Good Introductory Text: Natural Disasters, Patrick Abbott, McGraw-Hill

M=7.8 Nepal Earthquake, April

Western U.S. Drought: most severe in California on record

Diminishing Snowpack – Sierra Nevada

SW U.S. Dust Storms & Wildfires

January 2014 North American Cold Wave blame the Polar Vortex?? 1. Sudden stratospheric warming 2.Baroclinic Instability of the tropospheric jet stream affected 200 Million in N. America Jan 6-8: 70 U.S. record low temperatures Normal Jan Jan Jet Stream Jan Temp. Anomalies

Hurricane Sandy October 27-30, 2012

Typhoon Haiyan; November 2-11, 2013

U.S. Tornado Outbreaks Rare “twin” tornadoes: Pilger Nebraska, June 16, 2014

Mid-Atlantic Derecho, June 29, 2012

Russian Meteor February 15, 2013

Tohoku, Japan Earthquake & Tsunami March 11, 2011

Terminology Natural disaster - an event in Nature claiming lives or the fruits of human labor on a large (extreme) scale Natural hazard - same classes of events, with the potential to be disasters Fundamental Questions Natural disasters: when, where, why? Are they predictable? Are they preventable? How should I plan/respond?

Examples of Large Natural Disasters Event Human Fatalities 1931 Yangtze flood 1,000, Hwang-Ho flood 1,000, , 1991 Bangladesh typhoons 540, Sumatra tsunami 230, Hurricane Katrina 1, Haiti earthquake 200, Fukushima tsunami 19, Hurricane Sandy Typhoon Haiyan Nepal earthquake 8500

World-wide Fatalities from Natural Disasters (annual average, ) Disaster Fatalities Floods (rivers) 30,000* Earthquakes 17,000* Tropical storms 10,000 Tsunamis 3,000* Landslides & Avalanches 1,000 Volcanoes 800 Bush Fires 1,000 Tornadoes, U.S. 75 Lightning, U.S. 400 * mostly in few, catastrophic events not included: drought; heat

Insured Property Losses, U.S. [Adjusted to 2014$] Event Loss 1992 Hurricane Andrew $44B 1996 Northridge eqk. $45B 2003 Hurricane Isabel $25B 2005 Hurricane Katrina $128B 2012 Hurricane Sandy $60B hypothetical M>8.0 earthquake downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco est. $900B

Natural disaster prevention is usually not possible, but fatalities are preventable (almost always). Mitigation of natural disasters is possible, depending on: scientific understanding = predictive ability engineering action = infrastructure design societal organization = awareness & emergency response Developing nations suffer most fatalities, from lack of mitigation (ex: Indian Ocean tsunami; Haiti & Nepal earthquakes) Developed nations suffer most financial loss, because of infrastructure damage (ex: Hurricanes Katrina & Sandy; Fukushima earthquake & tsunami)