The blizzard last weekend provided plenty examples of risk management: people in the path of the storm bought food and batteries, refueled their cars and trucks, and got ready to spend some time at home.
One cannot prevent a natural disaster, but one can try to prevent some of the potential problems that it could cause. In New York City, the preparations included a sufficiently large force to clear streets (4,600 workers and more than 2,000 pieces of equipment, according to The Washington Post) and specific actions just before the storm (closing the transit system, which prevented buses from getting stuck in the snow and blocking snowplows).
On the other side of the country, officials are making contingency plans for a much worse disaster: an earthquake and tsunami in the Pacific Northwest that could kill thousands, leave many homeless, and disrupt the economy. Oregon’s response plan, called the Cascadia Playbook, describes the system for moving personnel, equipment, and supplies into the area after the disaster and setting up medical facilities and shelters for the homeless.
In both cases, officials have used previous failures to make better plans. In the 2010 Snowmageddon storms, the New York transit system stayed open, which led to stranded buses; this time they closed it. The 2011 Japanese tsunami gave planners in the Pacific Northwest the opportunity to consider more accurately what would be needed.
Links:
Story about Washington, D.C., and New York City:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/after-a-wild-winter-weekend-a-difficult-commute-awaits/2016/01/24/3c987ebe-c302-11e5-b933-31c93021392a_story.html
Story about planning in the Pacific Northwest:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/is-a-massive-earthquaketsunami-overdo-along-the-northern-west-coast/2016/01/25/b423740c-bfce-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html
Photos from Washington: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/time-to-pick-up-the-pieces-after-major-dc-area-snowstorm/2016/01/24/889fa7b4-c2c2-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_gallery.html?hpid=hp_no-name_photo-story-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
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