Comparative Analysis of Two Natural Calamities

This report compares the causes and impacts of Hurricane Sandy that hit the United States of America in 2012 with the devastating flood in South Africa that took place in the year 2011. The brief analysis of the measures taken by both the governments of USA and South Africa shows the actual difference of the aid received by rich and poor countries. The report also suggests some policies considered by the government of both countries should take to avert such casualties after any natural calamity.

Comparative analysis scenario of two Natural Calamities
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
The concept of natural disaster is an event caused by natural causes like huge rain fall or
volcanic eruption that lead to great loss of life (Study.com, 2018).Sudden occurrence of such
disastrous natural event creates a dreadful impact on livelihood of local victims intensely. Two
natural disasters which took place in USA and South Africa that left their traces on humankind as
well as on nature are to be described in this brief analysis. It will elaborate thorough comparison
of affected areas, number of casualties, measures taken by government and possible factors to
avoid such calamities regarding these two countries.This study on natural calamities will display
the affected areas of USA by Hurricane Sandy and the affected areas in South Africa by a
devastating flood in 2011. This study will also provide reasons behind disasters and measures
which government has adapted for the avoidance along with a comparative analysis of the
mentioned natural calamities.
Discussion
Comparative analysis of two natural disasters occurred in rich and poor
country:
The hurricane Sandy, also known as “Superstorm Sandy” hit Northeast United States,
Canada,and Caribbean Islands in October 2012 claiming more than 147 lives (CNN, 2018). The
report says that the number of casualties includes 48 from New York, 12 from New Jersey, 5
from Connecticut and two from Pennsylvania. According to Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA), approximately 246 million US dollars of government revenue was lost along
with 4.75 billion US dollars of infrastructure damage (Hughes, et al., 2014). Five Caribbean
nations named Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rica and Jamaica have been affected majorly by
this superstore. This superstore was also damaged more than 200,000 homes in USA which
affected to more than 800,000 US citizen. On the other hand, in South Africa, more than 500
people lost their lives and over 6000 people lost their habitats due to heavy flood in the year
2011 (Answers Africa, 2018). Botswana was the most affected area in this flood. More than 630
schools and 42 health units got closed due to this disastrous flood.Owing to this issue, the
government of South Africa had to rescue almost 20,000 people from the affected areas. Other
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than South Africa this thunderstorm and flood issue affected other African nations like Namibia,
Zimbabwe, Botswana,andZambia.
Causes behind the disasters in USA and South Africa:
According to David Robinson, New Jersey’s State Climatologist, the Hurricane Sandy was
mainly caused due to trough of low pressure going on in the atmosphere fed by Arctic air which
was further backed up by the higher tides because of a Black moon (Live Science, 2018).Another
cause of the hurricane was that a huge storm took shape beforehand having heavy wind speeding
up to nearly 90 miles per hour and made landfall on the East Coast being fed by Hurricane
Grace.This superstorm was generated from tropical storm of Caribbean Sea. Initially, this storm
developed into the hurricane of category 1. When this hurricane had a landfall in Jamaica, it had
a speed of 80 mph and when this landfalls in Cuba at that time it increased to 105 mph by
changed into the category 2 hurricane.
Hughes, et al., (2014) argues that the cause of deadly flood in South Africa was heavy and
continuous rainfall that went on for several weeks. It was also reported that the flood was the
direct result of the changing weather pattern from 2010 to 2011.Also, the World Bank had
declared to lend money to the government of South Africa for the aid of the 60000 homeless
people and the families that had suffered from the loss of their family members. One of the major
reason behind the flood in South Africa was the overflow of Orange River. Since partial clouds
had been formed over the river which resulted in heavy rainfall and that had caused overflow in
the river.
Comparison and contrast between the key stakeholders in such natural disasters in
view of affected communication and suggestion of policies:
The government of the United States had set up a separate fund for the sole purpose of relief and
aid to the affected people of the Hurricane Sandy. More than 2.2 million US dollar of money
were collected and total 35 safety-net health centers were formed by the government (Direct
Relief, 2018). On the contrary, the occurrence of flood in African region especially in South
Africa their government has taken many measures to safe flood affected victims. The
government of South Africa had to invest almost $211 for the damage control and rescue of their
citizen. Being one of the third world countries, the Government of Africa had to lend the lion’s
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share of the said amount of money from the World Bank and Red Cross. The social development
department of South Africa provided many blankets, mattresses, clothing and food parcels after
the occurrence of this flood. In case of the natural calamity occurred in USA, National
Association of Community Health Centres (NACHC) collaborated with Direct Relief to support
the patients and the affected families of Hurricane Sandy and added more than 1.5 million US
dollar to the fund. The measures taken for restoring communication by the government of USA
during natural disaster were an interactive exchange of information and opinion amongst
individual and groups with the goal of assessing, minimising and regulated risks. Informing
people about the types of natural disaster and its causes makes the people knowledgeable to
respond to situation quickly and reduce the level of crisis.
On the other hand, the occurrence of this flood the government had to rebuild the schools,
hospitals which is very much required for the health of victims and education of children
(Blaikie, et al., 2014). South African natural disaster management follows systematic, well-
planned series of action which comprises of different tools and techniques such as objective
utilising, availing of resources and setting a specific timeline. This was further followed by
setting up of relief camps in disaster-prone zones to keep the people informed about the natural
disaster.
Both the countries need to identify the hazard-prone areas and the risk about it, informing the
people about the consequences and potential threats looming with it. Further social relief camps
and widespread strong social network can be major benefit during and after natural disaster
(Jamba.org.za, 2018). Social reliefs forums need to be arranged and informing should be spread
about what should be the primary steps and actions during natural disaster. Evacuation and
mobility of access should be present so as victims can be taken into safer place. Since South
Africa is a poor country itself, it had managed to restore the total affected communication
network in Botswana taking more than one year of time. Whereas, being one of the richest
countries in the world, USA took only 45 days to mend for the losses it faced.
The environment of USA mainly consists of mostly tropical rainforests all along, whereas the
climate of South Africa is warm and sunny due to a geographical location is near to equator.
Therefore the natural disaster commonly occurs in US are hail storm, hurricane,and heavy
snowfall. Whereas in South Africa the main environmentalconcernsis floods and heavy rains
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along with sunburns(Live Science, 2018). Therefore both the countries need to set up relief
camps and regulatory bodies such as European Union and USA’s United Nation Organisation.
Through this activities, the natural disaster can be mitigated in both the countries. On the
contrary, lack of environment policies creates issues for controlling devastating effect of the
floodin the distinct locations of South Africa. Support from the government of international
countries such as USA, Japan or Australia has provided a chance to install flood protection tools
required to gain an in-depth idea about the devastating impact of such natural calamity.
Conclusion
The above report compares the causes and impacts of the Hurricane Sandy that hit the United
States of America in 2012 with the devastating flood in South Africa that took place in the year
2011. The brief analysis of the measures taken by both the governments of USA and South
Africa shows the actual difference of the aid received by richand poor countries. The report also
suggests some policies considered by the government of both countries should take to avert such
casualties after any natural calamity.
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References
Answers Africa, 2018. 10 of the Worst Natural Disasters in African History. [Online]
Available at: https://answersafrica.com/10-of-the-worst-natural-disasters-in-african-history.html
[Accessed 28 May 2018].
Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I. & Wisner, B., 2014. At risk: natural hazards, people's
vulnerability and disasters.. london: Routledge.
CNN, 2018. Hurricane Sandy Fast Facts. [Online]
Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/13/world/americas/hurricane-sandy-fast-facts/
index.html
[Accessed 28 May 2018].
Direct Relief, 2018. Direct Relief: Hurricane Sandy Response. [Online]
Available at: https://www.directrelief.org/emergency/hurricane-sandy-relief-and-recovery/
[Accessed 28 May 2018].
Fema.gov, 2018. Disaster Emergency Communications Division | FEMA.gov. [Online]
Available at: https://www.fema.gov/disaster-emergency-communications-division
[Accessed 29 MAY 2018].
Hughes, A., St Denis, L., Palen, L. & Anderson, K., 2014. Online public communications by
police & fire services during the 2012 Hurricane Sandy. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI
conference on human factors in computing systems, 1(1), pp. 1505-1514.
Jamba.org.za, 2018. A revision of communication strategies for effective disaster risk reduction:
A case study of the South Durban basin, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. [Online]
Available at: https://jamba.org.za/index.php/jamba/article/view/132/269
[Accessed 29 may 2018].
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Live Science, 2018. Weather or Climate: What Caused Hurricane Sandy?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.livescience.com/24377-weather-climate-hurricane-sandy.html
[Accessed 28 May 2018].
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