- Dec. 17 2012 - CTV National News
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- I recently stopped by at CTV News headquarters
to talk about my top 3 natural disaster threats for 2013. It
was tough to trip the list down to 3, but here are the ones I
chose and why:
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- 1) Istanbul, Turkey. The Threat: Earthquake.
The seismic activity along the North Anatolian Fault has been
working its way towards the city of Istanbul with frightening
predictability. The devastating earthquake in Izmit in 1999 was
a foreshadowing of what could be in store for the 12 million
residents of Istanbul. A major quake, capable of destroying 50,000
buildings is likely within the next 30 years, which on a geological
time scale is a blink of an eye. It could happen tomorrow with
no warning at all.
2) New Orleans, Louisiana - The Threat: Hurricanes. Believe it
or not, New Orleans was spared the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's
wrath. The weaker, right side of the storm passed over the city
as it weakened from a category 5 hurricane, down to a 3 just
before landfall. Had the storm kept its strength and shifted
as little as 50 miles west, the results would have been many
times worse. Even this past year, category one storm Isaac, flooded
out some areas worse than Katrina when it stalled over southern
Louisiana. With increasing ocean water temperatures, these storms
have more fuel to become monster hurricanes and once one of them
enters the Gulf of Mexico, it will have to make landfall somewhere.
Rebuilding a city that is mostly below sea level and positioned
between the sea, a lake, and Mississippi River may have been
a waste of effort. Only time will tell.
3) Naples, Italy - The Threat: Mount Vesuvius. The Italian government
is paying families to move away from the red zone around Mount
Vesuvius because they know that some day, the mountain will come
back to life and have a similar eruption to what happened in
79 A.D. The grim reminders of what this volcano is capable of
can be found only a few miles away at the once-buried city of
Pompeii. The last time Vesuvius erupted was in 1944 and it tends
to have large, explosive eruptions. Naples is the most
densely populated volcanic region in the world.
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- Watch
the video of the interview here.
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