Again there is more news about another natural disaster causing havoc on another city. Tornados have devastated Southern Plains in Oklahoma. These tornadoes have killed 5 people and injured many more. Reporters say that this storm is part of a "violent weather system that also spawned twisters in Kansas and that forecasters had been predicting since last week." More than 37,000 houses and businesses have lost power.
Even thought the bad weather had been predicted and citizens have already been forewarned, still many people have been affected. Tv broadcasters had spent an entire day on storm coverage. It's scary how powerful the forces of weather are. Is there more the government can do to protect its citizens from the dangers of these natural disasters?
Friday Late Night Open Thread
1 hour ago
9 comments:
Sadly, natural disasters are inevitable. What the government should do, though, is spread more awareness to the public about what they should do in case of an emergency - whether it be hurricane, earthquake, tornado, etc.
Natural disasters are always tragic and unfortunate, however, similar to what Alexandra said, they are also unavoidable. I feel like the national government is always used as a scapegoat during natural disasters. Whenever such a disaster goes out of hand, they always blame the government for not acting fast enough, or not making enough preparations. While the government can raise awareness and provide funding for cities to prepare themselves for such natural disasters, there is only so much the government can do. Unfortunately, Mother Nature cannot be controlled all the time, and for people living in areas that are prone to natural disasters, unfortunately, they have to learn to accept them as part of their lifestyle.
I believe there's plenty of things that the government can do in terms of combating natural disasters. I'm talking about the government in general, not specifically the United States government. In Pakistan, the government distributed earthquake-safe building technique pamphlets. However, as the link included says, there is always potential good from natural disasters. Although earthquakes may wipe out entire cities, there then the chance to rebuild such cities using environmentally sustainable and earthquake safe methods. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/bright-ideas-for-earthquake-safe-eco-friendly-building.php
I believe that insurance for natural disasters should be more accessible for those who live in lower income areas and can potentially be seriously affected by potential natural disasters. Building on Preston's comment, there is nothing that can come good from a natural disaster. In 2005 when Hurricane Katrina stuck the south, the consequences were devastating. Thousands of buildings seriously damaged or even destroyed, terrible health effects on the survivors such as poisoning, innumerable deaths, people's lives completely disoriented and so many other terrible results of this natural disaster. I hope the government learned a lesson that people need as much warning as possible when there will be a natural disaster and do everything in its power to keep as many people as safe as possible.
Although natural disasters are unavoidable, I believe our government can use funding to build some safe structures to provide shelters for those who need it. Awareness is key to limiting casualties. The building of shelters could add jobs to the economy and help stimulate the economy. In addition, these places could possibly save lives.
There are various clear signs of some kinds of changes in the environment. There is significant weather changes ocurring, as we have seen here in the united states, and there have been many natural disasters going on this year alone. As many people stated, natural disasters are inevitable, but there has been more ocurrences of natural disasters going on all over the world, and that could definitely be a potential happening due to global warming...all we could do is try to "stay green" by doing even minor things like turning lights off that we are not using in other rooms, or walking instead of driving, recycling, using paper instead of plastic bags in grocery stores, and much more.
I am not sure if the government can really help citizens from natural disaters.. unlesss they can predict where exactly they strike. I mean the government could build homes that could withstand twisters.. but that is highly unlikely.
I think that the government is doing the best that they can to warn people of natural disasters. Sadly, some people choose to stay in their house or are too stubborn to face reality and the fact that there are natural disasters. Although I believe the government can do more to aid victims of natural disasters (i.e. Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans), there's not much more the government can do before a natural disaster, except be prepared.
What I don't understand is how people can live in places with actually SEASONS for natural disasters of this scale yet say they could never live somewhere like California because of the earthquakes. There is hardly an earthquake season, yet every year there are multiple hurricanes that pass over the South and tornadoes that rip through the midwest.
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