We all love Mother Nature. Face it, she’s awesome! She provides great scenery, amazing flowers, butterflies, and rainbows.
But she has also been known to throw the occasional temper tantrum. No matter where you live, natural hazards (and occasionally natural disasters) are part of the landscape. They cannot be avoided. But the danger posed by many hazards can be minimized through advanced planning.
From earthquakes and mudslides to wildfires and avalanches, here in Utah, Mother Nature keeps us on our toes.
In 2019, the largest earthquake recorded in Utah was an M4.1, but the potential for larger, more destructive temblors along the Wasatch Front is an oft-repeated warning from state emergency management officials.
Add avalanches along the mountain slopes, soil collapse issues affecting Timpview High School in Provo, and the odd radon gas accumulation in a basement and you’ve got yourself a veritable smorgasbord of natural hazards to choose from.
What’s a homeowner to do? The sheer variety and opportunity of potential natural hazards makes it difficult to protect against everything.
But we can’t live in fear. When unpredictable Mother Nature throws a tantrum on our doorstep, our best response is to make sure her damage is short lived and unremarkable by preparing ahead of time for hazards that are known to exist where we live.
Utah residents are encouraged to create relevant emergency plans and put basic safety strategies in place to protect people and property from avoidable harm.
Geo Logic, a new company based in Santaquin, helps individuals better protect their most important investments – their families and homes – from geologic and natural hazards by educating homeowners about their site-specific hazard potential.
“Often in the past year a friend or family member has asked me if I can tell them what is going on with their house,” said Alice Orton, Principal of Geo Logic. “They notice a crack running across their garage floor that is widening, they start hearing large popping noises like the house is shifting, and they wonder whether the house is safe for their family. Or they wonder how big a local earthquake could be, and what kind of damage it could cause.
“This is the stuff that really piques my interest. I love to research the known hazards for a specific location, let people know what is already documented, already in the public record. With that information, it is much easier for a homeowner to decide what to do next, whether to get a professional engineer or architect involved, or whether they can address the problems themselves.”
With knowledge of the hazards that are most likely to affect properties, homeowners are in a better position to take small and simple steps to increase family and home safety. (Serve Daily submission.)
