Whenever there are hurricanes in the southeast, or tornadoes in the Midwest or crippling blizzards in the northeast, and whenever there are earthquakes or wildfires in California, a lot of us start to think about it.
We tend to start thinking about what’s worse and measure the risks of each disaster. And we start talking about whether the disasters that happen where we live are better or worse to deal with than the disasters that happen somewhere else.
With the wildfires raging here in California and the continued risk of strong winds, a lot of us may be thinking, you know it would be better to live somewhere where there are hurricanes such as we’ve seen in the southeast the last couple of years. At least when it comes to hurricanes, you get several days’ notice that it is heading your way, giving you time to leave.
And even with tornadoes, you generally get a day’s notice that severe weather is approaching and maybe a tornado watch posted a few hours maybe ahead of time. The same for those terrible blizzards in the northeast.
But when you talk about wildfires or earthquakes, the natural disasters we have in California, they are far more sudden and far harder to predict.
We do get word ahead of time of dangerous fire weather risk, but how a fire starts and where it starts are impossible to predict. And once the wildfire starts moving, you can’t know exactly in what directions it will burn because winds can be unpredictable.
But as we learn every time we do have a wildfire, being prepared ahead of time is the way to survive them and reduce the losses. And that’s something that all disasters share no matter where we live.
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