DISASTER
Disasters
are a combination of hazards, conditions of vulnerability and insufficient
capacity
or measures to reduce the negative consequences of risk. A hazard
becomes
a disaster when it coincides with a vulnerable situation, when societies or
communities
are unable to cope with it with their own resources and capacities.WHAT IS DISASTER?
Disaster
is a sudden, calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, and destruction and
devastation to life and property. The damage caused by disasters is
immeasurable and varies with the geographical location, climate and the type of
the earth surface/degree of vulnerability. This influences the mental,
socio-economic, political and cultural state of the affected area. Generally,
disaster has the following effects in the concerned areas,
1. It completely disrupts
the normal day to day life
2. It negatively influences
the emergency systems
3. Normal needs and
processes like food, shelter, health, etc. are affected and deteriorate
depending on the intensity
and severity of the disaster.
It may also be termed as “a serious disruption of the functioning
of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which
exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using its own resources.”
Thus, a disaster may have the following main features:-
o Unpredictability
o Unfamiliarity
o Speed
o Urgency
o Uncertainty
o Threat
Thus, in simple terms we can define disaster as a
hazard causing heavy loss to life, property and livelihood.
e.g. a cyclone killing 10,000 lives and a crop
loss of one crore can be termed as disaster.
TYPES OF DISASTER
Generally, disasters are
of two types – Natural and Manmade. Based on the
devastation, these are further classified into major/minor natural disaster and
major/minor manmade disasters. Some of the disasters are listed below,
Major natural disasters:
· Flood
· Cyclone
· Drought
· Earthquake
|
Minor natural disasters:
· Cold wave
· Thunderstorms
· Heat waves
· Mud slides
· Storm
|
Major manmade disaster:
|
Minor
manmade disaster:
· Road / train accidents, riots
· Food poisoning
· Industrial disaster/ crisis
· Environmental pollution
|
Risk:
Risk is a measure of the
expected losses due to a hazardous event of a particular magnitude occurring in
a given area over a specific time period. Risk is a function of the probability
of particular occurrences and the losses each would cause. The level of risk
depends on:
v Nature of the Hazard
v Vulnerability of the elements which are affected
v Economic value of those elements
Vulnerability:
It is defined as “the extent to which a community, structure,
service, and/or geographic area is likely to be damaged or disrupted by the
impact of particular hazard, on account of their nature, construction and
proximity to hazardous terrain or a disaster prone area”
Hazards:
Hazards are defined as “Phenomena that pose a threat to people,
structures, or economic assets and which may cause a disaster. They could be
either manmasde or naturally occurring in our environment.”
The extent of damage in a
disaster depends on:
1) The impact, intensity and characteristics of the phenomenon and
2) How people, environment and infrastructures are affected by that
phenomenon
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