Juan Pablo Romero

Natural Disaster Prevention and

Mitigation
In the 1990s natural disasters affected some 2 billion people worldwide and killed
400,000 to 500,000 people. A number that is now increasing every year, because of
global warming. In your life you may not see or hear about natural disasters in your
city, or even in the news of your country. This is because, most disasters are
windstorms and floods, and still these cause damage and suffering to people. But,
because they are not as big and sensationalist as a big earthquake following a
outrageous tsunami, many local news don't cover this events, therefore, people
become ignorant to this subject. Thats why GIN wants to make this problem global,
and make people realize they need to take action.

How can you prevent natural disasters from happening?

Obviously, you cant.
So, how do you fix an unfixable problem?
You don't fix it, you reduce the impact this problem causes in society.
And thats Mitigation.
Mitigation is helping the impacted community with levees, dams, floodgates, land
use planning, preparedness, emergency services, disaster management systems,
alert systems, and capital. This way, less people will die, less people will suffer,
more people will have a home, and more people will recover. If you want, you can
take action, you can search for mitigation programs and make a positive impact
against the negative impact this natural disasters are causing.

FEMA is the organization leading this hazard mitigation programs.

They currently have three main programs, which are, the Hazard Mitigation Grant
Program (HMGP), which assists in implementing long-term hazard mitigation
planning and projects. Then there is, the Flood Mitigation Assistance Program
(FMA), which provides funds for planning and projects to reduce or eliminate risk of
flood damage to buildings that are insured under the National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP) on an annual basis and the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) Program
which provides funds for hazard mitigation planning and projects on an annual
basis.

In the FEMA webpage you can learn more about each of this programs and be part
of the solution, be part of something bigger than yourself and make an effort
because at the end you are the one that gets touch by a different reality.