Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Every part of the world is prone to certain natural disasters. For California it's fires and earthquakes. For your part of the world?
New York doesn't have earthquakes, floods, out-of-control fires or most of the other natural disasters that plague other areas of the country. Yes, we did have Hurricane Sandy which devastated a good portion of the coast, but that was not the norm.
I am horrified at the damage that is being done due to the fires in northern and southern California. People displaced, homes and businesses destroyed, air quality severely diminished. It's amazing to me that there has been so little loss of human life, but the toll the fires have taken on wildlife is incalculable. I can't imagine having only minutes to evacuate my house before it is completely engulfed in flames.
Nor can I L. Though surrounded north and south and east and west in our state by fire-prone areas we have never had to evacuate. When we moved to Hemet to this particular retirement community we did not have "safe" in mind in terms of mudslides or fires. Of course some areas have a lot of vegetation and so they would be the likely centers of fires. Earthquakes can strike anywhere. They are always finding another fault line they didn't know about. It's not wise to live right smack dab on top of the San Andreas Fault but many miles away great damage can occur as well. We are lucky that we picked a safe spot by accident or happenstance. The horror of what our fellow Californians have had to endure is very sad. Thank you for your thoughtful reply and Happy Monday! :)
I can only echo SpunkySenior's thoughts for the Californians losing their homes, farms, etc.
Like Spunky, I live in a fairly benign area, the SW coast of England, where the worst we see are severe storms and very rarely, blizzards. The storms are often enough to cause isolated structural damage, and block roads and railways with fallen trees. (I was caught out by a blown-down tree only yesterday, forcing a detour of several miles.)
Drought is the more serious problem, and it does not need unusually high temperatures for droughts; just no rain for too long.
In early 1963, Southern England was hit by powerful and particularly large blizzards, causing serious disruption over a huge area. Sadly, two people died in a car trapped in drifts only a few miles outside the town; overcome by exhaust fumes from having the engine running for heat.
Inland, some areas of England are prone to flooding from rivers. In one or two of the worst and most often affected, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (a marine-rescue charity) has established flood-rescue teams and equipment to work alongside the professional emergency services in such incidents.
Earthquakes? The British Isles actually have very many, very small earthquakes each year. Perhaps most are from old mine-workings collapsing in former coal-mining regions, but many are entirely natural. Very few are noticeable; and ones strong enough to damage buildings have occurred but are very rare indeed.
Curiously, we have much of the world's share of cyclones (typhoons or tornadoes); but almost all are very small, very short-lived and harmless. I have though seen a photograph of a trio of water-spouts on the sea near where I live. (A waterspout is simply of water pulled up by a cyclone over a lake or the sea.)
Thank you for your very thoughtful very kind and very informative reply Durdle. It's appreciated. I wonder what the single type of natural disaster is most prevalent worldwide? Earthquakes maybe? I wonder why earth isn't bombarded by space debris all the time? There's lots of stuff out there that could devastate us but seems to avoid us. Do we live in some kind of protected spot of the Universe? In California we keep hearing that we are overdue for THE BIG ONE. Sword of Damocles. If we could just contain the wind. Wind it down in some way. Maybe one day? Happy Monday to you m'dear! :)
The most common and widespread destructive events are probably storms, which can bring several effects.
Severe earthquakes such as those affecting California and Japan, are concentrated in particular parts of the world, especially around the Pacific Ocean coasts.
We are not in a "protected spot" in the Universe at all. We are too near to a middle-aged star for that - but if we were further away we would be too cold for life.
The Earth is being bombarded with natural space debris (dust grains) but most of it is so small it burns up in the atmosphere, as you sometimes see as meteors. It is also bombarded with ionising radiation from the Sun, but most of that, especially at the highest and most dangerous frequencies, is blocked by the upper atmosphere. One effect is the aurorae, light emitted by charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth's magnetic field at very high altitudes.
I can't see us being able to control the winds, but if we could it would risk serious unintended consequences, such as droughts elsewhere. We just do not have the power sources available to make any real difference, anyway - we struggle to provide what we need now, collectively. Even a benign weather system like a gentle Summer anticyclone or mild depression, is a gigantic conversion and transfer of energy over a diameter of hundreds of miles and depth of thousands of feet, for several days or even a few weeks at a time.
Fires and drought. Entire TOWNS are having to truck in water because the municipal supply is exhausted - level 6 water restrictions are in place, one three-minute shower per week. Livestock are starving to death, or dying of thirst - or being slaughtered as a humane alternative.
We also get storms with damaging winds - the entire state of South Australia was blacked out when high winds brought the lines down across the State and overload tripped those that remained.
Then there's the wildlife - in Australia, EVERYTHING tries to kill you. Funnel web spiders, blue-ringed octopi, stonefish, sharks of various descriptions, saltwater crocodiles, box and irukandji jellyfish and of course a myriad of highly venomous snakes. Not to mention bogans, bunyips, yowies and drop bears.
SpunkySenior 