Natural Disasters

A hurricane is a large, circular storm with strong winds.

A tornado is extremely strong winds concentrated in one area.

When the lightning touches a building, tree, car, or person, we say they have been “struck” by
lightning.

A forest fire
 In an earthquake, the ground shakes and cracks. Buildings that are not designed to survive
earthquakes are often destroyed.

A flood occurs when it rains a lot, and the water in a river gets so high that it overflows the
riverbanks and invades surrounding areas.

In a tsunami, the water from the ocean comes in and covers the land. Tsunamis are caused by
an earthquake in the middle of the ocean.
 A drought is when there is not enough water because it hasn’t rained for a long time.

A blizzard is a very strong snowstorm.

An avalanche is when a lot of snow falls down the side of a mountain.

A landslide (or mudslide) is when soil, rocks, and/or mud falls down the side of a hill or
mountain.
 When the volcano explodes, the event is called a “volcanic eruption”

I don’t know about you, but I think there are more natural
disasters now than before. Every time I turn on the news there’s
some kind of disaster. There are bushfires in Australia and
California, earthquakes in China, hurricanes in Mexico and
droughts in Africa. I’m sure global warming is creating more
natural disasters. I’m lucky. Where I live, we don’t really have
natural disasters. I’ve never experienced anything like the things
on TV. Japan has many natural disasters. They have earthquakes,
typhoons, flooding, volcanoes, all kinds of things. They are lucky
they have the money to deal with them. There are countries in
Africa that aren’t rich. When a natural disaster hits them,
everyone suffers terribly.

Wildfires

Wildfires can burn millions of acres of land at shockingly fast speeds,

consuming everything in their paths. These rolling flames travel up
to 14 miles an hour, which converts to about a four-minute-mile
pace, and can overtake the average human in minutes.

In 2020, the wildfire season in the United States—which lasts from

June through September—promises to be particularly devastating.
This summer is expected to be the hottest on record, with drought
conditions predicted in California through September. In
addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has derailed mitigation efforts —
such as homeowner assistance programs and controlled burns—due
to concerns over social distancing and respiratory dangers. By the
end of June, the California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection had responded to nearly double the number of fires than it
had in the entire 2019 season.

Destruction caused by wildfires in the United States has significantly

increased in the last two decades. An average of 72,400 wildfires
cleared an average of 7 million acres  of U.S. land each year since
2000, double the number of acres  scorched by wildfires in the 1990s.
In 2015, the largest wildfire season recorded in U.S. history burned
more than 10 million acres of land.

Because much of the U.S. is expected to get hotter and drier with
climate change, wildfire risk is generally expected to rise . At the same
time, as the population in the United States rises and people
increasingly move into rural and wilderness areas, more homes and
other structures are likely to be placed in harm’s way. That’s why it’s
critical to understand how wildfires get started, how to stop them,
and what to do when they occur.

DROUGHT

A drought is a period of time when an area or region experiences below-

normal precipitation. The lack of adequate precipitation, either rain or snow, can
cause reduced soil moisture or groundwater, diminished stream flow, crop damage,
and a general water shortage. Droughts are the second-most costly weather events
after hurricanes.

Unlike with sudden weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and

thunderstorms, it is often difficult to pinpoint when a drought has started or when it
has ended. The initial effects of a drought may be difficult to identify right away, so it
may take weeks or months to determine that a drought has started. The end of a
drought is hard to identify for the same reason. A drought may last for weeks,
months, or even years. Sometimes, drought conditions can exist for a decade or
more in a region. The longer a drought lasts, the greater the harmful effects it has on
people.

Droughts affect people in a several ways. Access to clean drinking water is essential
for all life, and sources of water may dwindle during a drought. Without the presence
of water, people must bring in enough water from elsewhere to survive. Water is also
needed for crops to grow. When not enough precipitation falls to naturally water
crops, they must be watered by irrigation. Irrigation is possible only when there is
enough water in nearby rivers, lakes, or streams, or from groundwater. During a
drought, these water sources are diminished and may even dry up, preventing crops
from being irrigated and causing them to die off.
One person studying these problems is Alexandra Cousteau, a National Geographic
Emerging Explorer whose latest initiative is Blue Legacy. She started Blue Legacy to
raise awareness that we live on a water planet and must take care of it. Cousteau,
the granddaughter of the famed ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, believes that
water will be a crucial issue in this century. She predicts that water problems such as
drought, storms, floods, and degraded water quality will create “water refugees:”
people migrating in search of water. Cousteau stresses that we must do all we can to
protect Earth’s valuable freshwater resources.