{"id":1088,"date":"2018-09-19T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2018-09-15T14:49:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T19:49:54","slug":"not-so-natural-disasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2018\/09\/19\/not-so-natural-disasters\/","title":{"rendered":"Not so Natural Disasters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NASA<\/a>
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally Posted October 19, 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n

The rain and wind of Hurricane Matthew may have stopped, but much of North Carolina is still under water. The hard work of repairing and rebuilding has begun across the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean, particularly in Haiti\u00a0where they are still\u00a0reeling from the 2010 earthquake. Hurricanes \u2013 so called natural disasters \u2013 \u00a0are not simply the result of the weather but become “disasters” because of how society shapes people\u2019s risks and how people prepare, adapt, and respond. <\/span><\/p>\n

Extreme weather events like hurricanes often become problems because of the ways society has changed the environment, such as locating cities in areas at risk of flooding, filling in wetlands for development, and building homes on eroding coastlines. Government policies are also major factors in where, why, and when an event becomes a human disaster because development policies have contributed to creating risky areas while response plans are often inadequate.<\/span><\/h5>\n