Types of Disasters

Today we began our investigation into the different disasters we might experience in NZ.

These are the disasters we came up with...

Floods
Earthquakes
Tsunami
Volcanoes
Storms

We then went to 'What's the Plan Stan?' CD and found out there was one more called non- natural. We are going to investigate this further later in the week. We then looked in depth at tsunami and floods by looking at a fact sheet, photos and a video on each disaster. Then we completed a quiz. Our next task was to complete a table with the following headings.

Disaster Type & Cause
Similarities
Differences

Floods
Floods are one of New Zealand's most frequent hazards. Flood waters can ravage the land, destroying roads, bridges, railway tracks and buildings. Crops can be inundated and livestock drowned. Human lives are also at risk, particularly in flash floods and tsunami, where fast-flowing water filled with debris can sweep people away.
Tsunami
New Zealand is a country surrounded by water, so many coastal communities are at risk from tsunami. In a near source tsunami the water level may fall very quickly past the normal low tide mark, then return just as quickly. If this happens, there won't be enough time to issue a warning and it is important that you know what to do, and that you act quickly.
Earthquakes
New Zealand experiences thousands of earthquakes every year. Most are either very deep or centred well offshore, causing little damage or injury. However, a severe earthquake can occur at any time with devastating effects.

We used a model Annie had completed on tsunami and discussed each heading. Then we completed our own for Floods. Tomorrow we will move onto Volcanoes and Storms.