David J. Phillip/AP
From rainfall to wildfires, 2017 was a record-breaking year for natural disasters.
In August and September, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria left behind a high death toll, drowned homes, and destroyed power lines. Hundreds of people died in earthquakes around the world, from Mexico to the Iran-Iraq border, and nearly 1,400 people were killed during monsoon rains in South Asia.
Fires devastated locations around the world, perhaps most notably in California, where the government spends over 10 times as much money on fighting wildfires as it did 20 years ago.
Many of these disasters were caused by elevated temperatures on land and at sea, and climate experts expect these events to keep getting worse.
While people may be able to heed their city's evacuation notices or take advantage of evacuation help, some situations are unexpected and make this impossible. Only three in 10 Americans say they have an emergency preparedness kit and 42% say they are not at all prepared for a disaster, according to a recent poll from Business Insider partner MSN.
Here are some tips for staying safe during a natural disaster: