This was the case in Sichuan, China in 2008 where severe ground shaking was the direct cause of death, injury and the catastrophic destruction of hospitals, roads and other infrastructure. An estimated 5.4 million buildings collapsed and a further 21 million were damaged. In poorer areas such as rural China, buildings are compromised despite strict regulations due to poor quality construction work and corruption meaning the correct materials is not used. Since 1976 China has had a stringent earthquake building code. Before the quake, millions of buildings in Sichuan pre-dated the 1976 code.
The primary effected area would be the damage of infrastructure, loss of power, fires and other potentially catastrophic hazards. Much of San Diego is located in low lying valleys and in a densely populated central business district, because of the strong concentration of people damage and loss of life from collapsed infrastructure and debris would be great. According to (Guzzetti& Carrara 1993 ) It is the location to human population that is key distinguishing feature of population risk .Furthermore much of the secondary effects like the loss/damage to property can be severe, according to (californiagreensolutions.com) in the past 26 years an accumulated amount of 19.43 billion dollars of damage has been attributed to catastrophes, and 19.43 billion has been related to earthquake damage. Conclusion Through my findings and research I have found that the two most common natural disasters that San Diego and its outlying areas are susceptible to are wildfires and earthquakes. Although the frequencies for earthquakes are relatively low the possible of catastrophic damage from one is a major possibility during the next 20 years.
This path took in a large, built-up and very populated part of the UK which exacerbated the damage caused. Synoptic chart - 2) Environmental impacts - An estimated 15 million trees were uprooted, countless more were damaged in the few hours that the Great Storm, with winds recorded at speeds in excess of 160 km/h (100mph; 86 knots) wreaked havoc across woodlands and plantations. At Toys Hill, the highest point in Kent, about 98% of the woodland - including many veteran beech trees that had adorned the hillside for centuries - was lost. Copperas Wood nature reserve in Essex lost almost three-quarters of its ancient woodland, which primarily consisted of coppiced sweet chestnut and hornbeam. Human impacts – Many buildings collapsed, 18 lives were taken and caravan parks were wrecked.
The Sociological Imagination and Hurricane Sandy: Was Hurricane Sandy a Personal Trouble or Public Issue? Hurricane Sandy hit the United States on October 29, 2012, destroying the Northeast. Soon after landfall, media started calling this perfect storm “Superstorm Sandy” and “Frankenstorm.” Killing over one hundred people, this thirteen-day storm, affected twenty-four states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin. The most severe damage was in New Jersey and New York. Sandy left tens of thousands homeless, crippled mass transit, triggered paralyzing gas shortages, inflicted billions of dollars in infrastructure damage and cut power to more than 8million homes.
An earthquake is a geological event inside the earth that generates strong vibrations. The 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti left it in ruins. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, misery is an everyday condition. It was very deadly and killed about 50,000 people. Some think it only affected Haiti, but it also affected the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Ike was a huge economic burden to the U.S. and “estimates suggest Ike may become one of the costliest hurricanes on record” (FEMA 10). Hurricanes are known for causing severe structural damage to houses, but also have an effect on many businesses as well. Many people had to evacuate and be out of work for up to two weeks due to power outage and debris. Also, some businesses were damaged by flooding and wind, which caused the loss of crucial business equipment. Businesses were flooded along the Texas coast and lost all of their vital technology such as computers, telephones, and other office equipment.
This dire statistic earns Dyers County the title of the eight highest unemployment rate for counties in the state of Tennessee. Due to the overall downturn in the nation’s economic status the effects of the recession can easily be seen in Dyer County—numerous empty buildings that once housed small businesses and a number of home foreclosure sale signs in the yards of now empty residences. The annual median income for Dyer County residents is $32,788, and the median income for a family is $39,848. “Males had a median income of $31,182 versus $21,605 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,451.
According to CBC News World, “The storm hit Haiti's rural western tip hard, flooding the refugee-camp homes of quake survivors.” (2010). The storm was actually downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm but still caused massive flooding with the vast amount of rain and mudslides that were rampant. The country also has a long history of earthquakes dating back to 1564. The most recent in this list is the 2010 earthquake close to Port-Au-Prince. The nation is located in a region seismic activity due to the movement of the Caribbean tectonic plate, which is compared with which a finger shoving away against two larger plates, the North American and South American.
Case study: 2005 Kashmir Earthquake The 2005 earthquake of the Kashmir region is the 17th deadliest earthquake ever recorded, killing approximately 79,000 people from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan alike. The earthquake measured 7.6 on the Richter scale. Earthquake area [pic] Fact file When: 8th October 2005 Where: Kashmir (India, Afghanistan & Pakistan) Magnitude: 7.6 Deaths: 79,000 (totalled from primary and secondary effects of the earthquake) Injuries: 106,000 Area of destruction 31.4km² Why did it happen? [pic] The earthquake happened because the region is on a collision boundary of the Indian and Eurasian plates (the two plates that form the Himalayas). These two normally push together steadily, but when they jam the pressure builds up, and then is realised as an earthquake, such as the Kashmir quake [pic] How were the people affected?
Its cumulative effect is as devastating as earth quakes, floods, forest fires and hurricanes. More people die each year from poverty-related causes than the combined casualties from war, natural disasters and homicide....The impact of poverty, while less dramatic, less visible and rarely reported, is nonetheless lethal...Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction in our midst.”(1) Raising the minimum wage will help to narrow the growing and increasingly devastating gap between the rich and the poor. It is especially shameful to have such a large percentage of our citizens living in poverty amidst the extreme affluence of our nation. The existence of extreme poverty and extreme wealth harms everyone. It decreases our personal sense of security – the rich must live in gated communities to keep out the poor.