There has been no shortage of stories in the news over the last few days regarding the arrival of
Hurricane Harvey, followed by Irma and Maria.
Flooding has of course hit other places: a mudslide in Sierra Leone,
flooding in Bangladesh and Nepal and other areas.
Some people have suggested that it is wrong for these disasters to get less coverage than Harvey, but it is inevitable given the location, and the ability to capture and share imagery of the flooding.
A few phrases to remember when learning this topic are:
Resilience
Resilience is the ability of a system to maintain certain functions, processes, or populations after experiencing a disturbance.
Or to bounce back to normal.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
This is an approach to managing risks which aims at reducing them in advance in preference to coping after they have happened.
Is Hurricane <name> a "natural disaster"?
Clearly the hurricane is an atmospheric system which developed over warm water. Some would argue that the pace of formation, and scale, and therefore the nature of the impact and the place that was affected, was influenced by warming oceans and surface temperatures (climate change)
Explore some different viewpoints on this, including the nature of the housing that has been built as Houston has sprawled outwards.
Also consider the importance of federal aid, and insurance.
One to follow, and develop further....
