Doomsday \ Scenerios

Types of Disasters

Earthquake

Earthquake is an unexpected and rapid shaking of earth due to the breakage and shifting of underneath layers of Earth. Earthquake strikes all of a sudden at any time of day or night and quite violently. It gives no prior warning. If it happens in a populated area, the earthquake can cause great loss to human life and property.

Earthquake Fast Facts

Earthquakes strike suddenly, violently, and without warning at any time of the year and at any time of the day or night.
Smaller earthquakes often follow the main shock.
An earthquake is caused by the breaking and shifting of rock beneath the Earth's surface. Ground shaking from earthquakes can collapse buildings and bridges; disrupt gas, electric, and phone service; and sometimes trigger landslides, avalanches, flash floods, fires, and huge, destructive ocean waves (tsunamis).
Most earthquake-related injuries result from collapsing walls, flying glass, and falling objects.
Several thousand shocks of varying sizes occur annually in the United States, and 70 to 75 damaging earthquakes occur throughout the world each year. All 50 states and all U.S. territories are vulnerable to earthquakes. Where earthquakes have occurred in the past, they will happen again.
California experiences the most frequent damaging earthquakes; however, Alaska experiences the greatest number of large earthquakes—most located in uninhabited areas.
Earthquakes occur most frequently west of the Rocky Mountains, although historically the most violent earthquakes have occurred in the central United States.
The largest earthquakes felt in the United States were along the New Madrid Fault in Missouri, where a 3-month-long series of quakes from 1811 to 1812 included three quakes larger than a magnitude of 8 on the Richter Scale. These earthquakes were felt over the entire eastern United States (over 2 million square miles), with Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi experiencing the strongest ground shaking.
The Richter Scale, developed by Charles F. Richter in 1935, is a logarithmic measurement of the amount of energy released by an earthquake. Earthquakes with a magnitude of at least 4.5 are strong enough to be recorded by sensitive seismographs all over the world.
It is estimated that a major earthquake in a highly populated area of the United States could cause as much as $200 billion in losses.

Tornado

Tornado is one of the most violent storms on earth.
It seems like a rotating and funnel shape cloud. It expands from the thunderstorm to the ground in the form of whirl winds reaching around 300 miles per hour. The damage path could move on to one mile wide and around 50 miles long. These storms can strike quickly without any warning.

Some tornadoes are clearly visible, while rain or nearby low-hanging clouds obscure others. Occasionally, tornadoes develop so rapidly that little, if any, advance warning is possible.

Before a tornado hits, the wind may die down and the air may become very still. A cloud of debris can mark the location of a tornado even if a funnel is not visible. Tornadoes generally occur near the trailing edge of a thunderstorm. It is not uncommon to see clear, sunlit skies behind a tornado.

The following are facts about tornadoes:

They may strike quickly, with little or no warning.
They may appear nearly transparent until dust and debris are picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel.
The average tornado moves Southwest to Northeast, but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction.
The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 MPH, but may vary from stationary to 70 MPH.
Tornadoes can accompany tropical storms and hurricanes as they move onto land.
Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.
Tornadoes are most frequently reported east of the Rocky Mountains during spring and summer months.
Peak tornado season in the southern states is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer.
Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., but can occur at any time.

Flood

Flood is also one of the most common hazards in the United States and other parts of the world. The effects of a flood can be local to a neighborhood or community. It can cast a larger impact, the whole river basin and multiple states could get affected. Every state is at its risk due to this hazard. Water Damage Water damage has a huge effect on your home, its neighborhood and your city. It is very much necessary that you should prepare for water damage. You must know what should be done during and after water damage.

Some floods develop slowly, sometimes over a period of days. But flash floods can develop quickly, sometimes in just a few minutes and without any visible signs of rain. Flash floods often have a dangerous wall of roaring water that carries rocks, mud, and other debris and can sweep away most things in its path. Overland flooding occurs outside a defined river or stream, such as when a levee is breached, but still can be destructive. Flooding can also occur when a dam breaks, producing effects similar to flash floods.

Hurricane

Hurricane also like the tornado is a wind storm, but it is a tropical cyclone. This is caused by a low pressure system that usually builds in the tropical. Huricanes comes with thunderstorms and a counterclockwise spread of winds near the surface of the earth.

Hurricanes are products of the tropical ocean and atmosphere. Powered by heat from the sea, they are steered erratically by the easterly trade winds and the temperate westerly winds, as well as by their own energy. As they move ashore, they bring with them a storm surge of ocean water along the coastline, high winds, tornadoes, torrential rains, and flooding.

During a hurricane, homes, businesses, public buildings, and infrastructure may be damaged or destroyed by many different storm hazards. Debris can break windows and doors, allowing high winds and rain inside the home. In extreme storms (such as Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew and Katrina), the force of the wind alone can cause tremendous devastation, as trees and power lines topple and weak elements of homes and buildings fail. Roads and bridges can be washed away and homes saturated by flooding. Destructive tornadoes can also be present well away from the storms center during landfall. Yet, storm surge alone poses the highest threat to life and destruction in many coastal areas throughout the United States and territories. And these threats are not limited to the coastline -- they can extend hundreds of miles inland, under the right conditions.

Lightning

Lightning is a much underestimated killer. Lightning is an abrupt electric expulsion which comes from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth followed by an emission of light. Lightning is a common phenomenon after heavy rain and can also occur around 10 miles off from rainfall. Most lightning victims are people who are captivated outdoors in summer during the afternoon and evening.

Wildfire

Wild forest areas catching fire is a very big problem for the people who live around these areas. The dry conditions caused several times in the year in different parts of United States can increase the possibility for wildfires. If you are well prepared in advance and know how to protect the buildings in your area, you can reduce much of the damage caused by wildfire. It is everyone's duty to protect their home and neighborhood from wildfire.

Advance planning and knowing how to protect buildings in these areas can lessen the devastation of a wildland fire. There are several safety precautions that you can take to reduce the risk of fire losses. Protecting your home from wildfire is your responsibility. To reduce the risk, you'll need to consider the fire resistance of your home, the topography of your property and the nature of the vegetation close by.

Volcano

Volcano is a mountain that has an opening downwards to the reservoir of molten rock towards the surface of earth. Volcanoes are caused by the accrual of igneous products. As the pressure caused by gases in the molted rock becomes intense, the eruption takes place. The volcanic eruption can be of two kinds, quiet or volatile. The aftermaths of a volcano include flowing lava, flat landscapes, poisonous gases and fleeing ashes and rocks.Read on to know more on types of disasters.

Tsunami

Tsunamis (pronounced soo-ná-mees), also known as seismic sea waves (mistakenly called “tidal waves”), are a series of enormous waves created by an underwater disturbance such as an earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, or meteorite. A tsunami can move hundreds of miles per hour in the open ocean and smash into land with waves as high as 100 feet or more. From the area where the tsunami originates, waves travel outward in all directions.

Once the wave approaches the shore, it builds in height. The topography of the coastline and the ocean floor will influence the size of the wave. There may be more than one wave and the succeeding one may be larger than the one before. That is why a small tsunami at one beach can be a giant wave a few miles away. All tsunamis are potentially dangerous, even though they may not damage every coastline they strike. A tsunami can strike anywhere along most of the U.S. coastline. The most destructive tsunamis have occurred along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Earthquake-induced movement of the ocean floor most often generates tsunamis. If a major earthquake or landslide occurs close to shore, the first wave in a series could reach the beach in a few minutes, even before a warning is issued. Areas are at greater risk if they are less than 25 feet above sea level and within a mile of the shoreline. Drowning is the most common cause of death associated with a tsunami. Tsunami waves and the receding water are very destructive to structures in the run-up zone. Other hazards include flooding, contamination of drinking water, and fires from gas lines or ruptured tanks.

Winter Storm

Winter freeze storms are serious threats for people and their property. They include, snow, frozen rain, strong winds and extreme cold. Many precautions have to be taken in order to protect yourself, your family, home or property.
Hail comes into existence when updrafts in the thunder clouds take the raindrops up towards the extremely cold regions in the atmosphere. They freeze and combine forming lumps of ice. As these lumps can be very heavy and are not supported by the updraft, they fall off with the speeds of about 100 km per hour or more. A Hail is created in the form of an enormous cloud, commonly known as thunderheads.

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Possible Future Pandemics

Ebola virus and other quickly lethal diseases

Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus and Bolivian hemorrhagic fever are highly contagious and deadly diseases with the theoretical potential to become pandemics. Their ability to spread efficiently enough to cause a pandemic is limited, however, as transmission of these viruses requires close contact with the infected vector. furrthermore, the short time between a vector becoming infectious and the onset of symptoms allows medical professionals to quickly quarantine vectors and prevent them from carrying the pathogen elsewhere.

Antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, sometimes referred to as "superbugs", may contribute to the re-emergence of diseases which are currently well-controlled. For example, cases of tuberculosis that are resistant to traditionally effective treatments remain a cause of great concern to health professionals.

HIV infection

HIV the virus that causes AIDS â€” is of pandemic proportions with infection rates as high as 25% in southern and eastern Africa. Effective education about safer sexual practices and bloodborne infection precautions training have helped to slow down infection rates in several African countries sponsoring national education programs. Infection rates are rising again in Asia and the Americas.

H5N1

In February 2004, avian influenza virus was detected in birds in Vietnam, increasing fears of the emergence of new variant strains. It is feared that if the avian influenza virus combines with a human influenza virus (in a bird or a human), the new subtype created could be both highly contagious and highly lethal in humans. Such a subtype could cause a global influenza pandemic, similar to the Spanish Flu, or the lower mortality pandemics such as the Asian Flu and the Hong Kong Flu. Despite sensational media reporting, avian flu cannot yet be categorized as a "pandemic" because the virus cannot yet cause sustained and efficient human-to-human transmission.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pandemic".

Global Warming and Climate Change

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation.

Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. There is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and outside of the United States there is considerably less debate over the effects and uncertainties of global warming.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Global Warming".

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Pandemics Throughout History

There have been a number of significant pandemics recorded in human history, generally zoonoses that came about with domestication of animals such as influenza and tuberculosis. There have been a number of particularly significant epidemics that deserve mention above the "mere" destruction of cities:

Peloponnesian War, 430 BC.

Typhoid fever killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population over four years. This disease fatally weakened the dominance of Athens, but the sheer virulence of the disease prevented its wider spread; i.e. it killed off its hosts at a rate faster than they could spread it. The exact cause of the plague was unknown for many years; in January 2006, researchers from the University of Athens analyzed teeth recovered from a mass grave underneath the city, and confirmed the presence of bacteria responsible for typhoid.

Antonine Plague, 165 - 180

Possibly smallpox brought back from the Near East; killed a quarter of those infected and up to five million in all. At the height of a second outbreak (251 - 266) 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome.
Plague of Justinian, from 541 to 750, was the first recorded outbreak of the bubonic plague. It started in Egypt and reached Constantinople the following spring, killing 10,000 a day at its height and perhaps 40% of the city's inhabitants. Plague went on to eliminate a quarter to a half of the human population that it struck throughout the known world. It caused the Europe's population to drop by around 50% between 550 and 700.

The Black Death, started 1300s

Eight hundred years after the last outbreak, the bubonic plague returned to Europe. Starting in Asia, the disease reached Mediterranean and western Europe in 1348, and killed 20 to 30 million Europeans in six years, a third of the total population and up to a half in the worst-affected urban areas.

Cholera

The first pandemic 1816 - 1826. Previously restricted to the Indian subcontinent, the pandemic began in Bengal, then spread across India by 1820. It extended as far as China and the Caspian Sea before receding.

The second pandemic (1829 - 1851) reached Europe, London in 1832, Ontario Canada and New York in the same year, and the Pacific coast of North America by 1834.

The third pandemic (1852 - 1860) mainly affected Russia, with over a million deaths.
The fourth pandemic (1863 - 1875) spread mostly in Europe and Africa.

In 1866 there was an outbreak in North America.

In 1892 cholera contaminated the water supply of Hamburg, Germany, and caused 8,606 deaths.

The seventh pandemic (1899 - 1923) had little effect in Europe because of advances in public health, but Russia was badly affected again.

The eighth pandemic began in Indonesia in 1961, called El Tor after the strain, and reached Bangladesh in 1963, India in 1964, and the USSR in 1966.

Influenza

The "first" pandemic of 1510 traveled from Africa and spread across Europe
The "Asiatic Flu", 1889 - 1890. Was first reported in May of 1889 in Bukhara, Russia. By October, it had reached Tomsk and the Caucasus. It rapidly spread west and hit North America in December 1889, South America in Februaryâ€“April 1890, India in February-March 1890, and Australia in Marchâ€“April 1890. It was purportedly caused by the H2N8 type of flu virus and had a very high attack and mortality rate.

The "Spanish flu", 1918â€“1919. First identified early March 1918 in US troops training at Camp Funston, Kansas, by October 1918 it had spread to become a world-wide pandemic on all continents. Unusually deadly and virulent, it ended nearly as quickly as it began, vanishing completely within 18 months. In six months, 25 million were dead; some estimates put the total of those killed worldwide at over twice that number. An estimated 17 million died in India, 500,000 in the United States and 200,000 in the UK. The virus was recently reconstructed by scientists at the CDC studying remains preserved by the Alaskan permafrost. They identified it as a type of H1N1 virus.

The "Asian Flu", 1957â€“58. An H2N2 caused about 70,000 deaths in the United States. First identified in China in late February 1957, the Asian flu spread to the United States by June 1957.

The "Hong Kong Flu", 1968â€“69. An H3N2 caused about 34,000 deaths in the United States. This virus was first detected in Hong Kong in early 1968 and spread to the United States later that year. Influenza A (H3N2) viruses still circulate today.

Typhus

Emerging during the Crusades, it had its first impact in Europe in 1489 in Spain. During fighting between the Christian Spaniards and the Muslims in Granada, the Spanish lost 3,000 to war casualties and 20,000 to typhus. In 1528 the French lost 18,000 troops in Italy and lost supremacy in Italy to the Spanish. In 1542, 30,000 people died of typhus while fighting the Ottomans in the Balkans. The disease also played a major role in the destruction of Napoleon's Grande ArmÃ©e in Russia in 1812. Typhus also killed numerous prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II.