Good morning everyone. I'm Mimi Faatz, and this is Hello from the Van. Today's topic comes to us from my second born, Robert Bob, Robert Bobby, who has been begging for this topic to be covered for the last two months. You see, my kids and I live in a region that has recently experienced a lot of smaller earthquakes. I was in the middle of cutting my oldest hair when suddenly we heard a deep noise from withinside the mountain, followed by a lot of shaking. I scrambled and yelled, Earthquake, and got the kids to a safe place to wait it out. And I would love to say that this is a one-off, but we've been in several earthquakes over the last few weeks, so it wasn't that big of a deal. But yeah, it brought up a lot of questions at the FOTS household. Questions like, what makes a natural disaster? What qualifies something as a natural disaster? And what's the best way to prepare? So those will be the three questions that we will be answering in today's episode. What qualifies a natural disaster? What makes a natural disaster? And what's the best way to prepare? Let's start with the first question. What qualifies something as a natural disaster? The answer to that question is in the name. It's not just a disaster, it's a naturally occurring one. Natural disasters are things that would happen on their own without the aid or assistance of humanity. And for it to qualify as not just a natural event and instead a natural disaster, it has to happen on a grand or major scale. And that scale must impact humans. If it happens but it doesn't affect humans, well then it's not a disaster, according to us, apparently. It's one of those whole, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it actually happen? It's the same with natural disasters. If an earthquake happened but nobody felt it, well, is it a disaster? So to answer the question, what qualifies something as a natural disaster? Well, it needs to happen on its own without the aid of humans, and it needs to happen on a large enough scale that it impacts humanity. And that brings us to our second question. What makes a natural disaster? And to answer this question, we gotta break things down a little bit. There are three major types or classifications of natural disasters. The first is geological. This is anything that has to do with the earth. So here's the deal. We know that the English language is just a lot of languages smooshed together, right? It's just a cornucopia of languages and times and places. That also means that there are some fun consistencies. And one of those is Greek. We get a lot of our root words from the Greek language. I know that this doesn't seem like it's connected to natural disasters, but it is. So stay with me for a second. The word geo, G-E-O, the root word means earth in Greek. So anytime you hear a word like geology or geologist, a geologist is someone who studies the earth. It's a scientist of the earth. Geology is the study of the earth, right? A geological disaster is a disaster of the earth, such as an earthquake or a volcano. And again, it's scale that matters. The kids and I, the earthquakes that we've been in, have all been under a 4.0. They haven't been very large. They have not qualified as disasters. They've just been your run-of-the-mill everyday earthquake. They didn't ruin anything, they didn't kill anybody, no one got harmed. They were just a shakeup in a morning routine. As we know, there are volcanoes all over the earth that are constantly erupting. Now, they aren't in a constant state of natural disaster because they don't affect humans regularly. It's the scale that matters. In order for it to be a disaster, it must affect humans in a catastrophic way. The second type of natural disaster is a meteorological meteorolog meteorological weather-related. It's a weather-related disaster. This includes things like hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards. Remember those Greek root words we talked about? The Greek word meteor means thing high up in Greek. So just like geo means earth, and a geological disaster is a disaster of the earth, a meteorological disaster is a disaster high up or in the air. This type of natural disaster is all about extreme weather. Tropical cyclones, tornadoes, severe weather storms of any type, heat waves, cold waves, droughts. It all has to do with things coming from above. So hence the name meteorological disasters. And that brings us to our final type of natural disaster, environmental disasters. These are things like floods, wildfires, droughts, things that aren't necessarily all weather or all earth related. Remember how I said the English language is a lot of languages together? Well, the root word for environment is actually French. Environment. And it means to encircle or surround. So an environmental disaster is a disaster that encircles or surrounds you. Here's the interesting thing about environmental disasters. Remember earlier how I said that natural disasters happen without the aid of humans? Well, some environmental disasters are because of humans. Let me give you an example of an environmental disaster that wreaked havoc on the environment and cost a lot of lives. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska's Prince William Sound dumped 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the environment. This spill alone killed over 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and numerous other wildlife. The Alaskan fishing industry also suffered tremendously as a result of this spill. The Exxon Valdez spill is the second largest in U.S. waters and the costliest disaster to ever occur with no human fatalities. While some environmental disasters are not our fault, a lot of them are. Environmental disasters are severe, often human-caused incidents that destroy ecosystems, endanger human health, and cause long-term, sometimes irreversible damage to air, water, and soil. So to review, the three types of disasters are geological, meteorological, and environmental. Same with me. Geological, meteorological, and environmental. The interesting thing is not all types of natural disasters affect every area. And that brings us to our third question of the day. How do you prepare for a natural disaster? Here's the deal. You need to know what's going on in your area of the world, where you live. Would it be helpful for kids in Phoenix to prepare for an epic ice storm on a coast? Absolutely not. And at the same time, do you think kids in Massachusetts need to prepare for 120-degree weather like kids in, say, Yuma, Arizona? Probably not. The trick is to know what natural disasters your area is prone to and then confidently and calmly prepare. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, put it famously by saying, by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Basically, do the best you can with what you have to prepare your home and your space for a disaster that could come your way. The trick here is to not stress yourself out. We will not be doing that. Do not let this podcast episode be the beginning of a tumult in your home. No, no, this is where we peacefully and calmly prepare. One of the simplest ways that you can prepare is to have a family safety plan. This comes directly from my dad, who was a first responder for over 35 years. Now you might be saying, but we have a family safety plan. It's called cell phones. I have an Apple Watch. No, no, no, no. One of the first things to go down in a natural disaster is cell phone communication. So let's play a little scenario game. If you or your parents didn't have access to cell phones, what's your plan? What are you gonna do? Let's say that you're at school and your parents are at work and a natural disaster happens, a storm rolls in, or an earthquake happens. What's your plan? It can be a little daunting and a little scary if you don't have a plan. That's why we prepare, because then you know exactly what you're going to do if something does happen. It takes a lot of the stress out of what can be a very scary situation. The next thing you can do if you're worried about a natural disaster in your area is to prepare to the best of your ability. What level of preparation you are comfortable with might be different than your friends or family or neighbors, and that's okay. Just remember to prepare to the best of your ability. One way that you can do that is by having what's called a 72-hour survival kit and securing one in your home. In all of my research, one consistent thing that I found across government and non-government agencies and rescue organizations is having one gallon of water per person in your family per day, a three-day supply of non-perishable food, and some sort of first aid kit. Then go from there. Parents, there are great resources at beprepared.gov. And finally, the last thing you're going to do is look up which natural disasters your area is prone to. It will be different for each and every one of you. So take the time to learn about the risks associated with your area and then plan accordingly. In the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower, in preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. And with that, I'm Mimi Faatz, and this has been a disastrous episode of Hello from the Van. Ooh, before you go, did you know that we have study aids on our YouTube channel? We also have a visual podcast if you prefer to watch rather than listen. So join us over there on YouTube at HelloFromTheVan. We'd love to see ya. And now time to quickly cite our sources. Our sources today are online entomologydictionary.com, NOAA.gov, the article Exxon Valdez Oil Spills Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program, Beprepared.gov, the Council on Foreign Relations, Natural and Ecological Disasters Timeline, FEMA.gov Hazards, Natural Hazards, and National Risk Index, and finally the article Why Natural Disasters Aren't All That Natural, published September 14th, 2017.