Avoiding Disaster Fraud: Ensuring Donations Reach Victims

When disheartening images appear in the media about areas devastated by natural disasters such as hurricanes, we commonly seek ways to contribute toward relief efforts. While it is commendable that we as a nation come together to support those in need following natural disasters, we should carefully evaluate where we send donations or resources. That ensures that our donations go where they are intended to go.

Criminals Often Use Natural Disasters like Hurricane Katrina for Scams and Other Frauds

Unfortunately, natural disasters such as large-scale hurricanes create fraud opportunities for criminals. As a result, it is important for you to only contribute to organizations or programs that properly deliver supplies and resources to those in need.

To put this into perspective, let’s examine what happened after Hurricane Katrina. According to the Department of Justice, Hurricane Katrina resulted in $180 billion in damages and resulted in the loss of 1,800 lives…

The Great Flood of 2019: A Complete Picture of a Slow-Motion Disaster

This year’s flooding across the Midwest and South affected nearly 14 million people, yet the full scale of the slowly unfolding disaster has been difficult to fathom. To visualise just jhow extensive it was, The New York Times created this composite map of showing all the areas that were inundated at some point from January through June.

The blue on the map, generated from satellite data used to detect flooding, shows the estimated extent and intensify of flooding. The usual extents of rivers are shown in white….