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Strategies to tackle natural and man made disasters
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# What To Do When An Earthquake Happens
Being prepared for an earthquake can save lives and can help to keep order during a chaotic disaster. Sometimes earthquakes are unpredictable. Having a plan in case of an earthquake and knowing life saving techniques helps people to be protected against the dangers that occur during earthquakes.
Prevention (What To Do Before An Earthquake)
If you live in an area that is at risk of having earthquakes it is important to take precautionary measures to protect your home and the people who live within it. One of the main reasons buildings collapse during earthquakes is because they aren't build structurally sound. If you have the ability to build or renovate your house then talk with architects about building
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• Talk to your family and have an emergency plan for earthquakes. • Have a plan for after an earthquake. • Walk around your house and determine the safest spots to take shelter • During an earthquake take shelter in doorways, under tables, under a bed or mattress, or out in your yard where no electrical lines, trees, or buildings can fall on you. • Find information about earthquakes from posters, billboards, social media, or internet searches.
Earthquakes can be dangerous and no laughing matter. If a person suspects an earthquake is happening they should take shelter immediately. If an earthquake plan exists then individuals should follow the plan and encourage their family members and friends to follow along. It is important to stay calm and collected during a natural disaster. Panicking can be dangerous and can cause people to get hurt. There are many places inside a home that are protected like under a mattress or in a doorway away from heavy or falling objects.
An Earthquake Is Happening! What To Do... • Get down on the ground and crawl to shelter in a safe place when nothing can fall and crush you. It might be hard to walk due to the shaking of the ground. Crawling helps you be more stable when you move from one spot to
...nd others for injuries, look for and extinguish small fires, inspect your home for damage, listen to the radio for instructions, and expect aftershocks.
In 1910 a series of fifty-two earthquakes struck Arizona between September 10th-23rd and it caused much of the Flagstaff residents to flee the area as even strong households cracked and chimneys crumbled. The fifty-two earthquakes were all light-shock earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.0-4.2 that came right after another. If only one earthquake occurred in that timespan then it is likely that only objects would be knocked from shelves but no damage would be done to infrastructure, but the earthquakes happened right after another causing significant slight
Earthquakes happen about 20,000 times a year worldwide. They can destroy almost anything.In 2011, Japan had 9.1 magnitude earthquake, close to the highest magnitude of 9.2 in Alaska. They suffered tremendous damage from such a strong earthquake. The year before Haiti suffered from a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, still quite high compared to small tremors at magnitude 0-2. Japan recovered and rebuilt much faster than haiti did though. Haiti isn't even quite done recovering yet. The earthquakes had such different effects on the countries because of their economy, the condition of their people, and population rates.
Although there is no way of knowing exactly when an earthquake is going to occur. Scientists have been able to predict an earthquakes range for them to occur. For example, if a fault hasn’t gone off for around 20 years, then this fault is likely to go off in the next five years. This is as close as scientists can get to exactly knowing when an earthquake will occur, although this can still help people to be prepared to some extent. We know that an earthquake will occur with the tectonic plates movements and with them either colliding, sliding or doing both against each other. An earthquake will occur with the force of these movements, but depending on the strength of the movements depends how strong the earthquake is on the Richter Scale (see source 5) or on a Seismograph (see source 6).
I think being prepared and educated will save many lives if and when we get the big one in the Cascadia region. Works Cited http://www.crew.org/cascadia http://www.crew.org/sites/default/files/cascadia_subduction_scenario_2013.pdf http://www.pnsn.org/outreach/earthquakesources/crustalfaults www.iris.edu/hq/files/programs/education_and_outreach/aotm/5/2.Subduction_Rebound_Background.pdf www.crew.org/sites/default/files
Earthquakes in California are certainly not a surprise. What is a surprise is their unpredictability and randomness. Geologists say there is roughly a 50 percent chance that a magnitude 8 or more quake will hit the Los Angeles area sometime over the next 30 years. And, over the past twenty years, the Los Angeles area has witnessed several earthquakes, and in particular, two that were quite devastating; the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, and the January 17, 1994, Northridge Earthquake. Given the certainty that earthquakes will occur, they still seem to come as a surprise, and leave many communities unprepared to deal with their aftermath.
An earthquake is the shaking of the ground caused by sudden release of energy inside the earth's crust. It's the breaking and moving of tectonic plates along a fault line. Earthquakes can range in size from weak where we don't feel them to extremely violent where they actually thow people around and destroy cities. They may be a result of geological faults or other activites such as volcanoes, landslides, mine blasts and nuclear tests. An earthquake is not always naturally caused.
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
Natural Disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. Some are more predictable than others, but they all bring hardship to everyone’s life. Examples of natural disasters are Earthquakes (Haiti 2010), Tornadoes, Tsunami, Hurricanes, Wild Fires, Winter Storms, Heat waves, Mudslides and Floods. Regardless of what kind of disaster occurs, bottom line, everyone needs to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with the aftermath. Education is the first step to prepare you to deal with any major disaster. Three of the major disasters that can potentially disrupt normal day to day operations in our lives, are Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes.
Once the storm arrives, stay inside and away from walls and windows that could collapse or be blown away. If it is during the night, have a flashlight near-by so that you can find your way around in case of a power failure. Don’t use the telephone either unless it’s absolutely necessary. Many people may be trying to make emergency calls and the phone lines may be knocked down in some areas.
In the early morning hours on January 17th, 1994 a very violent tremble took place across Los Angeles, California area that left fifty-seven people dead, more than 7,000 injured, more than 20,000 homeless and left over 40,000 buildings damaged. Around 4:30 a.m. a horrific 6.7 magnitude earthquake, that tested building codes and earthquake-resistant construction, shook Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Orange Counties with the most intense damage occurring in Sherman Oaks and Northridge. The earthquake caused several bridges and overpasses to collapse closing sections of the Santa Monica Freeway, Simi Valley Freeway, Golden State Freeway, and the Antelope Valley Freeway. There were also several fire outbreaks throughout the San Fernando Valley, Malibu, and Venice area because of underground gas lines that had been ruptured during the earthquake that caused additional damage.
Authorities have attempted to implement codes or regulations, but that has proved to be very difficult tasks becasue there are many variables that effect the dynamic response of buildings. One way to try to avoid disaster is to evaluate seismic risk is to look at a buildings hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and location. Hazards are, for example, landslides ad soil type. Exposure is a building's occupancy and function. Vulnerability is the expected performance of a building's system, and location is how often earthquakes occur in the area. (Lagorio)
Taher, R. (2011). General recommendations for improved building practices in earthquake and hurricane prone areas. San Francisco, CA: Architecture for Humanity Retrieved from
Earthquakes belong to the class of most disastrous natural hazards. They result in unexpected and tremendous earth movements. These movements results from dissemination of an enormous amount of intense energy in form of seismic waves which are detected by use of seismograms. The impact of earthquakes leaves behind several landmarks including: destruction of property, extensive disruption of services like sewer and water lines, loss of life, and causes instability in both economic and social components of the affected nation (Webcache 2).
Of the four phases of emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, perhaps the place that individuals can make the biggest difference in their own state of resiliency and survival of a disaster is in the preparedness phase. Being prepared before a disaster strikes makes sense yet many people fail to take even simple, precautionary steps to reduce the consequences of destruction and mayhem produced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanos and tornados (see Paton et al, 2001, Mileti and Peek, 2002; Tierney, 1993, Tierney et al, 2001).