Conclusion

Natural Disasters happen in many places to millions of people and i set out to find what variable changes how people react to all these disasters. I found out it can be the honor system, how prepared they were, if they underestimated the storm, and how their buildings were structured. Informing people of what to do if a disaster strikes saves thousands of lives, and researching for how to structure buildings and technology for disasters will help many others evacuate before a disaster hits. How you are prepared and informed changes how you will react to disasters.

Joplin Tornado vs Hurricane Ivan

The reaction of people is affected by how well they prepare, but it is also effected if they underestimate the storm. Which is what two people did with two entirely different storms. When discussing how the city of Joplin felt about tornado's, a lifelong resident stated "we have them all the time." To a man about to experience Hurricane Ivan, "the hurricanes I had been involved with before really didn't do that much damage, and I thought that Ivan would be the same." Two people experiencing two entirely different natural disasters, weren't expecting the outcome of either. "The first thing I saw was my high school, because we live right near the school, It was destroyed. I was in shock. I couldn't talk. Then I saw my house," says a resident of Joplin. She was a wreck, and so was her home and many others. A man in Hurricane Ivan describes the after effects.  "There were many houses and businesses that were completely gone. Less than a mile farther south, houses were washed off their foundations and flooded up to their roof lines." He now has much more respect for hurricanes and is not underestimating  another one anytime soon. Same goes for the resident in Joplin, they learned not to underestimate a storm, for what you are not prepared to handle, makes handling that much worse.

Japan vs Haiti

After the earthquakes and tsunami's, there was a distinguishable difference between Haiti and Japan. It is how the people respond afterwards. "Hardly anyone was incredulous of looting in Haiti," describes a Haitian man. Haiti is known for having "suffered decades of conflict, poor governance and crippling poverty." Japan on the other hand, is known for being a "country run on the honor system." They leave their food stands unattended, with a box for the money. It is a high dishonor to their entire family if any member does anything to attract negative attention. This has Japan handling disasters much healthier, because they don't have to worry about much vandalism and stealing. An honor system to Haiti is a foreign concept, and it leads to an overload of stealing, vandalism, and national disruption. Mutual respect for one another as a country leads to a much better outcome.

Chile vs Haiti

Chile and Haiti are one of the more common countries to be compared side by side to because they are both small countries, yet completely opposite. Chili is known for its many earthquakes and tsunami's following after, while Haiti "hasn’t had a major quake in about 250 years." The natural disaster's aren't what sets the two countries apart, its the stark contrast between each others economic and social status. 80% of Haitians are in poverty, while only 20% of Chilean people are.This difference leads to how prepared each county was for the earthquake and tsunami's that famously happened in beginning of 2010.

Haiti was hit in January 2010, and hard. It led to a loss of over 200,000 people. "Not surprisingly, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere lacks basic tsunami preparedness, such as warning signs on beaches." says tsunami researcher by the name of Fritz. The tsunami was unexpected, but not the loss. "Many people were killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami because they went down to the beach to view the retreating ocean exposing the seafloor." an expert for National Geographic states. These researchers are giving living proof of how unprepared and lack of knowledge about safety preparation Haiti is. The lack of preparation led to a drastic loss of civilians. A Haitian survivor describes how the lack of financial income effects the outcome of these natural disasters. "Chile has a responsible government, our government is incompetent." Chili also has a government that insists on strict codes for buildings that are made to move with an earthquake; therefore, creating less damage. In fact, Chili had a loss of under a thousand people, whearas Haiti lost 199,000 more. Preparation in every aspect affects the outcome for the people.

Hurricane Ike vs Houston and Indiana

Hurricane Ike went from Houston to Indiana, killing 112 people. In Houston, "the biggest thing that we were all unprepared for was how long our power would be out." They were otherwise prepared with plenty of water, food, and communication. They went from house to house, staying at friend's who had power, and sharing supplies. They even found out they had too many supplies, and needed to carefully select only the supplies they needed for the next hurricane.

Indiana was completely unprepared unlike Houston. "No one escaped damage and no one had warning. 200+ year old trees slammed into houses, storm drains overflowed and wiped out entire blocks of cars, and signs flew right into their business' windows." They were small town; far away from any city, which benefited them in causing no "mass chaos," whereas Houston made sure they had revolvers handy in case of trouble.  Unfortunately, this prevented them from getting the immediate help that they needed. People were not in extreme panic, but they were not calm either. They all needed food and water after the small stores supply quickly ran out. Several days passed until they finally received assistance, and thankfully it was just in time.

Romain Morgan vs St. Louis City

For the states known as being part of the "tornado alley," there are many people who lose their lives with any tornado powerful enough to do any damage, the power of the tornado could be anything from F1-F6 on the scale. The question is, how do some prepare better than others? There is talk of a "tornado proof building," and a woman by the name of Romain Morgan decided to have just that. After being stuck under a refrigerator with her baby, something had to change. The change presented itself by means of a monolithic dome that she chose for her house to be structured as. The dome got its chance to prove its toughness against a tornado all too soon. There was talk of a tornado coming to Morgan's town, and the tornado came right at her. It hovered over their roof  for quite an amount of time. “We were not scared,” she said. “We were absolutely confident. We always knew the dome was tornado-proof and that’s why I built it.” She had a positive reaction due to her preparation for the tornado. 

St. Louis airport, on the other hand, had the exact opposite reaction. "It was like being in a horror movie. Grown men were crying. It was horrible." says a passenger waiting in the terminal. The airport was unprepared for the tornado, both in infrastructure and awareness. Glass, doors, and other debris blew everywhere. An airport director expresses her thoughts, "we're fortunate we didn't have larger (numbers) of injuries." No injuries, but complete panic in the reactions of waiting passengers. St. Louis was not prepared; therefore many people mishandled the situation.

Japan vs China Reaction

Japan was hit with an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9, and Asia is hit with 40% of the world's disasters. China expresses how they are very impressed with the way Japan handled the disaster. They "admired the Japanese people's calm and orderly response to the disaster." Asia, on the other hand, deals with setbacks on every disaster that comes their way. "Efforts to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life in developing countries could suffer sizeable setbacks." The difference is, Japan prepares very specifically for disasters. School houses and buildings are build to stand sustained movement, while China lost thousands of school children because the building was not build to sustain an earthquake, and they deal with more trouble in people stealing and vandalizing. The country that better prepared for a disaster calmly dealt with how to go about in continuing their lives, while the country that did not prepare had more unfortunate reactions.

Introduction

Natural Disasters are a way of life as much as we wouldn't like them to exist. They frequently happen anywhere in the world for a variety of reasons. It could be sporadic disasters  like earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. They can also be seasonal disasters like hurricanes, monsoons, and tornadoes. All these disasters have a detrimental effect on people's lives and environment. The real question is, how do these people prepare for these disasters, if at all? Countries and states that are known for earthquakes might have built buildings to sustain constant movement, but when a country is hit with an unprepared tsunami, how will they react to it? How people prepare, affects the outcome.