People from Hong Kong are well prepared for typhoons because we have them every year in the summer. Our observatory has a 5-tier warning system ranging from 1 to 3 to 8 through 10 (confusing for foreigners, I know). Everyone knows if it’s number 8 or above, you should stay at home. Schools and works shall stop. Older people might remember Typhoon Wanda) as a lesson. The same can’t be said for the government though. There was a scandal a few years ago, when a typhoon triggering a number 10 warning (which is rare) the night before had left and the observatory dropped the warning to number 3. The Education Bureau announced schools would be stopped. However, workers still needed to work even when many roads were blocked by fallen trees and our metro lines partially stopped its service. That led to uproar from labourers and this anger was targeted at Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive at the time, making her popularity plummeted (that was before her pushing the ELAB bill which caused the wide scale protests making her the most hated person in HK right next to Jackie Chan).
On the other hand, we most certainly aren’t prepared for earthquakes. Despite the existence of an earthquake section in our observatory’s website, those are very few and far between. Our Asian neighbours Japan and Taiwan are much more prepared for tremors. Take Taiwan as an example, there was a very strong one earlier this year (magnitude 7.4), but since they’re well prepared and the government learnt the lesson from the 1999’s, the casualties were minimal.
What natural disasters occur in your country and how well prepared are you?