Govener Beverly Perdue of NC declared a state of emergency and rescuers are still searching for survivors. An Iraq War Veteran said he was stunned by what he saw and that the devastation is worse then in Iraq. There was an estimated 200,000 homes in North Carolina without power on Sunday. Last night, the President signed a disaster declaration and ordered federal aid to help state and local recovery efforts. Federal funding is available in Bertie, Bladen, Cumberland, Halifax, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Onslow, Wake and Wilson counties. Assistance includes grants for home repairs, low cost loans for uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals, families and businesses. More damage assesments will take place to see the extent of all the damages.
There seems to be a lot of natural disasters recently, from Japan to this. There are so many disasters that there is also now a lack of money to help fund the reliefs. It is crazy that there is so much damage all over the world. Any thoughts?
14 comments:
these disasters are really not increasing as much as we're just noticing them more. There are hundreds and thousands of similar disasters that go on everyday around the world and i think the only reason they seem to be more porminent now is because they are showing up at our doorsteps instead of some toerh country.
I really think that prevention is the key part to anything. Disasters such as tornatoes are to an extent avoidable b/c the sate can encourage household or neighboorhood to build emergency shelters (in this case, basements) to avoid deaths. Even though you cant save porperty, atleast some lives can be saved and the aftermath of these disasters wont be as bad
It is the world's way for making up for missing second impact and preparing for third impact (which should occur in 2016) and the next stage of humanity's evolution (or end there of).
I agree, there have been a lot of major natural disasters in the recent times. Fortunately, it is only dozens of people, rather than hundreds or thousands.
It does seem weird that lately there are many, many natural disasters occurring these days. From the disaster to Japan to the one in Haiti and Chile, I am starting to wonder what's up with this weather. Although this isn't a disaster, I've also noticed that our winter has gotten considerably colder, with temperatures dropping down to the high forties even! I believe with this weird weather pattern constantly occurring, we should better protect ourselves from them, seeing as they are striking when we least expect them to. We should store on items, and try to fortify our homes so that when the unexpected occurs, maybe we'll be in okay shape, or we'll have enough resources to keep us living for a couple of weeks, until help arrives. Possibly, if we have basements or underground shelters, we could store food and water down there so surviving won't be as hard to do. With better preparation, we can better withstand what is to come in the future. Although there is no way to stop Mother Nature from its fury, the next best thing is to make sure we know what to do when she strikes.
Here's to an example of an issue that immediately gets to the top of the agenda because the tornadoes were a natural disaster that has caused incredible devistation to the people and requires the immediate attention of the government.
In accordance with Jasmine and Stephen's posts, we sould take precautions and prepare while we can. Although some may argue that these natural disasters are only receiving more attention recently, it serves as a reminder to become prepared so lives may be saved in the long run.
Ehhhh... sure, dozens of people are being killed in many tornadoes somewhere out east. Sure, close to 15,000 people are estimated to have died in the Japan earthquake & tsunami. But what about the millions of people currently starving in Africa? What about the eruption of cholera in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake? Are these things getting anywhere close to the amount of attention that these tornadoes are getting? I'm not saying that a dozen people dying is a "yay" thing, but we ought to look at a bigger picture.
I think that when a lot of disasters like this happen around the same time, you hear a lot of "2012!" or "it's the apocalypse!" cries. I agree with Jasmine and others that these disasters aren't so much happening more, instead, we're just noticing them more. Certainly a hundred years ago it might have been harder to communicate that there were killer tornadoes in one part of the country, making it seem as though there were less natural disasters in the past. Since communication in general has gotten better, so has our awareness of global disasters. I do agree with Ryan, though, that it is sad and shameful that we rarely hear anything on the news about African poverty. We should keep it in our minds that this is a huge global problem that needs our attention as much as the tornadoes or the Japan earthquake does. From a news perspective, I understand the appeal of "breaking news" as opposed to human tragedy that just continues perpetually, like African poverty, but I still think such things still deserve our attention.
-Alice Bebbington
Revelations Ch. 6
if what it says is true and there's gonna be either and end of the world or new world order... well dont use it to dwell and feel depressed and doomed. use it as a reason to live life to fullest.
Friends and Family.
... hmmm. that's "nuff said" =D
@ Ryan..
everything is relative. You have been incepted.
LOL...
naw forreal tho.what you're describing in africa can be called just another day in africa. It'd be tragic if that was in the U.S. but its can be called the norm over there. And if its the norm and doesnt really stand out, then its not really gonna make the news.
after we donated that boat load of charity money to haiti.. we patted ourselves on our backs and said good job to ourselves... and the media for the most part forgot about it as if fell out of the news.
we're humans, we'll pay attention if its stands out to us.
-Raymond Lim
ohhh, reminds me of that the time when my cousins in Manila were complaining of like a 3.5 earthquake and blogging about it on facebook and they were all freaking out like the world was ending or something..
and then there's us in california who had an earthquake like 3.8 or something right when people got outta 7th... and i remember picking up my sister from elementary school and listening to all the kids like... "ohhh that was cool!! that oughta been like a 3 or 4... hahahah"... and they guessed right too lol.
butt... what i'm tryna say is... to them its something special, to us, its another day in california.
-Raymond Lim
Jasmine is completely correct in assuming that the frequency of natural disasters is not increasing. It is just that the media covers it more because everyone is connected now. And obviously prevention is the main method of solving this problem.
Ryan has a very good point, though. Perhaps it is true that we pay more attention to large-scale disasters than everyday problems, when the everyday problems actually are worse. We can probably save more people if we focus on the larger picture.
I agree with what Jasmine and Charlie said. Because of the phenomenon known as the availability heuristic, people tend to view certain events to happen with exaggerated likelihoods of occurring. In reality, only the media's coverage of such natural disasters has increased, leading us to believe that disasters are more common than ever. According to some facts release by the US Geological Survey, there are a million earthquakes that happen on our planet each year. About 100 of these earthquakes pack enough punch to cause widespread devastation and destruction. However, most of these 100 earthquakes happen in areas that are far away from places of human inhabitance. The reason why the earthquake in Japan garnered so much attention was because it happened in a place with many people-even though earthquakes with similar magnitudes occur almost every 3 days. Major natural disasters occur almost everyday and have always been.
I am glad to see that the governemnt is starting to take action to help the victims of the Tornadoes. I know that there was alot of speculation as to whether the governemnt should of done more to help the Hurricane Katrina victims. Althouhg less sever than Katrina I still think it is important for them to interevne and help out the entire communities that have been affected. I believe we must first look at ourselves and deal with the our internal conditions at hand first, and when that is all done then we can look to help the outside world.
I am glad to see that the government is intervening in this situation, but I know that there was alot of speculation in regards to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and whether or not the governemnt could of done more to help those affected. Although less sever than Kartina it is nice to see that the governemnt is helping out the communities affected. I also believe that we must first take care of our internal problems before we can help out with the outisde problems ta hand.
It's really unfortunate that these states experienced natural disasters so sudden. What makes it even more sad is that this is not so far from the Japan earthquake and tsunami in March. In addition, some of these states that were hit by the tornadoes also experienced harsh blizzard storms that they have never seen before. To prepare in case of natural disasters, local neighborhoods should take necessary actions and set up shelters and places where local residents can take rest at.
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