Essay Sample on Natural Disasters and Their Impact on the Economy and Community

From hurricanes to tornadoes, natural disasters are terrible for the economy and community. Natural disasters have been happening forever and they are getting more frequent every year. What impacts do these disasters have on the economy and the people living there? 

The basics of Earthquakes and Hurricanes 

A natural disaster is a large event caused by the Earth's natural process and can be devastating to civilizations. A hurricane is one example of a natural disaster. Hurricanes can be deadly depending on their category, a category one hurricane would likely damage your roof and gutters and might uproot small trees. But a catastrophic hurricane such as a category five could wipe out cities. Earthquakes are another type of natural disaster measured by the Richter scale. An earthquake happens when two tectonic plates shift against each other and cause anywhere from an unnoticeable tremor to an earth-splitting shake. Japan experiences more earthquakes than other countries because it is on the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line.

The impact on the economy 

The economic impact of natural disasters can vary from just cracking a sidewalk to ripping up roads and crumbling dams and bridges. Natural disasters can also deplete the country of some of its resources by destroying trees, polluting the water, and killing livestock. According to un.org, the poor are the hardest hit by earthquakes and hurricanes because they are more likely to live in hazard-prone areas or have fragile housing. Cleaning up hurricanes take a lot of time and effort. A category one hurricane normally takes around a month to clean up. Hurricane Harvey is estimated to take 20 months to clean up from it and do repairs because it was a category five hurricane. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating and costly storms ever, Hurricane Katrina cost around 182.5 billion dollars and 18 months to clean up and has to this day left 12,000 people homeless.