you will be very likely to need to deal with your own PTSD or other people's PTSD.


Readers drop off precipitously when I post a series on the same subject. That apparently includes posts on PTSD. Therefore I am going to intersperse the PTSD posts with other subjects. Please bear with me if you are especially interested in the PTSD posts. They are already written and I will keep them coming.


Now back to our irregularly scheduled interruption: 


Natural disasters are increasing in frequency and occurring in places that did not have them before. 


Some examples of this are the "swarms" of tornadoes that have occurred lately in the USA. Upward of 100 tornadoes have happened in a relatively small area over a short period of time. Some of the areas affected used to be considered safe from tornadoes.


Another example is earthquakes. The USA has had them recently in areas populated by people who felt sure they did not have to worry about earthquakes there. Earthquakes have affected other areas of the globe that were considered safe from them as well. 


The earthquake that hit Pakistan and Northern India in 2005 was particularly destructive. "This earthquake, which registered 7.6 on the Richter scale and was felt across much of Pakistan and northern India, killed more than 80,000 people, injured almost 70,000, and destroyed thousands of structures. Landslides, rockfalls, and crumbled buildings left an estimated four million people homeless and cut off access to some areas for several days."


http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/12-of-the-most-destructive-earthquakes1.htm

The earthquake that triggered the biggest tsunami in recorded history was pretty impressive: 

Indonesia: December 26, 2004

"This massive earthquake just off the west coast of the island of Sumatra, and the tsunami that followed, killed at least 230,000 (and perhaps as many as 290,000) people in 12 countries -- including about 168,000 in Indonesia alone. It registered 9.1 on the Richter scale and will long be remembered for the devastating waves that brought fatalities to countries all around the Indian Ocean. Scientists say the tremor was so strong that it wobbled Earth's rotation on its axis by almost an inch."


That quote came from the same site as the one about the Pakistan earthquake. 


I just wanted to show that disaster preparedness is getting to be a good idea.