DISASTERS

in the
UNITED STATES
Erik Bebernes IST 719

WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON DISASTER TYPES?

Frequencies of All Disaster Types Since 1953
15000
Twenty different types of disasters were
recognized in the dataset, with storms being
the most common. Its important to note
10000 that a separate disaster is declared for every
The onset of human-induced climate
county affected by an event. One hurricane
change is believed to lead to more fre-
may in fact lead to several disaster declara-
5000 quent and severe weather events.
tions. The majority of this poster will focus
FEMAs disaster declarations are direct-
on the top eight most common disasters,
ly correlated to such events. Analyzing
0 which with the occasional exception of
their frequencies and locations will help
fires, are all climate related.
Te Cau k
/L na de

a
rro se
lc e
Sn ne

m
an Bre
an l
rth on
W ht

W o

H eve mi
am su li
D ado

O er

/L ica
Vo ak

in determining which areas are most

m
ur d

M e r
Ty her
ow

an
re

ris
D T ds
Ch ate
To ce
a

ug
H oo

Ea pho
or

qu
in
ric

Fi

ud m
rn

um e
I

t
ro
Fl
St

vulnerable going forward.

Audience
People interested in this data might in-
IN WHICH STATES ARE EACH OF THE TOP 8 DISASTERS MOST clude those involved with the budget and
COMMON? HAVE THEY BEEN INCREASING OVER TIME? distribution of FEMAs resources, or
Storms Droughts anyone concerned with their safety related
to the environment.
1200

1200
100 600 Data
900
400 The dataset consisted of 46,185 rows and
600
800 50
14 variables. I made several subsets based
on disaster types, and made corresponding
200

300 400
0

1953 1985 2017

tables showing frequencies by states and
0

1953 1985 2017

years. I also needed to correctly format
date related columns.
Ice Fires Questions
400

400
900
The main questions I had regarding the
300
400
data were: Where does each disaster type
200
600
occur the most? Are disasters becoming
more frequent? For how long do disasters
200 200
300

typically last? What disasters have oc-

100

0
1953 1985 2017
0
1953 1985 2017
cured in my county (Onondaga)?

Snow Floods
400
800 600
600 Considering FEMA is a federal agency,
300
aid is only deployed when state and local
governments are not adequately prepared.
400
400

This may explain why, for example, a

200
400

200 200
100
state such as Oklahoma has had more
0
0
1953 1985 2017
ice related disasters than northern
states. The majority of disaster types have
1953 1985 2017

Tornadoes Hurricanes been becoming more frequent overtime,

the plot below depicts all disaster types
combined.
150
900

150
3000
600
100 Overall
100
2000
4000
300

50 50
1000
3000

0 0 2000

1953 1985 2017 1953 1985 2017 1000

1953 1963 1973 1983 1993 2003 2017

Disaster length (in
years) is the time
frame between the
Years
FOR HOW LONG DO DISASTERS LAST? WHAT DISASTERS HAVE BEEN DECLARED
IN ONONDAGA COUNTY?
Length in Years of Disaster Types
30 History of Disasters in Onondaga County
Love Canal, Niagara Falls
25 West Nile Virus, 2000
150
20

declaration date and 15 Flooding in the 1970s

Length in Days

the closing date,
where all financials
regarding the disas-
Nationwide Hurricane
10 100
Katrina evacuation
5 State-wide Fire and Explosions
0 50
emergency on 9/11

ter have been settled.

O e

Vo oon

r
W o
Ts ado
To rism
Ea rou k

lid
ur e

er
ow
an e
e

ph i
Te orm

te
um F re

W r
ee al

Ca d
qu t
e

an
Ty am
H us
D ea

/L Ic
an

e
rth gh
ak

an loo

th

in
Fi

at
ev ic

ds

Sn

lc
rn
Br

ric

un
rro
/L em

St

0
am Ch

ud
M
H

1980 1990 2000 2010

D

Year Hurricane Sandy

Sources: data - www.kaggle.com, FEMA logo - commons.m.wikimedia.org