Disaster (from Middle French dsastre, from Old Italian disastro, from the Greek p ejorative prefix dis-

bad + aster star) is the impact of a natural or man-made h azards that negatively affects society or environment.Disaster is a sudden, cala mitous event bringing great damage, loss, and destruction and devastation to lif e and property. The damage caused by disasters is immeasurable and varies with t he geographical location, climate and the type of the earth surface/degree of vu lnerability. This influences the mental, socio-economic, political and cultural state of the affected area.

Natural disasters: Natural disasters include things such as ;

Earthquake Earthquake is an unexpected and rapid shaking of earth due to the breakage and s hifting of underneath layers of Earth. Earthquake strikes all of a sudden at any time of day or night and quite violently. It gives no prior warning. If it happ ens in a populated area, the earthquake can cause great loss to human life and p roperty.

Tornado Tornado is one of the most violent storms on earth. It seems like a rotating and funnel shape cloud. It expands from the thunderstorm to the ground in the form of whirl winds reaching around 300 miles per hour. The damage path could move on to one mile wide and around 50 miles long. These storms can strike quickly with out any warning.

Flood Flood is also one of the most common hazards in the United States and other part s of the world. The effects of a flood can be local to a neighborhood or communi ty. It can cast a larger impact, the whole river basin and multiple states could get affected. Every state is at its risk due to this hazard.

Volcano Volcano is a mountain that has an opening downwards to the reservoir of molten r ock towards the surface of earth. Volcanoes are caused by the accrual of igneous products. As the pressure caused by gases in the molted rock becomes intense, t he eruption takes place.

Man made disasters: These can be divided into different categories and they incl ude technological hazards, sociological hazards and transportation hazards among others.