'Hope Isn't A Strategy.' How To Prepare For A Natural Disaster During COVID-19
It's a situation nobody wants to imagine: a major earthquake, flood, fire or other natural disaster strikes while the U.S. is grappling with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"Severe weather season, flooding â those things don't stop because we're responding to COVID-19," says Joyce Flinn, director of the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Just over a week ago more than 20 tornadoes spun across rural Iowa, damaging apartment buildings and displacing residents. And Flinn's state, like many in the U.S. heartland, is still repairing levees and recovering from unprecedented flooding last year.
While a repeat of that event is unlikely, that 23 states from the Upper Plains to the Gulf in a number of Western mountain ranges, raising the prospect of a longer fire season.
