Natural disasters have a far greater impact and cause much higher loss of life and damage than anything wrought by man, but their scale is often hard for the media to portray. Outside disaster areas, people often equate comparatively small terrorist atrocities as being on the same scale as the enormous damage of a tsunami or earthquake.
People who live in earthquake areas, or for example in the shadow of an active volcano, either take precautions like building houses to withstand earth movement, or simply ignore the threat on the basis that disaster is going to strike anyway, and additional expenditure is unlikely to help much…
But experience shows that early warning of, for example, tidal waves, coupled with basic precautions like having water purification chemicals available, and well-practised relief and evacuation procedures, do save a lot of lives. Simply being aware of the risks of natural disasters wherever you are in the world, allows you to make the rudimentary plans that would give you a much better chance if disaster were to strike. Knowing hotel evacuation and assembly procedures, having a holiday first aid kit that includes puritabs, crepe bandage and safety pins, and keeping a stash of water bottles in your room is easy enough to arrange.
Particularly when traveling with children, thinking through how you might cope in advance of anything happening, is time well-spent.