Complain about a product or service

One-Third of U.S. Population Lives in Hazard-Prone Areas

October 24, 2005
More than one-third of the U.S. population lives in hazard-prone areas, but only one percent of its land area ranks in the highest disaster-related mortality risk category, a new study finds.

Natural Disasters • Get Your Home a Flood Insurance Checkup • Dealing with Disasters: Financial Preparation is Vital • Storm-Tossed Texans Warned to Watch for Price-Gouging • Digital TV Transition Threatens Portables • Storm Season is Time to Review Insurance Policies • Scammers Exploit Iowa's Flooding • Post-Storm Survival Tips • Midwest Storm Victims May be Victimized Again • Fireman's Fund Offers 'Green' Policy • California Gears Up For Fire Scammers • California Wildfires Aftermath Requires Vigilance • Insurers Dumping Customers Along East Coast • Homeowners Insurance Rates Unfair, Massachusetts Charges • Researchers: La Nina Won't Affect 2006 Atlantic Hurricanes • 2006 Hurricane Forecast: More and Bigger • Few Americans Prepared For Disaster • Illinois Earthquake Rattles Insurers • Consumers Pay the Price for Disasters: Tips on Minimizing Your Losses • Congress Considers Taxpayer-Funded Catastrophe Insurance • Researchers Study East Coast Tsunami Danger • Is the Earth Getting Riskier? Expert Says No • One-Third of U.S. Population Lives in Hazard-Prone Areas • FEMA Tightens Flood Insurance Standards • Preparing Your Home for a Storm • Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency • Hurricane Season Is Time to Review Insurance Coverage • Tremors Rattle Californians

The Columbia University Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR) study attempts to provide a framework for thinking about (and preparing for) future catastrophes.

Noting that the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia the day after Christmas last year and left 200,000 to 300,000 people dead and two million in poverty has lent new urgency to disaster research, researchers gathered data showing which parts of the world have been most ravaged by nature - floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones, volcanoes and landslides - over the past 25 years.

The research is also helping to identify areas, like Siberia and north-central Canada, where the dangers of natural disasters are the smallest, says CHRR.

Among the findings:

• Approximately 20 percent of the Earth's land surface is exposed to at least one of the natural hazards evaluated while 160 countries have more than one quarter of their population in areas of high mortality risk from one or more hazards.

• More than 90 countries have more than 10 percent of their population in areas of high mortality risk from two or more hazards.

• Taiwan may be the place on Earth most vulnerable to natural hazards, with 73 percent of its land and population exposed to three or more hazards;

• More than 90 percent of the populations of Bangladesh, Nepal, the Dominican Republic, Burundi, Haiti, Taiwan, Malawi, El Salvador, and Honduras live in areas at high relative risk of death from two or more hazards.

Poorer countries in the developing world are more likely to have difficulty absorbing repeated disaster-related losses and costs associated with disaster relief, recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The complete report is available at http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news/2005/03_29_05.htm.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.

Back to the top |