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Wildfires, Tornadoes, Earthquakes, and Floods

ESS3B - Natural HazardsESS3B - Natural Hazards

Hazards come in many different forms that can generally be broken down into categories of natural, technological, and man-made. Wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods are generally in the in the natural hazard category. Wildfires and floods, while both natural hazards can be caused by humans. An arsonist could intentionally start a wildfire or a camper could accidentally be the cause. A flood could be unintentionally be caused by human action or inaction. Inaction could be failure of taking mitigation actions and infrastructure improvements. Regardless of the cause or hazard the process or recovery needs to consider the cost benefit of rebuilding to the construction that existed prior or to a higher standard.

Disaster aftermath The true scale of disaster needs to be looked at through the total cost of the disaster. The challenge in this is that a disaster affects different sectors and various entities within each of those on a different timeline. For instance, following a hurricane the construction industry may see an immediate increase in revenues on the macro level but that may not indicate that the increase is beneficial to the local construction firms. Following Super Storm Sandy construction activity increased for business resumption and public works projects followed. This is short-term. The real costs of a disaster cannot be determined at the time of the crisis as it needs to consider more than the value of the response, the replacement of destroyed facilities, and business resumption, or lack of it.

Hurricane Katrina costs are estimated between $80 and up to over $120 billion dollars. Katrina’s real cost will take decades to determine as up to 600,000 families were displaced and business has still not returned to pre-Katrina levels. The costs of cleanup alone for the Fukushima cleanup can top $250 billion – cleanup alone.

Disasters The U.S. faces more natural disaster than any other nation in the world. These events are extremely expensive and require we understand the means to alleviate risks of the potential disasters.

Natural disasters are among humanity’s most expensive, deadliest, and feared events and the U.S. has more severe weather and flooding than any other nation in the world. Severe weather incidents cost the U.S. billions of dollars annually. With all this experience in disaster and emergency management one would assume that a disaster is easy to define. In fact, the question still brings forward significant debate amongst practitioners and academe alike.

Generally, disaster implies a sudden overwhelming and unforeseen event. A disaster could be a flood, a fire, a collapse of buildings in an earthquake, the destruction of livelihoods, an epidemic, or displacement through conflict. A large number of people could be directly or indirectly affected or a disaster may affect a small population that threatens its entire population (e.g. a small Indian Tribe) that numbers less than twenty. Most disasters result in the inability of those affected to cope without outside assistance. This could mean assistance from a neighboring business, jurisdiction, or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as the Red Cross.

There is no single measure of a disaster that can capture the full scope of a disaster. A common measure is the number of people killed or affected. The federal government has its own definition in the Robert T. Stafford Act. Disasters are complex events that defy simple explanations. No two disasters are the same, yet they all have similarities in human suffering and material loss.

Flood Impacts USGS Science Priorities

• Cost $6 billion in average annual losses

• Cause about 140 deaths each year

• Damage infrastructure, causing indirect losses due to disruption of economic activity

• Threaten greater losses as increased urbanization and coastal develop- ment lead to heightened vulnerability

• National Streamflow Information Program: the Federal backbone for acquiring real-time and historical streamflow information

• StreamStats: a Web-based capability of estimating streamflow informa- tion everywhere, including places lacking gages

• Flood forecasting: using historical data to enable flood modeling

• Study climate change, which directly affects the intensity and frequency of floods

U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2006-3026 January 2006Printed on recycled paper

Floods Can Happen Almost Anywhere

In the late summer of 2005, the remarkable flooding brought by Hur- ricane Katrina, which caused more than $200 billion in losses, constituted the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

However, even in typical years, flood- ing causes billions of dollars in damage and threatens lives and property in every State.

Natural processes, such as hurricanes, weather systems, and snowmelt, can cause floods. Failure of levees and dams and inadequate drainage in urban areas can also result in flooding.

On average, floods kill about 140 people each year and cause $6 billion in property damage.

Although loss of life to floods during the past half-century has declined, mostly because of improved warning systems, economic losses have continued to rise due to increased urbanization and coastal development.

Science Helps Meet the Challenge

Reduction of flood losses must be based on the best possible understanding of how and where floods happen and how they cause damage.

Presidential disaster declarations related to flooding in the United States, shown by county: Green areas represent one declaration; yellow areas represent two declarations; orange areas represent three declarations; red areas represent four or more declarations between June 1, 1965, and June 1, 2003. Map not to scale. Sources: FEMA, Michael Baker Jr., Inc., the National Atlas, and the USGS

Flood Hazards—A National Threat USGS Science Helps Build Safer Communities

Presidential disaster declarations related to flooding in the United States and Puerto Rico

During the 1993 Midwest floods, boaters pass an airport in Chesterfield, Mo., Friday, July 9, 1993. (FEMA photo/Andrea Booher)

Flood Facts

• The 1993 Midwest flooding was the costliest river-related flood in history, at $20 billion.

• More than half of all fatalities during floods are auto related, usually the result of drivers misjudging the depth of water on a road and the force of moving water. A car can float in just a few inches of water.

• The principal causes of floods in the Eastern United States and the Gulf Coast are hurricanes and storms.

• The principal causes of floods in the Western United States are snowmelt and rainstorms.

• Flooding is the only natural hazard for which the Federal government provides insurance: FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program.

For more than 100 years, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has played a critical role in reducing flood losses by operating a nationwide streamgage network that monitors the water level and flow of the Nation’s rivers and streams.

Through satellite and computer tech- nology, streamgages transmit real-time information, which the National Weather Service (NWS) uses to issue warnings so local emergency managers can get people out of harm’s way, and operators of flood- control dams and levees use to take action to reduce flood impacts.

This information is also available to the public at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ nwis/rt/.

Streamgages provide long-term data that scientists need to better understand floods and to define flood-prone areas as well.

The USGS has developed a flood-map- ping method that delivers online flood maps—including time of arrival, depth, and extent of flooding—before a storm hits. See http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/ fs2004-3060/ for more information.

Streamgage data also help in designing structures resilient to flooding and are the basis for the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program, the only Federal insurance program for natural hazards.

For More Information http://water.usgs.gov/osw/

http://www.usgs.gov/

The USGS national streamgage network forms the scientific basis both for long-term planning before and after floods and for emergency response dur- ing flooding.

Collaboration Leads to Protection The USGS works closely with the

NWS, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other Federal agencies and partners in every State, as well as many local govern- ments, to fund and maintain about 7,000 streamgaging stations. These relation- ships ensure that scientific information is always available.

Looking Ahead The USGS will continue research on

the physical and statistical characteris- tics of flooding, determining how flood frequency changes with urbanization, climate variability, and other factors for locations nationwide.

The USGS will also work to mod- ernize the streamgaging network and increase its coverage and robustness.

For areas without streamgages— roughly 90 percent of river basins in the United States—scientists are develop- ing new methods to gather streamflow information.

The USGS helps the public, policy- makers, and the emergency management community make informed decisions on how to prepare for and react to flood haz- ards and reduce losses from future floods.

During flooding, USGS hydrographers pre- pare to make a streamflow measurement at the White River at Petersburg, In., Tuesday, January 11, 2005. (Evansville Courier & Press/Vincent Pugliese)

At the Sorlie Bridge between Grand Forks, N. Dak., and East Grand Forks, Minn., floodwaters from the Red River of the North crest at 54.35 feet, Tuesday, April 22, 1997. This depth was more than 24 feet above flood stage and more than 4 feet above the previ- ous record. (USGS photo)

USGS biologists prepare to launch a wet- lands research boat for search and rescue in New Orleans during flooding from Hur- ricane Katrina, Sunday, September 4, 2005. (USGS photo)

This map shows relative shaking hazards in the United States and Puerto Rico. During a 50- year time period, the probability of strong shaking increases from very low (white), to moder- ate (blue, green, and yellow), to high (orange, pink, and red). Map not to scale. Source: USGS.

USGS Science Helps Build Safer Communities Earthquake Hazards—A National Threat

U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2006–3016 March 2006

The upper level of this two-level section of Interstate 880 in Oakland, Calif., collapsed during the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta, Calif., earthquake on October 17, 1989. Forty-one motorists were killed in the collapse (USGS photograph).

A Widespread Danger

Earthquakes are one of the most costly natural hazards faced by the Nation, posing a significant risk to 75 million Americans in 39 States.

The risks that earthquakes pose to society, including death, injury, and economic loss, can be greatly reduced by (1) better planning, construction, and mitigation practices before earthquakes happen and (2) providing critical and timely information to improve response after they occur.

As part of the multiagency National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has the lead Federal responsibility to provide notification of earthquakes in order to enhance public safety and to reduce losses through effective forecasts based on the best possible scientific information.

Science Helps Prepare the Nation

The USGS supports regional, national, and global seismic-monitoring networks, studies why earthquakes occur and how they shake the ground, assesses the

Earthquake hazards in the United States and Puerto Rico

Printed on recycled paper

More than 75 million Americans in 39 States face significant risk from earthquakes.

The magnitude 6.7 Northridge, Calif., earthquake in January 1994 killed 33, injured 9,000, and dis- placed over 20,000 people.

Repeats of historic U.S. earthquakes, such as the 1906 San Francisco earthquake or the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes, could cause up to $500 billion in damage.

The Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency has estimated future annual earthquake losses in the United States at $5.6 billion a year.

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The USGS is working to answer:

Which faults are the most likely to produce damaging earthquakes?

What controls the time between earthquakes on a given fault?

What keeps one earthquake small and lets another grow to hundreds of miles?

What controls the interactions among earthquakes?

What determines how damag- ing ground shaking will be at a particular location from a given earthquake?

What is the cost-effectiveness of different mitigation technologies?

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Earthquake Impacts USGS Science Priorities

The largest recorded earthquake in the United States was a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 28, 1964.

In 1985, a swimming pool at the University of Arizona in Tucson lost water from sloshing, or a “seiche,” caused by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in Mi- choa-can, Mexico, 1,240 miles away.

Alaska is the most earthquake-prone State and one of the most seismically ac- tive regions in the world, experiencing a magnitude 7 earthquake almost every year and a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake every 14 years (on average).

In the United States, there are an average of six magnitude 6 or greater and 57 magnitude 5 or greater earthquakes each year.

Twenty-six urban areas in the United States are at risk of significant seismic activity:

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• A vehicle, seen near the left edge of this image, was crushed under this collapsed storefront in Paso Robles, Calif., during the magnitude 6.5 San Simeon, Calif., earth- quake on December 22, 2003. Two people were killed trying to get out of the store dur- ing the earthquake (FEMA photograph/Dane Golden).

This business in Seattle was heavily dam- aged during the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually, Wash., earthquake on February 28, 2001. About 400 people were injured during the earthquake (FEMA photograph/Kevin Galvin).

hazard level across the Nation, promotes loss-reduction measures using these results, and provides crucial scientific information to help emergency respond- ers when earthquakes occur.

The USGS is gathering data for expanded urban hazard assessments on a local scale to understand how varying soil conditions affect the shaking and damage within cities and at critical lifelines. The USGS is also conducting research to better understand how these hazards change with time.

Although earthquakes occur less frequently in the Eastern United States, studies show that urban areas in the East could face devastating losses because severe shaking would affect a larger area than a similar earthquake in the Western United States. Also, most structures in the Eastern United States are not designed to resist earthquakes.

Population density is also high in the Eastern United States, and residents are

not as well prepared for earthquakes as communities in the West.

In Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, the effects of a destructive earthquake can extend well beyond local impact by potentially creating far-reaching tsunamis and resulting in economic losses that could exceed any that have occurred from previous earthquakes or tsunamis.

The USGS Is Networking

The USGS and university and State Geological Survey partners have begun to install and operate the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS), a national net- work of sophisticated shaking monitors placed both on the ground and in build- ings in urban areas.

ANSS stations will provide better data crucial for finding cost-effective seismic- design solutions for homes, buildings, bridges, and other structures.

In cities where ANSS is in place, such as Los Angeles, the USGS has begun

producing maps within minutes of an earthquake showing the distribution and severity of ground shaking in or near the urban center. These “ShakeMaps” form the basis for emergency response by cit- ies, States, Federal agencies, and critical lifeline operators.

The USGS will continue to improve on existing earthquake monitoring, assessment, and research activities, with the ultimate goal of providing new prod- ucts that facilitate more effective mitiga- tion and response.

Albuquerque, N. Mex. Anchorage, Alaska Boise, Idaho Boston, Mass. Charleston, S.C. Chattanooga-Knoxville

Tenn. Eugene-Springfield,

Oreg. Evansville, Ind.

Fresno, Calif. Las Vagas, Nev. Los Angeles, Calif. Memphis, Tenn. New York, N.Y. Portland, Oreg. Provo-Orem, Utah Reno, Nev. Sacramento, Calif. St. Louis, Mo.

Salinas, Calif. Salt Lake City, Utah San Diego, Calif. San Francisco-Oakland,

Calif. San Juan, P.R. Santa Barbara, Calif. Seattle, Wash. Stockton-Lodi, Calif.

Earthquake Facts

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ http://www.usgs.gov/

For More Information