Learning Goal: I’m working on a nursing multi-part question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Over the past several years, we have witnessed major natural disasters such as winter storms and floods in the Northeast United States, Hurricane devastations in Houston, the Caribbean and most notably, Puerto Rico. In the not so distant past, the earthquake and resulting tsunami that caused major devastation in Japan. Florida saw major storm landfalls in 2016 and 2017 as well. And what remained after the fires in California seemed to slide off the map when the rains came. Mudslides wiped out seemingly untouchably wealthy areas of that state. Remember the Oroville Dam? Will it fail after being repaired and readied for another rain onslaught? The last time it was in the news, politicians were still bickering over how to pay for it. And needless to mention, our recent experience with the Corona Virus pandemic exposed some very interesting characteristics of cultures, governments and people in general.

For this discussion, provide one actual or potential public health threat that you have noted from the various media reports about these and other events. Include what was actually done to address the issue you have noted and add something more that you believe could/should have been done about it.

What parallels have you noted in your community? If you lived in the East Central portion of Florida in 2004 or in Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, you might be able to recognize what preparations have (and have not) been taken to prepare for major disasters. What preparations did you witness for Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 or the sister storms of 2017? Even though several places did get hit, the east coast of Florida narrowly missed major devastation with that these events. And finally, could a community even prepare for a disaster such as what happened with the explosion at the Port of Beirut?

As you ponder moving to Tennessee, consider the following questions for your postings and replies.

How could nursing affect changes to an at risk populace to be better prepared?

Is your community prepared?

Is your organization prepared?

Are you personally prepared?