The Global Impact of Natural Disasters
With the recent continuation of brutal winter weather across much of the U.S and Canada, it’s worth looking at how natural disasters have a global impact–far reaching and beyond the regional scope of a certain area. Most of the time, severe weather that provokes disaster conditions is contained and dealt with regionally without causing too many economic disruptions on a larger scale. The global economy is increasingly linked by production and distribution systems that, were they to fail, could cause disruptions to the worldwide economy. A typhoon that strikes in the south Pacific, in addition to the massive infrastructure destruction and loss of life, can disrupt global commerce as well. While this is a secondary concern to human welfare, it illustrates how natural disasters can impact everyone on some level.
Integrated Preparedness
As well understood as disaster preparedness is, it is still under-implemented–especially on a global scale. True disaster preparedness takes time and investment–something which many places don’t have–including here in the U.S. Financial investment in preparing to address a disaster involves not just rebuilding in the aftermath, but preplanning. Addressing infrastructure deficiencies, community readiness, warning, alert, and disaster education systems are all vital to integrating preparedness into the social foundation. Residents should be individually prepared and understand how to respond before, during, and after a disaster.
Investing in Safety
On a much bigger scale, states and cities should invest in measures to mitigate the devastating effects of disasters and continue to develop systems and infrastructure to protect residents from regional disasters. These sorts of investments can be budgeted better in many places to account for both annual disasters or the eventuality of a once every hundred years disaster. Improving overall preparedness begins here and everyone benefits from comprehensive planning and investments.
The unfortunate reality about natural disasters is that there is no such thing as absolute preparedness. Even the most developed, invested nations/cities/states succumb to the destructive power of severe disasters. The aim of preparedness campaigns is to train and educate people on how to minimize risks to safety, protect themselves, and allocate resources to survive the aftermath. This planning extends beyond individuals and families and involves businesses. Nessynchfootbnaca Understanding the potential impact of a disaster in your town or around the world where your products are produced should necessitate a business response plan. Natural disasters are a world problem and should be approached as something worthy of comprehensive investment and planning.
