COVID-19 has taken many societies by surprise as it quickly spread from Wuhan, China to all parts of the globe. Some nations seem to have grappled with the challenge rapidly, due in part to prior experiences with SARS (“Containing coronavirus: lessons from Asia” – The Financial Times) while others have found themselves scrambling to support its healthcare system and economy. It has led to unprecedent steps around the world that includes almost complete shutdown of some economies with the exception of essentials (“Coronavirus: Italy bans any movement inside country as toll nears 5,500” – The Guardian), massive fiscal stimulus packages (“Senate Approves Roughly $2 Trillion in Coronavirus Relief” – The Wall Street Journal) and monetary stimulus.

COVID-19 is expected to remain a challenge for the foreseeable future and experts are unsure how long the pandemic will last (“How long will this go on?” – The Globe and Mail with Vivek Goel, professor at the University of Toronto). Under these extreme conditions, how prepared is society for the common occurrence of natural disasters? Succeeding in answering this question will likely mean that this year’s natural disasters will be another blip in history, failing to account and prepare for it may be a historical tragedy.

Natural disasters range in form, from earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts to volcanic eruptions. Different countries and regions in the world have a differing patterns when it comes to natural disasters.