Disaster Facts

Just thought I would share a few disaster stats with you today.  Tomorrow I will start posting some ideas for preparedness.  Perhaps a few that might get you thinking outside the box - a little extreme perhaps, and then of course the ones that should be just normal common sense to most of us, but that others perhaps don't even consider.  For now....

Here are a few disaster facts from www.dosomething.org :

• Between 2000 – 2012, natural disasters caused $1.7 trillion in damage and affected 2.9 billion people.
• Worldwide in 2011, there were 154 floods, 16 droughts, and 15 cases of extreme temperature
• 2012 marked the third consecutive year of worldwide natural disaster damage exceeding $100 billion. 2011 reached a record high of $371 billion
• 1.1 million people have been killed by natural disasters between 2000 and 2012
• Floods are the most widespread natural disaster aside from wildfires. 90 percent of all US natural disasters involve some sort of flooding
• In 2012 there were 905 natural catastrophes worldwide including severe storms, droughts, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, hail storms, typhoons, wildfires, and hurricanes
• Nearly 50 percent of the fatalities caused by natural disasters in 2012 were due to hydrological events like flooding or mass movements

www.factmonster.com

• US has sustained 123 weather related disasters alone during 1980 – 2012 with overall costs exceeding $1 billion – 12 of these occurring in 2011 and 11 occurring in 2012

www.disasterium.com

• Floods are the number one deadly disaster in the US accounting for over 46 percent of disaster related deaths
• Up to 10,000 people die per years as a result of an earthquake

A disaster can devastate a community and the after affects can lead to drought, famine and disease. The understanding the facts about disasters can help to make sense of what is occurring.

Www.naturaldisasterfacts.net

• each year around 250,000 people die from Natural Disasters. Once a Natural Disaster is in full swing there is no stopping it.

Www.nobodyleftbehind2.org is another great website that has done research on natural disasters and man made disasters and the facts about them. Here are a few facts about the man made disasters:

“There are countless types of man-made disasters happening daily, including industrial accidents, chemical leaks, oil spills and accidental and deliberately set fires. All of these disasters affect the health and safety of workers, health care and safety personnel, and the general public and can cost millions of dollars.”

• Nationwide (US) there is a home fire death every 170 minutes
• Fires kill more Americans than all natural disasters combined.