Natural Disasters play a huge role in not only our everyday lives, but they play a role in the economy as well. Every single person has had their own experience with a natural disaster. Perhaps one of the more common ones such as fires, tornadoes, floods, and blizzards. Maybe you have even experienced an earthquake, volcanic eruption, or a tsunami before. These natural disasters take a huge toll on our economy, with all the damages these can cause, prices can jump higher than you can believe. Prices rise, jobs can drop, and many other terrible effects happen on our economy. But in some ways could they somehow bring a boost to a country’s economy?! Let’s take a look.
Oded/Balilty. 2008. Photograph. China. Boston.com. Web. .
Hurricanes can cause the New York Stock Exchange shut for a few days, and shut down small businesses for months. They slow home building, and keep people out of work. The damage that a hurricane leaves behind can without a doubt slow the economy down. Hurricane Katrina caused over $200 billion in damages back in 2005. After Katrina restaurants had higher heating costs, there were higher gasoline costs, less money, higher energy bills, high delivery costs, and less spending. But maybe the effects on the economy weren’t so bad. “The disruption from Katrina, and now Rita, will slow growth in the second half of 2005. But the rebuilding should boost the area’s infrastructure as well as overall US growth in 2006,” said Beth Ann Bovino. Bovino goes on to say, “Hurricane Katrina will significantly slow economic growth in the second half of the year, with the third-quarter getting most of the hit. But, less than many think, sinc...
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...a boost by attracting resources to a country, and when you rebuild destroyed roads and factories it creates new more efficient infrastructure, which is makes a more productive economy in the long term. "When something is destroyed you don’t necessarily rebuild the same thing that you had. You might use updated technology, you might do things more efficiently. It bumps you up," says Mark Skidmore, an economics professor at Michigan State University. Studies have found earthquakes help stir economic activity. Could it be that these natural disasters might not hurt our economy, but boost it?!
China Earthquake Mother. 2008. Photograph. China. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. .
Oded/Balilty. 2008. Photograph. China. Boston.com. Web. .
In 2008 Hurricane Ike made land fall to the east coast line in Galveston Texas. The storm surge water that Ike produced flooded the east coast region of Houston and Galveston. It has been estimated over billions of dollars in damage to home owners, business owners, and cause numerus of deaths. The mass destruction that Ike caused had people coming up ways to prevent or lessen the effects if a storm like this would ever occur in the future. A storm surge project was drafted and submitted to politicians is being delayed due to funding issues. Money should not be the major delay when it comes to saving homeowners, business owners, and a life of a person.
New Orleans by far felt the biggest effect of Hurricane Katrina. Many people were rescued but had nowhere to go and the government was not prepared for the disaster. There was no plan for recovery. Communication failures were one of the major problems which included power failures and broken telephone lines. Homes were destroyed and many were left stuck on the roof of their broken homes. Most of the city’s major roads and buildings suffered extensive damage. Countless people were left unemployed and homeless. Above all, the worst effect caused by Hurricane Katrina was the final death toll of 1,836 people with 705 still reported
Katrina demolished more residential buildings than any other recent hurricane and ‘’Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne which in total, wrecked approximately 85,000 homes.’’ Hurricane Katrina also left ‘’many people homeless as more than 800,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged in the storm.’’ The storm dislocated beyond a million people in the Gulf Coast region. Even though residents have returned home, up to ‘’600,000 households were still displaced a month later.’’ The storm may have happened in 2006, but it still impacted the following year by 85 percent of public schools remaining
Hurricane Katrina left a devastating scar on the citizens of the southern coast of the U.S., especially New Orleans, Louisiana. The category 5 hurricane was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the most deadly. Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29th, 2005 and after that day, 66,000 people were displaced from their homes. Of those who decided to ride out the storm with hopes of success and survival as they had experienced with other storms, they were found on their rooftops, in their attics, hoping for boat or helicopter rescue, relying on others for help to survive. The storm had reached 28,000 square feet inward to Louisiana, which was 60 percent of the state. 1,100 Louisianans lost their lives, and 200,000 were displaced and/or lost their homes (Davis 8). It was a devastating time of despair and suffering. People were put through experiences that would scar them for a long time. While preparing for evacuation, people left most of their belongings at home to flee to a safer city or to find shelter in the Superdome and Convention Center. Some even decided to remain in their boarded up homes. After the hurricane had past, a few hours went by and a levee located near the Mississippi River canal broke leaving New Orleans flooded (Delisi). After the disaster, the state and federal governments were pointing fingers at each other as to who was to blame for the poorly planned evacuation and rescue efforts for the victims. The state government promised to help evacuate those who could not transport themselves. Citizens were told to go to the Superdome and convention center for evacuation, but the supplies needed for survi...
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, it caused immediate and significant damage not only to that regions economy but to the countrys as well.
The Texas City Disaster of 1947 was a disaster that really left a impact to the world. The Texas City Disaster of 1947 was one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane at its highest, made impact between August 23-30th 2005, and has since gone down as the most devastating and costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. In preparation for the impact of the storm, on August 27th 2005, two days before the hurricane made landfall, President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Waterford nuclear plant was shut down for precautionary reasons in the wake of the oncoming storm and mandatory evacuations were issued for large parts of the southeast. Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans stated that about 80% of the 480,000 people asked to evacuate heeded warnings. Evacuation orders were also made for areas along the Mississippi coast, low-lying coastal areas in Alabama, as well as the barrier islands in western Florida Panhandle.
Hurricane Maria was destructive and caused a large amount of damage to the entire island of Puerto Rico. Maria hit on September 20 and was a category four hurricane, nearly a category five. Hurricane Maria has had a tremendous impact on the lives of Puerto Ricans and even the world.
Crime rates went up, no one had a place to stay and water was polluted. The damage done by Katrina affected New Orleans and the other areas hit years after it struck. Restoration for the areas hit would need support from all across America and support groups across the country. No one was ready for this tragedy, or could ever predict the horrible outcome. Hurricanes are powerful and destructive storms that involve great rain and wind.
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.
... on lands which makes it harder to produce plants that can provide needs for the people. Drinking water can be polluted too that will make it harder to use to fix food. Damages from typhoons can cause millions of dollars to recover. Businesses, private or public, can also be affected by the typhoon by being closed to the community. When businesses are closed, they lose an amount of revenue to itself, and the community will also have hard time of getting what they need or want. People will suffer in the lack of supplies that they need. Typhoon Bopha did affect the country of Palau by limiting some of the resources that people need in order to carry on with their lives. We can only hope for less damages from natural disasters and learn from the outcomes and prepare us on many ways to prevent major damages the next time to help us sustain in a better economy.
There are different types and causes of disasters; man-made, natural and a combination. Man-made disasters are caused by human error or human actions that cause harm to the environment, and people (Baack & Alfred, 2013). Natural disasters are caused by nature a hurricane for example; and a combination; NA-TECH (natural-technological) examples are earthquakes that cause structural damage such as a collapse of a bridge (Nies & McEwen, 2011). Communities must have effective emergency preparedness in place to reduce the causalities from a disaster.
Wildfires are catastrophic disasters that destroy everything in their path. “A wildfire (also known as forest fire, grass fire, vegetation fire, etc) is an uncontrolled fire often occurring in wild land areas, but which can also consume houses or agricultural resources.” (Wildfire.) The causes of wildfires are mostly intentional, negligence or accidents and natural causes. Wildfires have three distinct phases: Initiation, propagation, and extinction. This phenomenon affects our ecosystem, such as air and earth. In addition, people who witness this kind of catastrophe in the lower cases they lose belongings as houses or cars, but they can also lose their lives. There are many campaigns that help prevent these phenomena, but they need the help of the entire community. It is very important take care of not cause an accident. Wildfire is a phenomenon very common on these days causing a terrible damage to our environment and we have to prevent its expansion through our help, cooperation and prudence...
Obliterating everything in its path, a bushfire is a natural hazard, which can be defined as wild fires in scrublands and or bushlands, especially one that spreads rapidly and is hard to contain. They can be catastrophic, causing severe damage to properties, the environment and even deaths. And as a result there is an ever-increasing need to prepare for the potential impacts of bushfires.
Businesses suffer because they run mainly on power. This means a loss of customers and income- production decreases and slows everything else down, which in turn slows the economy down.