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

2. M=7.8 Nepal Earthquake, April 25 2015

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

4. Diminishing Snowpack – Sierra Nevada

5. SW U.S. Dust Storms & Wildfires 2012-2015

6. 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 7 2014 Jan 6 2014 Jet Stream Jan. 1-15 Temp. Anomalies

7. Hurricane Sandy October 27-30, 2012

8. Typhoon Haiyan; November 2-11, 2013

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

10. Mid-Atlantic Derecho, June 29, 2012

11. Russian Meteor February 15, 2013

12. Tohoku, Japan Earthquake & Tsunami March 11, 2011

13. 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?

14. Examples of Large Natural Disasters Event Human Fatalities 1931 Yangtze flood 1,000,000 1938 Hwang-Ho flood 1,000,000 1970, 1991 Bangladesh typhoons 540,000 2004 Sumatra tsunami 230,000 2005 Hurricane Katrina 1,300 2010 Haiti earthquake 200,000 2011 Fukushima tsunami 19,500 2012 Hurricane Sandy 87 2013 Typhoon Haiyan 6400 2015 Nepal earthquake 8500

15. World-wide Fatalities from Natural Disasters (annual average, 1910-2010) 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

16. 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

17. 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)