When a major earthquake strikes, a CAT 5 hurricane makes landfall, or a `Carrington'-class CME slams into our planet, the initial destruction sets into motion innumerable cascading events that can either do more damage, or can significantly hinder recovery efforts.
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A simple example comes from our recent bout of major hurricanes. Thousands of downed trees and flooding across roadways can prevent emergency vehicles from reaching the trapped or injured.
But of course, it is always more complicated than that.
In Puerto Rico, damaged port facilities and other infrastructure after hurricane Maria significantly disrupted recovery efforts. Power was out, roads and bridges were washed away, and communications were down all over the island.
While many people think they only need to make it through the storm, or the initial shaking of an earthquake, the real test comes surviving in the aftermath. As Hurricanes Maria and Katrina have showed us, even achieving some semblance of normalcy after a major disaster can take months, or sometimes even years (see Post-Disaster Sequelae).