Preparedness Summit announces disaster relief plenary session

The Preparedness Summit announced on Thursday that it would hold a plenary session titled “Making Smart Choices: Disaster Risk Reduction at Home and Abroad” based on disaster risk prevention.

The plenary session will be held on March 20 and will be hosted by leading experts on disaster risk reduction, including David Applegate of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Subcommittee on Disaster Risk Reduction, William Raisch, director of the International Center for Enterprise Preparedness at NYU, Virginia Murray, head of Extreme Events and Public Protection at Public Health England, and Mark Keim, founder of Disaster Doc and a member of the White House Subcommittee on Disaster Risk Reduction.

From 2000 to 2011, more than 2.7 billion people have been affected in some way by natural disasters and the world economy has lost an estimated $1.3 trillion. Weather related disasters and other similar events like landslides or tsunamis are difficult to predict, and often considered unpreventable. However, by understanding the key factors that can cause a natural disaster like a cyclone or a tsunami, first responders and disaster specialists are able to counteract the the consequences of a disaster before the event even occurs. This can be achieved by strengthening communities that are potentially affected by such disasters.