Disaster Management

A disaster is the impact of a natural or human-made

hazard that negatively affects society or
environment. The root of the word disaster comes
from astrology: this implies that when the stars are
in a bad position a bad event will happen.[1] The
word derives from Middle French désastre, from
Old Italian disastro, from the Greek pejorative prefix
δυσ-, (dis-) "bad" + αστήρ (aster), "star".
In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the
consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These
risks are the product of hazards and vulnerability.
Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability
are not considered a disaster, as is the case in
uninhabited regions.[2]
Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when
a disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths
caused by disasters occur in developing countries,
and losses due to natural disasters are 20 times
greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing
countries than in industrialized countries.[3]
A disaster can be defined as any tragic event that
involves at least one victim of circumstance, such as
an accident, fire, terrorist attack, or explosion.[citation
needed]

Classification
Wisner et al reflect a common opinion when they
argue that all disasters can be seen as being human-
made, their reasoning being that human actions
before the strike of the hazard can prevent it
developing into a disaster. All disasters are hence the
result of human failure to introduce appropriate
disaster management measures.[4] Hazards are
routinely divided into natural or human-made,
although complex disasters, where there is no single
root cause, are more common in developing
countries. A specific disaster may spawn a
secondary disaster that increases the impact. A
classic example is an earthquake that causes a
tsunami, resulting in coastal flooding.
[edit] Natural disasters
Main article: Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the consequence when a natural
hazard (e.g., volcanic eruption or earthquake) affects
humans. Human vulnerability, caused by the lack of
appropriate emergency management, leads to
financial, environmental, or human impact. The
resulting loss depends on the capacity of the
population to support or resist the disaster: their
resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the
formulation: "disasters occur when hazards meet
vulnerability". A natural hazard will hence never
result in a natural disaster in areas without
vulnerability, e.g., strong earthquakes in uninhabited
areas. The term natural has consequently been
disputed because the events simply are not hazards
or disasters without human involvement.
[edit] Human-made disasters

Main article: Man-made hazards

Disasters caused by human action, negligence, error, or involving the failure of a system are
called human-made disasters. Human-made disasters are in turn categorized as technological or
sociological. Technological disasters are the results of failure of technology, such as engineering
failures, transport disasters, or environmental disasters. Sociological disasters have a strong
human motive, such as criminal acts, stampedes, riots, and war.

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:   Minor natural disasters:

         Flood          Cold wave

          Thunderstorms
         Cyclone
         Heat waves
         Drought
         Mud slides
         Earthquake
         Storm

Minor manmade disaster:

         Road / train accidents, riots

Major manmade disaster:
         Food poisoning
 Setting of fires
 Epidemic          Industrial disaster/ crisis
 Deforestation
 Pollution due to prawn cultivation          Environmental pollution
 Chemical pollution.
 Wars
 
 
 

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:

      Nature of the Hazard

      Vulnerability of the elements which are affected

      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 manmade 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

This relationship can be written as an equation:

FOR INFORMATION ON DISASTERS DIAL TOLL FREE No. 1070