Worldwide Robust Weather Warnings Would Save Lives

People in the U.S. have easy access to warnings for
dangerous storms, like this weather radio. Many 
places around the world don't have access to
weather warnings, causing needless deaths. 
The UN and other organizations are 
trying to change that. 

 The United States has a lot of the worst weather in the world. Every time you turn around, there's a life-threatening flash flood, tornado, giant hail, hurricane, winter storm, wildfire and storm surge. 

Or, seemingly, all of the above at once. 

Some recent deadly disasters notwithstanding, the United States has some of the lower per capita fatality rates in the world. A lot of the reason for that is our robust warning system.

It's why you see on the news that an entire town has been turned into grim confetti by a tornado, but maybe only one or two residents have died, and everybody else is basically uninjured. 

The reason is because everybody in town got a tornado warning 15 minutes or even a half hour before the storm hit. That warning bought everybody in town time to hunker down in a safer place.  

Many other places in the world don't have the luxury, or actually the necessity of have a robust warning system for severe weather.

Much of the time, the overseas death toll in storms and floods is victims didn't have the information needed to get out of the way of an  impending disaster.

  .As NPR notes:

"One reason for the high death tolls in such disasters is a lack of basic weather warning systems. 

'Early warnings are not an abstraction,' said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a speech last year. 'They give farmers the power to protect their crops and livestock, enable families to evacuate safely and protect entire communities from devastation."

Too many people lack access to weather warnings. 

As Al Jazeera reported in October:

"Nearly half of all countries lack early-warning systems for extreme weather events, leaving millions - especially those in developing nations - vulnerable".

The World Meteorological Organization has said that weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in the past 50 years. About 90 percent of those deaths occurred in developing countries. 

As climate change drives storms to new extremes adequate weather warnings are more important than ever. 

TRYING TO HELP

Back in 2022, the United Nations set a goal to extend severe weather warmings to even person on Earth by 2027. The effort would cost $3.1 billion. 

It doesn't look like the UN will reach that goal in time. It never does. But at least the effort is underway. 

One major reason the effort is behind schedule is,  of course, the United States.  Namely, Donald Trump. I swear it seems like the more needless deaths he causes, or at least fails to prevent, the happier he is.  The Trump administration said last month it will no longer participate in the effort. That erases some billions of dollars from the weather warning plan.

Other sources are stepping up to the plate, including thy Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, which have together spend $2.5 billion on weather warning projects, NPR reports. 

 The number of nations using some form of early warning systems for multiple types of severe weather has jumped from 52 to at least 108 over the past decade. However there are still dozens of nations that still don't have any kind of sophisticated warning system for people at risk for storms and floods. 

One success story appears to be Cambodia, notes NPR.

Cambodia is one of the most flood-prone countries in the world. Between 2023 and 2025, agencies affiliated with the UN upgraded the country's flood forecasts and warnings to the tune of $5.8 million. An additional $7.8 million will be spent on this Cambodian warning system over the next few years.

Last November, the water level in the Mekong River in Cambodia reached one its highest levels on record. In the past, this type of flood would kill many people. This time, the people, and their livestock were gone by the time the water started rising. They'd received flood warnings, and were on high ground when the Mekong went over its banks. 

Since they'd made preparations, people living along the Mekong pretty much resumed normal life shortly after the water receded. 

Much of Cambodia's new warning system is pretty basic. Warnings go out on cell phones. But since many people don't have phones, trucks drive back and forth through towns, blaring the warnings from speakers. The speaker also instruct residents to tell anyone else who might not have heard the broadcast about the problem .

The November, 2025 Mekong flood led only to a few casualties.

We in the United States take for granted weather warnings. Sometimes, we even have waves of complaints when tornadoes warnings pre-empt the season finale of "Real Housewives Of Enosburgh Falls" or whatever dumb show is on. 

But the U.S. warning system has saved countless lives. Lives in other countries are worth the same as ours, whether you like that fact or not. So I really don't want to hear that weather warnings as dangerous storms appear are just "too expensive" to deal with