Found 2353 Natural Disasters Products.
Featured Excerpt on Vulnerability from the Second Edition of Introduction to International Disaster Management The concept of vulnerability was first presented in Chapter 1 and defined as a measure of the propensity of an object, area, individual, group, community, country, or other entity to incur the consequences of a hazard. As this section illustrates, measurement of vulnerability results from a combination of physical, social, economic, and environmental factors or processes. These factors are the primary determinant features that dictate how the likelihood and/or consequences components of risk are increased or decreased. It is important to first clarify the difference between the concepts of vulnerability and exposure, which are often confused. The two words are used interchangeably to describe how a country, region, or community is likely to experience a certain hazard. However, this is incorrect, as the discussion on vulnerability factors shows. The United Nation’s risk reduction document Living with Risk embodies this concept, saying, “While most natural hazards may be inevitable, disasters are not” (ISDR, 2004). Figure 3-9 Figure 3-10 While vulnerability defines the propensity to incur consequences, exposure merely suggests that the individual, structure, community, nation, or other subject will be exposed to the hazard. For instance, one might say, “The Spanish are vulnerable to drought,” meaning that Spain regularly experiences the drought hazard. But this statement implies more than the speaker intended. The use of the word “vulnerable” implies that the population is likely to incur negative consequences as a result of factors that make it less likely to protect its citizens and built and natural environments from harm, not simply that drought happens there. The reality, as Figures 3–9 and 3–10 illustrate, is that while Spain is regularly exposed to drought, the nation is not vulnerable to its consequences. Read the rest of this featured excerpt on Vulnerability. [PDF] Read a featured excerpt on "Recognizing That Recovery Is an Opportunity in Disguise." [PDF]
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Just when you thought you’d accepted your own mortality . . . Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody is bringing panic back. Twenty illustrated, hilariously fear-inducing
essays reveal the chilling and very real experiments, dangerous emerging technologies, and terrifying natural disasters that soon could—or very nearly already did—bring about the end of humanity. In short, everything in here will kill you and everyone you love. At any moment. And nobody’s told you about it—until now: • Experiments in green energy like the HiPER, which uses massive lasers to create a tiny “contained” sun; it’s an idea that could save the world if it doesn’t consume us all in a fiery fusion reaction first. • Global disasters like the hypercane—a hurricane so large it could cover all of North America and shoot trailer parks into space!• Terrifying new developments in robotics like the EATR, which powers itself on meat—an invention in the running for “Worst Decision Made by Anybody.”
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Bestselling historian Douglas Brinkley, a professor at Tulane University, lived through the destruction of Hurricane Katrina with his fellow New Orleans residents, and now in The Great Deluge he has written one of the first complete accounts of that harrowing week, which sorts out the bewildering events of the storm and its aftermath, telling the stories of unsung heroes and incompetent officials alike. Get a sample of his story--and clarify your own memories--by looking through the detailed timeline he has put together of the preparation, the hurricane, and the response to one of the worst disasters in American history.
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Colorado and its neighboring states battle thousands of wildfires every year, scrub and sagebrush blazes often ignited by lightning strikes in the dry, hot days of summer. A vast, intertwined firefighting infrastructure combining local resources with agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM, reacts to these flare-ups as if going to war--and in theory, the coordination and communication ensures that fires are fought in the most efficient and safe manner possible. But while most wildfires in Colorado end up costing just over $60,000 on average with no loss of life, the catastrophic South Canyon fire of 1994 burned for 10 days, at the ultimate cost of $4.5 million and the lives of 14 firefighters. OSHA would later describe the coordinated action flatly as a "management failure," and concurrent investigations would reveal a tangled web of jealous rivalries, bureaucratic bungling, and severe morale problems. (One of the early on-scene supervisors would later tell investigators, "Leadership in this state sucks.") John Maclean (son of Norman Maclean, who wrote both A River Runs Through It and an award-winning account of Montana's deadly 1949 Mann Gulch fire) skillfully unfolds that summer's foreboding blow-by-blow. Fire on the Mountain weaves together a tense narrative of almost cinematic action, starring ballsy cowboy smokejumpers, frustrated federal middle managers, seasoned "hotshots" flown in like commandos, pissed-off tanker pilots, and well-intentioned but spin-wary politicians. Maclean's well-sketched personalities bring the action on the ground convincingly to life--and knowing up front that many of his main characters won't survive South Canyon makes this tragic tale that much more compelling. --Paul Hughes
Price : $9.78
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The Power of the Sea describes our struggle to understand the physics of the sea, so we can use that knowledge to predict when the sea will unleash its fury against us. In a wide-sweeping narrative spanning much of human history, Bruce Parker, former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service, interweaves thrilling and often moving stories of unpredicted natural disaster with an accessible account of scientific discovery. The result is a compelling scientific journey, from ancient man’s first crude tide predictions to today’s advanced early warning ability based on the Global Ocean Observing System. The new paperback edition includes a dramatic new chapter on the 2011 Japan Tsunami.
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This text offers an informative examination of natural hazard mitigation for planners, policymakers, stu dents, and professionals that work in this field. The topics include guidelines for hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. '
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Written by a father-son team of prominent geologists, Donald and David Hyndman, NATURAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS, Third Edition, emphasizes Earth, the atmosphere, and the hazardous natural processes and events that dramatically alter them. In teaching introductory environmental and physical geology courses, the authors found that topics involving natural hazards are among the most interesting for students like you. They also realized that employing natural hazards as a thematic focus and context motivates their students to learn basic scientific concepts. You begin each chapter by reading about the underlying geological processes as well as the key terms that describe them. Next, you explore the impact these processes have on humans (as well as the impact that humans have on the processes). Finally, the authors analyze strategies for mitigating these hazards' physical and financial harm, and present prospects for the future. With over 900 images and illustrations, this third edition will certainly catch and retain your attention.
Price : $145.96
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A Simon & Schuster eBook
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This fall, join LIFE as it goes on holiday with the newest themed book in its Picture Puzzle Series, the puzzle phenomenon that has taken the publishing world by storm. As the leaves change color and the air turns crisp, our thoughts naturally turn to the upcoming holiday festivities. The folks at LIFE have also been thinking about these days of good cheer, and have been busy collecting the prettiest and most fun-filled photos of the winter holidays. LIFE Picture Puzzle: Holiday (the 7th book in the series) is 144 pages filled with all the moments that warm our hearts and the most amusing, challenging and beautiful puzzles drawn from Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year's. See if you can spot the differences as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floats by or catch the funny ornaments that have jumped on the Christmas tree. With puzzles that will charm first-time players as well as ones that will daunt the most experienced puzzle masters, this special LIFE Picture Puzzle Holiday book is sure to delight readers and be a cherished gift for players of all ages.
Price : $4.40
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Before storm sirens, before the Weather Channel, before Doppler Radar, a tornado "dropped out of a troubled May sky and twisted its way into our lives forever." On the evening of May 20,1957 three communities south of Kansas City, Missouri were destroyed by a seventy-one mile, F-5 twister. This monstrous storm left in its path five hundred injured, forty-four dead and over a million dollars worth of property damage. Nothing defines a community more than its reaction to disaster. Caught In The Path is a story of fear and courage, suffering and resiliency. The hardest hit area, four year old Ruskin Heights, was the first post-war tract housing development in the Kansas City area. Like so many of their generation, its residents, mostly first time home buyers in their twenties and thirties, came to Ruskin to raise their baby-boom families with the optimism of the fifties. When the tornado scattered their dreams along its path, they came back, and changed a housing development into a community. Author Carolyn Glenn Brewer's family was among those caught off guard by the tornado. Most of the houses on her block were leveled to the foundation. She combines her story with extensive interviews from nearly one hundred survivors and period media coverage. The narrative flow of this book reads like fiction, but makes the tornado, and the summer that followed, pulse with reality.
Price : $14.95
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