disater_in_the_movie_essay.docx | |
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Delia Kirk
Natural Disasters 12/2/2019 Earthquake Disaster Preparedness For my disaster preparedness plan, I chose earthquakes because it is something I often hear about hear in Utah. In addition to my current career path as a Victims Advocate helping people in crisis, trauma, and fatalities. It is known in Utah that earthquake has been overdue. I am interested to know how else I could be prepared to help not only my family but the community around me. It is a fact that in Utah’s Wasatch front and most of our state is on an active fault zone. Utah has indirect interactions with the Pacific plate along the plate margin on the west coast of the United States. The history of the Wasatch fault shows to have major earthquakes every three hundred and fifty to four hundred years. The most recent was almost three hundred and sixty years ago. When our expected earthquake comes, we will experience a magnitude between six point five to seven point five earthquakes in the next fifty years. The effects our state can expect to happen will be devastating. Experts estimate that around ten thousand buildings would collapse and damaging approximately two hundred and eighty-five hundred buildings — a death toll around two thousand three hundred people and thirty thousand injured. 35,000,000,000 in damage around the state, the earthquake would most likely cause fires. Even though our probability is for a seven-point five, an earthquake of 6.0 would still bring extreme damage. It would still be strong enough to knock down buildings and cause damage. Infrastructure would be destroyed, and we would have no water, power, or cell phone service for up to months. The possibilities of Utah’s recovering an earthquake that vigorous depends on our state and individual’s willingness to take the warnings seriously and prepare. My Natural Disasters Course informed us that an earthquake in Salt Lake City, UT, with a high seven-point zero magnitude, has the potential to cause a catastrophe instead of a disaster. Disasters in the past now cause catastrophes because of the growth in the human population; it has created more significant concern in certain areas because it will put a substantial demand on resources. People will need to have food and water supply for a three-day period stored for each individual in the household. Emergency kits, including plenty of first aid supplies, and a family plan, so people in your family know what to do and where to meet. As a mother, I will take this information seriously and start practicing drills with family, making sure all my kids and family members know our point of contact. I also will begin working on keeping a portable seventy-two-hour safety kit on hand. Throughout my research, I was happy to learn that there is a program called “fix the brick grant” my husband and I can apply for to help earthquake-proof my brick home. Because Utah’s history of earthquakes was long before our cities grew, most of our houses were not built to hold up in an earthquake. The problem distinctively is in the inside where our brick houses connect to the foundation. The walls were not constructed with anchors to the foundation. The state recommends being “retrofitted,” attaching the roof to the walls and attaching walls to the foundation. On a positive note, I do feel that our state is being proactive from what I can see. It is said that Utah’s local landmarks have been preparing for the earthquake. We have a program called The Utah Earthquake Program. It has a strong partnership that unites diverse professionals working together to find ways to reduce our earthquake losses and risk in Utah. They have participants like the Utah Earthquake Program collaborate routinely on a variety of technical investigations, research projects, and public outreach activities. An expert says since Utah has been warned about our upcoming earthquake, often people have disregarded the urgency. There are plenty of guides for the seismic improvement of unreinforced masonry dwellings, and earthquake insurance could also be useful. Also, when preparing your home, a practical tip to try and secure heavy or valuable items preventing them from falling. It seems that the sooner people plan, the better the possibilities of recovering after. There are plenty of ways to prepare yourself and your loved ones. There are some apps to give you real-time information. There are plenty of resources to understand better what you and your family might need to prepare for our earthquake. I would hope that soon officials would provide more than just seventy-five percent to people who apply, and become more proactive by beginning a process start giving people help their foundation to become “retrofitted” rather than waiting for the community to figure out and be approved for such a grant that could help prepare them and their families. The potential damage seems to be more costly than the initial house proofing preparation. I would hope civilly authorities would have empathy and consider how severe the destruction will be. MY RESEARCH REFERENCES: https://www.utah.gov/beready/index.html https://www.utah.gov/beready/documents/roots_earthquake_low.pdf https://pnsn.org/seismograms https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986 https://ussc.utah.gov/pages/home.php?login=true https://uemaonline.com/ https://dem.utah.gov/ https://www.youtube.com/user/utahgeologicsurvey/videos |
Delia Kirk
Natural Disasters 12/5/2019 Disasters in the movie report. 2012 The movie I chose was 2012 with John Cusack, Directed by Roland Emmerich. I chose the movie because I had never seen the movie before, and the trailer looked interesting, and the kids wanted to see it too. The movie starts in what “they say was a copper mine 1100 ft down that they use as a tool to monitor the earth's core. They were concerned about recent solar flares and the possible radiation effects.They start to panic as they should, after the high temperatures from the earth’s core — the perfect combination for a natural disaster. The location where the events start is in California when small earthquakes start to happen. Then you notice that the earthquake was the result of convergent plates. The progression order of the disaster seems scientifically correct. But the details about the disaster were a bit exaggerated, starting from the earthquake. It seemed accurate from the type of destruction, but the ground collapsing into nowhere seemed far fetched. John Cusack’s character, Jackson, was able to outrun the earthquake in California in a limo, driving through buildings and nearly off of a cliff, all the while a 10.9 earthquake is happening all around them. The city is literally crumbling, yet they are able to make it to the airport. I doubt that with an earthquake of that magnitude, there would be any chance of them being able to stand up straight, let alone drive through the city. Never the less they make it to the plane and just barely take off before the runway cracks and crumbles beneath the plane tires. As they are flying over the city, gigantic chunks of the city are breaking off and falling into what appears to be nothing and sliding into the ocean. Of course, we have never seen an earthquake this size in a major city, so we wouldn’t know exactly how it would look or how fast it would happen, but this scene seems to vary exaggerated for dramatic effect. Though really exciting and fun to watch a scene like this, I'm doubtful that is how it would happen. Next the family makes their way to Yellowstone, where there is a “crazy man” played by Woody Harrelson who has known all along that the supervolcano was going to erupt, he's screaming on top of a mountain when they find him just before the eruption, there is an initial explosion that looks like a mushroom cloud sending ash and lava into the air, the intensity from the blast hits the man a few seconds later sending him, and all the surrounding trees flying back, this seems accurate although the man gets up in time to see the giant pieces of earth falling from the sky. If he were close enough to get thrown back, then the heat of the blast and the ash would have killed him instantly. Again, Jackson is outrunning the ash cloud and lava in an old r.v. weaving in and out of falling, fiery chunks of earth, the r.v. is hit by one, but only the back half is damaged, and he manages to make it back to the plane just in time to escape the enormous ash cloud — the plane flies through the ash and out into the blue sky. If the ash were to get into the plane at all, it would clog the instruments, and they would inevitably crash through a series of other seemingly impossible events, including a plane crash. They make it to the “Ark” where they are met with a tsunami, the tidal wave hits them and brings with it Air Force One taking out their support and leaving them floating in the new sea that has just been created, they are now heading right into the side of Mt. Everest, they are unable to start the engine because the gate to the ship is still open. They finally get the doors closed and are able to avoid the collision. This to me seems too unlikely, firstly I don’t believe the water would rise to the levels it would need to bring the ship to the heights of Mt. Everest, and if it did the water would not just be calm and still seconds after it came in like a tsunami. Overall I was able to see the science behind the movie and where the creator really just had fun with the exaggeration of his evident love for the geography who seemed to have a sense of humor. Now understanding the terminology and concepts of natural disasters does make watching movies like this one more amusing. It was fun to use this movie as an opportunity to teach my kids new stuff I learned. I could see the possibility of this type of exaggeration become annoying to professionals who really work in science. I do look forward to the next movie to compare and contrast with the family. I do feel the movie touched on the basics of the disasters with a twist of sense of humor. |