America’s ‘Hazard hotspots’ Hit Population Boom Sparks Concerns! 

America's 'Hazard hotspots' Hit Population Boom Sparks Concerns! Credit | U.S. Census, CoreLogic
America's 'Hazard hotspots' Hit Population Boom Sparks Concerns! Credit | U.S. Census, CoreLogic

United States: The country’s large population mobility process increases the number of people vulnerable to natural disasters and heat at a time when climate change increases weather volatility, as researchers note. 

Vulnerable states 

States such as Florida, which is lying on the shores with a history of regular hurricane attacks from the Atlantic Ocean, have received millions of new inhabitants within the span of the past twenty-three years. 

Phoenix, which is the nation’s fastest-growing big city, is also one of the hottest, having been previously recorded to hit a record straight hundred in a year with a hundred above hundred-degree Fahrenheit temperatures. 

Sierra Nevada and other such cities are experiencing a sub-urban population boom and have targeted foothills, where fires have become more regular and more severe in recent years, the New York Times reported. 

Houston, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth metro areas have expanded rapidly in the last few decades. Each sits in a zone that is quite vulnerable to multiple hazards, as was illustrated this year when Hurricane Beryl left many Houstonians without power during a heat wave. 

Widespread damage by disaster 

In some places, population growth and development have already exacerbated the occurrence of disasters and raised their costs, causing widespread inflicts. 

Furthermore, it is leading to major stresses on infrastructure and huge losses, affecting every person who owns an insurance policy. 

However, as the studies show, people continue to shift to such “hazard hotspots.” 

What is leading to the damage? 

Many experts agree that people’s relocation choices are not caused by risks of disaster but by economic factors and life choices. 

Some relocate in the hope of getting better-paid employment and lower living standards; others are motivated by favorable weather conditions and a beautiful landscape. 

The usage of air conditioners, to a larger extent, has also led to the southward shift for the long term due to hot summer but moderate winter climates. 

Nevertheless, southern regional metros’ growth has not been equal or, at best, balanced in its distribution. That is, they have not talked about moving away from places such as the Northeast. 

For that reason, many authors have noted that suburbs and exurbs fueled population growth in many regions of the country in the last decade while inner cities continued to lose people. The coronavirus pandemic supercharged this process, the New York Times reported. 

Therefore, this outward expanse of population growth and development has increased Americans‘ exposure to natural hazards at a much more extreme level, too. This has brought more people into wildfire zones, thus giving tornadoes and hurricanes more possibility of hitting the populated areas, a trend scientists call “the expanding bull’s-eye effect.”