Early in the morning of March 22, Ranko Glumac jolted from bed as the world around him shook. The room filled with the mechanical roar of a fallen hair drier. As Glumac lurched to the appliance to quiet the noise, he spotted a dark crack slicing through his bedroom wall, and he realized his home city of Zagreb, Croatia, had just been hit by an earthquake.
He and his family rushed outside into the frosty spring air, and across the city others did the same. But another risk lurked in the throng of people: the novel coronavirus, which had already started ramping up in the region.
The quake in Croatia was one of the earliest wake-up calls for people around the world that natural hazards still loom large during the COVID-19 pandemic, including floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and even volcanic eruptions
The risk is particularly acute in the United States, which now leads the global case count with roughly 640,000 confirmed ill. Models suggest that the country’s outbreak may soon be nearing its peak, overburdening health care systems, budgets, and supply chains. Already this week, tornadoes tore through the southeastern United States, killing at least 34 people and leaving more than half a million without electricity.
Disasters don’t stop for a virus,” says Craig Fugate, former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Still, experts stress that people living in disaster-prone regions are not helpless. Personal preparation is more important than ever—from fine-tuning disaster kits to cleaning out gutters and yards of anything that might act as tinder.
