The Illinois Tornado: Examples Of Natural Disasters

Natural disasters consist of floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. “Natural disasters kill an average of 140,000 people a year” ( Alexander 1). Tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes are natural disasters that have altered the course of history through their unpredictability and nation’s lack of preparedness.
Natural disasters happen all over the world, but developing countries are impacted more by the damage. “Developing countries are disproportionately affected because they lack resources, infrastructure, and disaster- preparedness systems” (Watson 1). Developing countries do not have the resources to be prepared for natural disasters. “About ninety-five percent of the deaths occur in the Third World, where more than 4,200 million

The two tornadoes that were researched for this paper were the Kansas Tornado and the Illinois Tornado. The Kansas Tornado happened “on April 26, 1991” (“Tornado Disaster-Kansas 1991” 1). Spring tends to be the season that most tornadoes form because it is hot during the day and cold at night, so that air meets and forms a tornado. The Kansas Tornado caused “twenty-four deaths and more than 200 injuries” (1). The Kansas Tornado went through a “46-mile path through Andover, Kansas, where the town’s only outdoor warning siren failed” (1). The Illinois Tornado was more dangerous and deadly than the Kansas Tornado. “As a result of the storm’s impact phase, 302 persons were injured (twenty-eight fatally)” (“Tornado Disaster- Illinois 1990” 1). The Illinois Tornado killed four more people and injured 102 more people than the Kansas Tornado did. The Illinois Tornado struck “on August 28, 1990, from 3:15 to 3:45pm” (1). The tornado did not last long, but did a lot of damage. The Illinois Tornado “struck the towns of Plainfield, Crest Hill, and Joliet in Will County” (1). The Kansas Tornado and the Illinois Tornado both did a lot of damage to the towns that they swept

Hurricanes caused “150 billion dollars in damage in 2004 and 2005” (Pielke 1). Hurricane Sandy hit “before dawn on Tuesday morning, October 30, 2012” (Powell, Hanfling and Gostin 1). Hurricane Sandy caused a lot of damage to people physically and mentally. “Six months following Hurricane Sandy, a cross-sectional survey of 200 adults residing in beach communities directly exposed to the storm located in Monmouth County, NJ, was conducted. 52.5 percent reported recent hospitalizations, physical limitations, fair to poor health status, multiple chronic health conditions, or physical disabilities” (Boscarino 1). This statistic shows that over half of those people had mental or physical problems after Hurricane Sandy hit. “30.5 percent experienced PTSD symptoms, depression, sought professional mental health support, or used psychotropic medications” (1). Those are just some of the things that people that lived through Hurricane Sandy had to deal with and could still be dealing with to this day. Hurricane Katrina hit “Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on August 29, 2005” ( Steinberg xi). Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans, Louisiana specifically, but also changed the other cities it hit. “Pre-Katrina New Orleans, like most major U.S. cities, was characterized by extreme levels of poverty and racial segregation” (Hartman 3). New Orleans had so much trouble with segregation and racism.