Personal emergency and disaster plan - Essay Example

Thunderstorms are also not rare here (about 40-50 days annually) with March and April being the periods of most severe storms. Not being part of Tornado Alley, Indiana is vulnerable to tornadoes. Three most severe tornadoes in the history of the United States – the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak and the 1974 Super Outbreak – affected Indiana. The 2005 Evansville Tornado took away the lives of 25 people (Indiana State Climate Office 2008). The accidental disasters include technological disasters such as hazardous material incidents, household chemical emergencies, nuclear power plants, fires.

For instance, chemicals are used in all the industries providing everyday life of modern people. The sources of hazardous materials include chemical manufacturing, hospitals, service stations, waste sites. All of them are hazardous for people and it is impossible to guarantee safety from mistakes. Humans are inclined to make mistakes sometimes. No one can guarantee entire safety from fires. Finally, one is to be aware of the possibility of intentional disasters, that is, those related to terrorism and wars.

Acts of terrorism may include: the usage of chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological weapons, assassinations, bombing. Universities and colleges are considered the secondary, “soft” targets (FEMA 2006; IUK 2006, SUU 200, Northwestern University 2005). We are not safeguarded from disasters. However, one can get prepared to them and know what to do if any of the disasters occurs. Tornadoes are the nature’s most violent storms, causing devastates and fatalities. Appearing as a rotating, funnel-shaped cloud extending from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling winds, tornadoes reach 300 miles per hour, their damage paths being more than one mile wide and 50 miles long.

Some of them are not visible at the beginning, a cloud of debris marking the location of a tornado. They