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In 1997, there was a movie released titled The Fifth Element starring Bruce Willis. Bruce’s character helped the Fifth Element (played by Milla Jovovich)? keep Evil from destroying the planet. In classical thought, the four states of matter (earth, water, air and fire) describe matter, and the fifth element describes that which is beyond the material world. It’s no doubt an interesting topic and the movie, The Fifth Element, was a success.
Throughout history, the four elements (earth, water, air and fire) have been the cause of many natural disasters. Unfortunately, natural disasters are a part of living on this earth and they are difficult to predict and impossible to stop. However, we can take appropriate action to limit damage and loss of life if they occur.
Earthquake: caused by movements of the earth. It is the result of a sudden release of energy in the earth’s crust.? An earthquake is a sudden lateral or vertical movement of rock along a rupture (break) surface is known as a faulting. There are three main types of faults, all of which may cause an earthquake: normal, reverse (thrust) and strike-slip.
Mudslide: a rapid movement from a large mass of mud formed from loose dirt and water. Heavy rainfall, snowmelt, or high levels of ground water flowing through cracked bedrock may trigger a movement of soil or sediments.
Flood: an overflow of water that submerges land.
Tsunamis: a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, generally an ocean or large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.
Hurricane: cyclone, tropical cyclone, and typhoon are different names for the same phenomenon a cyclonic storm that forms over the oceans.
Tornado: a rotating column of air ranging in width from a few yards to more than a mile and whirling at destructive high speeds, usually accompanied by a funnel-shaped downward extension of a cumulonimbus cloud; winds are 40-300+ mph.
Wildfire: an uncontrolled fire in an are of combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area.
Volcano: an opening, or rupture, in the surface or crust of the earth which allows hot lava, volcanic ash and gases to escape from the magma chamber below the surface of the earth.
For the sake of this blog post, we?ll call the fifth element the human element of prevention. Although natural disasters are out of our control, there are some things we can do to limit damage to our homes and protect our families.
Mudslides and Your Home:
Flooding and Your Home:
Tornado and Your Home:
Wildfires and Your Home:
For a more complete list of natural disaster types and how to protect your family if one should occur in your area, go to ReadyGov.