Disasters are something that many people in the world are likely to face at any time in their lives. Except for a few fortunate countries and people, disasters occur in almost every corner of the world at all times. Even Malaysia, a country that is not in the earthquake zone, volcanoes, or tsunamis, is still plagued by floods. For both the government and the citizens of the country, natural disasters are unavoidable and inevitably bring great damage to the country in terms of economy, people and other aspects. For example, the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 struck a large number of coastal areas, destroying many coastal cities and facilities and even flooding some cities thousands of meters from the coast, causing incalculable human and economic losses.
The 2004 South Asian tsunami, one of the most horrific tsunamis in history, caused the death of about 220,000 people, and its reach even reached as wide as six time zones. The horror of nature can be seen here, human beings in the face of natural disasters, if not prepared, civilization will soon be destroyed.
Therefore, countries around the world have introduced their own disaster prevention policies, such as earthquake recovery and flood damage restoration, to deal with the damage caused by floods. These disaster prevention policies have served to protect citizens and social utilities and stabilize economies to some extent. In the following article, we will introduce three countries in the world with the best disaster prevention policies and performance.
United States
The U.S. has a world-class natural disaster warning system that not only automatically issues warnings, but also provides residents with maximum warning based on weather, geology, hydrology and other factors to provide residents with maximum warning. According to a report released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on September 21, 2018, the United States has suffered at least six huge natural disasters in its history and caused more than $1 trillion in damage as a result. However, none of these disasters caused enormous, immeasurable damage to the American people in any way. All of the damage was made up for by the U.S. government.
This is because the U.S. government has developed a comprehensive and scientific disaster preparedness plan for natural disasters early on, which has made the entire U.S. population highly aware of and capable of defending against natural disasters. In addition, the U.S. government has clearly defined functions, and the state provides a strong platform and tools for emergency response to natural disasters and risk events. In the event of a disaster, the government can respond to more disasters and risk events based on its experience and resources accumulated in emergency response operations and by establishing an independent, efficient, professional and authoritative natural disaster and risk management coordination body. This allows them to take effective measures in the first instance to respond to a disaster event and to implement coordinated relief operations quickly and effectively to safeguard citizens’ personal and property safety.
Japan
In Japan, after the tragic earthquake, the government established an earthquake early warning system. This is an important part of the disaster monitoring system that anticipates possible hazards before an earthquake occurs and takes measures to minimize them. In order to ensure the timeliness, accuracy and effectiveness of disaster warning, the government establishes warning signals and corresponding warning methods for various natural disasters with different impact levels. Such as weather elements, satellite technology, radar, etc.
In addition, Japan has built a disaster prevention and mitigation education project when it takes the necessary forms to disseminate disaster prevention knowledge to the public in order to improve the ability of the public to protect themselves in the event of a disaster or accidental injury. In addition, in order to make the public fully understand, the government has also established mass activities with various disaster prevention knowledge as the main content and practical actions to participate in the practice.
This raises the level of public awareness of the role of learning, applying and improving the ability of earthquake and disaster mitigation knowledge. Its sound emergency management system of various types can take measures to strengthen emergency management efforts, enabling both the government and the people to actively respond to the hazards arising from various natural disasters in disasters and to establish and improve various mechanisms. This has helped Japan to effectively prevent the possibility of major disasters that have occurred in the past from continuing in the future.
China
Natural disasters in China are mainly climate-induced, large in scale, high in frequency, heavy in damage, widespread in impact, high in casualties, devastating and difficult to recover from. In addition, due to the vast territory of the country and the existence of multiple natural disasters, the government has strengthened the unified management of natural factors and disaster prevention and mitigation, and has significantly strengthened the emergency management system to improve the ability to respond to major natural disasters and emergencies; as well as the ecological security system. In addition, in order to improve the capacity and efficiency of disaster prevention and relief when disasters occur, the Chinese government mainly relies on the military and police to carry out disaster relief work.This makes disaster preparedness more professional, faster, and more efficient, mitigating the upper harm to citizens from disasters.
Natural disasters and risks are one of the most common natural phenomena in human society; however, compared with other natural phenomena, natural disasters are often very sudden, destructive and uncertain. When human beings experience various natural disasters, it is important to take countermeasures to reduce and prevent their impacts and losses. From these aspects, all three countries above have excellent disaster prevention, mitigation and response capabilities. This is the strength of these countries, and these disaster prevention policies have greatly saved the personal safety and property of the citizens of these countries, and mitigated the damage and losses caused by disasters to them.
