Disaster is "a sudden, calamitous occurrence that causes great harm, injury, destruction, and devastation to life and

property”.
It disrupts the usual course of life, causing both physical and emotional distress such as an intense feeling of helplessness and
hopelessness. A preceding definition of disaster stresses that two elements are affected – life (whether human or animal) and property.
The effects vary – it may be minor damage (like broken windows and doors), major damage (like torn rooftops, collapsed walls), total
destruction (like completely destroyed houses and structures rendering them useless and inhabitable), and the worst scenario, it can
lead to death.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2008), disaster is “a serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the
ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own Resources”.
Any adverse episode or phenomenon can exploit a vulnerability in the affected population or community to create damage
and this awareness will form the basis for an adequate intervention.
Meanwhile, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines disaster as a serious disruption of the
functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which
exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
Disasters are often a result of the combination of: the exposure to a hazard; the conditions of vulnerability that are present;
and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce or cope with the potential negative consequences.
Its impacts may include loss of life, injury, disease and other negative effects on human physical, mental, and social
wellbeing, together with damage to properties, destruction of assets, loss of services, social and economic disruptions, and
environmental degradation.
Republic Act 10121 also known as “An Act Strengthening the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management System,
Providing for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan, Appropriating Funds, Therefore and Other Purposes” was
passed and approved on May 27, 2010 after 21 years of revisions and refiling in the two legislative bodies. This new law, unlike the
previous Presidential Decree P.D. 1566, is pro-active in giving importance to disaster mitigation and preparedness measures.
One of the law’s salient points is the immediate release of calamity funds to local government units (LGUs) so they can
prepare for disaster mitigation and preparedness. This is a welcome provision because local government units can utilize 70 percent of
the total calamity fund to risk-reduction measures and 30 percent to quick response activities. In the old law, the LGU can only use the
calamity fund for quick response activities.
Section 2 of the RA 10121 states that the state shall “develop, promote, and implement a comprehensive that aims to
strengthen the capacity of the national government and the LGUs, together with partner stakeholders, to build the disaster resilience of
communities, and to institutionalize arrangements and measures for reducing disaster risks, including projected climate risks, and
enhancing disaster preparedness and response capabilities at all levels.

Natural Disasters – a natural phenomenon is caused by natural forces, such as earthquakes, typhoon, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes,
fires, tornados, and extreme temperatures. They can be classified as rapid onset disasters and those with progressive onset, such as
droughts that lead to famine. These events, usually sudden, can have tremendous effects.

Hazard - A hazard is a source or condition that has the potential to cause harm to humans in the form of injury or illness, property
damage, environmental damage, or a combination of these.

A. A natural hazard occurs when an extreme natural event is destructive to human life and property. This event could
interfere with activities in a minor way such as when strong winds blow trees down, or this event could completely disrupt
activities like a large earthquake damaging your home, business or school. These natural events have been happening for
thousands of years (a long time before we were even around!), but they only become hazards when humans are affected in
some way.

B. Human-made induced hazards are caused by human activities. Unlike natural hazards, human-made hazards can often be
prevented.

Examples:
1. Technological/industrial disasters
- Unregulated industrialization and inadequate safety standards increase the risk of industrial disasters.
Examples: leaks of hazardous materials; accidental explosions; bridge
or road collapses, or vehicle collisions; Power cuts

2. Terrorism/Violence
- the threat of terrorism has also increased due to the spread of technologies involving nuclear, biological, and
chemical agents used to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Examples: bombs or explosions; release of chemical materials; release
of biological agents; release of radioactive agents; multiple or

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 massive shootings; mutinies

3. Complex humanitarian emergencies

- the term complex emergency is usually used to describe the humanitarian emergency resulting from an
international or civil war. In such situations, large numbers of people are displaced from their homes due to the lack
of personal safety and the disruption of basic infrastructure including food distribution, water, electricity, and
sanitation, or communities are left stranded and isolated in their own homes unable to access assistance.
Examples:
conflicts or wars and Genocide the deliberate killing of a large group of people,
especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation

The damage caused by disaster cannot be measured. It also differs with the kind of geographical location, climate, earth’s
specific characteristics, and level of vulnerability. These determining factors affect generally the psychological, socio – economic,
political, and ethnical state of the affected area.

Risk has various connotations within different disciplines. In general, risk is defined as “the combination of the probability of
an event and its negative consequences” (UNISDR, 2009). The term risk is thus multidisciplinary and is used in a variety of contexts.
It is usually associated with the degree to which humans cannot cope (lack of capacity) with a situation (e.g. natural hazard).
The term disaster risk refers to the potential (not actual and realized) disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets,
and services that could occur in a community or society over some specified future time period.
Disaster risk is the product of the possible damage caused by a hazard due to the vulnerability within a community. It should
be noted that the effect of a hazard (of a particular magnitude) would affect communities differently (Von Kotze, 1999:35).
It can also be determined by the presence of three variables: hazards (natural or anthropogenic); vulnerability to a hazard; and
coping capacity linked to the reduction, mitigation, and resilience to the vulnerability of a community.

MODULE 2

Disaster risk as defined in the first module, has three important elements such as:
1. Exposure - the “elements at risk from a natural or man-made hazard event (Quebral, 2016).
2. Hazard-a potentially dangerous physical occurrence, phenomenon or human activity that may result in loss of life or injury,
property damage, social and economic disruption, or environmental degradation.
3. Vulnerability - the condition determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which
increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazard (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nation,
FAO 2008).

Reduction of the level of vulnerability and exposure is possible by keeping people and property as distant as possible from
hazards. We can not avoid natural events from occurring, but we can concentrate on addressing the reduction of risk and exposure by
determining the factors causing disasters. Risk Factors are processes or conditions, often development-related, that influence the level
of disaster risk by increasing levels of exposure and vulnerability
or reducing capacity. The following are also taken into consideration when risk factors underlying disaster are involved:
● Severity of exposure - which measures those who experience disaster first - hand which has the highest risk of
developing future mental problems,followed by those in contact with the victims such as rescue workers and health
care practitioners and the lowest risk are those most distant like those who have awareness of the disaster only
through news.
● Gender and Family - the female gender suffers more adverse effects. This worsens when children are present at
home. Marital relationships are placed under strain.
● Age - adults in the age range of 40-60 are more stressed after disasters butin general, children exhibit more stress
after disasters than adults do.Economic status of country - evidence indicates that severe mentalproblems resulting
from disasters are more prevalent in developing countrieslike the Philippines. Furthermore, it has been observed that
natural disasterstend to have more adverse effects in developing countries than do man-caused disasters in
developed countries.

Climate Change - can increase disaster risk in a variety of ways – by altering the frequency and intensity of hazards events, affecting
vulnerability to hazards, and changing exposure patterns. For most people, the expression “climate change” means the alteration of the
world’s climate that we humans are causing such as burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other practices that increase the carbon
footprint and concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is in line with the official definition by the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that climate change is the change that can be attributed “directly or indirectly
to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed
over comparable time Periods”

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 1. Environmental Degradation - changes to the environment can influence the frequency and intensity of hazards, as well as our
exposure and vulnerability to these hazards. For instance, deforestation of slopes often leads to an increase in landslide
hazard and removal of mangroves can increase the damage caused by storm surges (UNISDR, 2009b). It is both a driver and
consequence of disasters, reducing the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological needs. Overconsumption of
natural resources results in environmental degradation, reducing the effectiveness of essential ecosystem services, such as the
mitigation of floods and landslides. This leads to increased risk from disasters, and in turn, natural hazards can further
degrade the environment.
2. Globalized Economic Development - It results in an increased polarization between the rich and poor on a global scale.
Currently increasing the exposure of assets in hazard prone areas, globalized economic development provides an opportunity
to build resilience if effectively managed. By participating in risk-sensitive development strategies such as investing in
protective infrastructure, environmental management, and upgrading informal settlements, risk can be reduced. Dominance
and increase of wealth in certain regions and cities are expected to have increased hazard exposure (Gencer, 2013).
3. Poverty and Inequality - Impoverished people are more likely to live in hazard-exposed areas and are less able to invest in
risk-reducing measures. The lack of access to insurance and social protection means that people in poverty are often forced to
use their already limited assets to buffer disaster losses, which drives them into further poverty. Poverty is therefore both a
cause and consequence of disaster risk (Wisner et al., 2004), particularly extensive risk, with drought being the hazard most
closely associated with poverty (Shepard et al., 2013). The impact of disasters on the poor can, in addition to loss of life,
injury and damage, cause a total loss of livelihoods, displacement, poor health, food insecurity, among other consequences.
Vulnerability is not simply about poverty, but extensive research over the past 30 years has revealed that it is generally the
poor who tend to suffer worst from disasters.
4. Poorly planned and Managed Urban Development - A new wave of urbanization is unfolding in hazard-exposed countries
and with it, new opportunities for resilient investment emerge. People, poverty, and disaster risk are increasingly concentrated
in cities. The growing rate of urbanization and the increase in population density (in cities) can lead to creation of risk,
especially when urbanization is rapid, poorly planned and occurring in a context of widespread poverty. Growing
concentrations of people and economic activities in many cities are seen to overlap with areas of high-risk exposure.
5. Weak Governance - weak governance zones are investment environments in which public sector actors are unable or
unwilling to assume their roles and responsibilities in protecting rights, providing basic services and public services. Disaster
risk is disproportionately concentrated in lower-income countries with weak governance (UNISDR, 2015a). Disaster risk
governance refers to the specific arrangements that societies put in place to manage their disaster risk (UNISDR, 2011a;
UNDP, 2013a) within a broader context of risk governance (Renn, 2008 in UNISDR, 2015a). This reflects how risk is valued
against a backdrop of broader social and economic concerns (Holley et al., 2011)

More factors contributory to worse outcomes: death of someone close; injury to self or family member; life threat; panic, horror, or
similar feelings; separation from family; massive loss of property; and displacement.

MODULE 3
A disaster is a damaging event that occurs suddenly and involves loss of life and property. It can be of two types, natural and
man-made.
Natural disasters can destroy a whole community in an instant. Examples of natural disasters are volcanic eruptions,
tsunamis, earthquakes, and typhoons which are destructive to people's lives.
Man-made disasters on the other hand are caused by human beings. Some of the man-made disasters are bomb explosions,
terrorism, wars, leakage of poisonous chemicals, pollutions, industrial accidents, and epidemics. They are identified as man- made
disasters because they happen due to human actions and not by natural forces

What is the difference between hazard and disaster?

A hazard is a dangerous situation or event that carries a threat to humans. A disaster is an event that harms humans and
disrupts the operations of society. Hazards can only be considered disasters once it affected humans. If a disaster happened in an
unpopulated area, it is still a hazard.

The Human Effect of Natural and Man-Made Disasters

1. Displaced Populations
One of the most immediate effects of natural disasters is population displacement. When countries are ravaged by
earthquakes or other powerful forces of nature, many people need to abandon their homes and seek shelter in other regions. A
large influx of refugees can disrupt accessibility of health care and education, as well as food supplies and clean water.
2. Health Risks
Aside from the obvious immediate danger that natural disasters present, the secondary effect can be just as damaging. Severe
flooding can result in stagnant water that allows breeding of waterborne bacteria and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Without
emergency relief from international aid organizations and others, death tolls can rise even after the immediate danger has
passed.
3. Food Scarcity
The aftermath of natural disasters affect the food supplies. Thousands of people around the world are hungry because of
destroyed crops and loss of agricultural supplies, whether it happens suddenly in a storm or gradually in a drought. As a
result, food prices rise reducing families’ purchasing power and increasing the risk of malnutrition or worse. The impacts of

3
 hunger following an earthquake, typhoon, or hurricane can be tremendous, causing lifelong damage to children’s
development.
4. Emotional Aftershocks
Natural disasters can be particularly traumatic for young children. Confronted with scenes of destruction and the deaths of
friends and loved ones, many children develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),, a serious psychological condition
resulting from extreme trauma. Left untreated, children suffering from PTSD can be prone to lasting psychological damage
and emotional distress.

Great damage caused by a disaster can be reduced if everyone will take responsibility in anticipating its effects. Here are some ways
on how to plan ahead of a disaster:
1. Check for hazards at home.
2. Identify safe place indoors and outdoors
3. Educate yourself and family members
4. Have Disaster kits/supplies on hand.
5. Develop an emergency communication plan.
6. Help your community get ready.
7. Practice the Disaster Preparedness Cycle

MODULE 4

The Different Perspectives of Disaster

1. Physical Appearance
Calamities are phenomena that cause great physical damage in a community infrastructure, its people, and their
properties, e.g. houses and environmental sources of living. These cited effects of a disaster can be easily measured and are the most
common.
Natural disasters generally affect the physical infrastructural facilities, and agricultural productivity and even lead to loss of
life and cause damage to property. Various factors influence the effects of a disaster on a country among them are the magnitude of the
disaster, the geography of the area affected, and the recovery efforts directed toward reducing the immediate effects of a disaster.

Effects of physical disaster

● Injuries
● Physical disabilities or illness
● Sanitation
● Damage in infrastructure

2. Psychological Perspective
Victims of disasters may suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other serious mental health conditions,
which are not being given much attention to by the authorities or even by the victims, themselves. (This may be sensitive statement)
Disasters are mostly unpredictable, which leave the victims in a state of shock. They tend to deny the loss and try to escape
from reality. Being in a denial state makes the victims more vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and other different maladaptive reactions.
Death of a closed one also leaves the victim in a state of insecurity because the sense of love, attachment and belongingness are
deprived.

Psychological effects of a Disaster:

● distress hopelessness
● intrusion/avoidance
● emotional effects
● hatred/revenge cognitive Effects
● dependence/insecurities physical Effects
● lack of trust
● grief/withdrawn/isolation interpersonal effect
● guilt feeling helplessness

3. Socio-cultural Perspective

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 Filipinos are generally known as “matiisin ”, resourceful, helpful, optimistic,and prayerful. These characteristics are
manifested in the country’s recent fight against COVID19.Due to the National Health Emergency, Enhanced Community Quarantine
(ECQ) prevailed in the whole country. A lot of people temporarily lost their jobs, some people stranded in different regions,
repatriated OFWs were held in different quarantine facilities in Metro Manila, and all people were restricted to go out of their homes
for months. As a result, most Filipino families would rely on the government’s help for them to get by. However, limited resources and
aids from the government make people find possible ways to survive amid the pandemic.
These traits help a lot of Filipinos to survive the challenge of COVID19 in the country. To people who are used to natural
calamities like typhoons, flash floods, and volcanic eruptions most citizen would find contentment with what they have at the moment.
The culture of “malalampasan din natin ‘to..” belief and “bahala na ang Diyos ” syndrome give hope to most Filipino in the midst of
a disaster. Such perspective helps a lot especially those who belong to the marginalized sector to be hopeful and continue fighting
against any challenge at hand. Their belief that a help from someone or from God would arrive at a time they most needed. It also
helps most people survive a lot of oddities in life.
Socio-Cultural Effect of Disasters
● change in individual roles
● disruption of social relationships and personal connections

4. Economic Perspective
Disasters affect the economic condition of a community because they reduce local and international trade. It can also partially
or totally paralyze a country’s transportation system, just like what happened in the COVID19 pandemic. Implementation of a partial
and total shut down of local business operations
result to a lot of people losing their means of living.
Economic Effects of Disasters:
● loss of life
● unemployment
● loss of property
● loss of household articles
● loss of crops
● loss of public infrastructure

5. Political Perspective
Natural disasters are commonly thought to be less politically argumentative than armed conflicts, yet a closer look shows that
both the effects of a natural disaster and the resulting distribution of humanitarian aid are profoundly linked to politics.
Just as vulnerability to disasters is mediated by the political system of a country, disasters can have major consequences for political
stability and political legitimacy (Hörhager, July 2017. Since agencies of government have a significant role to play in directing
disaster preparedness, prevention, and recovery. Social systems establish vulnerability to natural disasters and governments are often
considered to be responsible for the disaster effects.
Political Effects of a Disaster:
- People who have trust in the political institution will assess the government’s risk assessments as credible and accept
their hazard policies (Johnson 19990
- Low level of trust in public institutions, therefore, means that citizens may ignore the recommendations and
disregard the information provided by these institutions (McCaffey 2004).
- If individuals are confident that they will receive sufficient aid from the government when a disaster occurs, they
might not be motivated to take measures on their own (King and Kang 2000).
6. Biological Perspective
The disturbing effects caused by a prevalent kind of disease or virus in an epidemic or pandemic level is known as biological
disaster.
(a) Epidemic Level: Biological disaster affects large numbers of people within a given community or area. Ex: Dengue.
(b) Pandemic Level: Biological disaster affects a much large region, sometimes spanning entire continents or the globe Ex.
Swine Flue

Biological disasters can wipe out an entire population in a short span of time. Example of it is the COVID19 pandemic which infected
millions in less than a month and left thousands of deaths in the same duration. Viral respiratory infections can lead to anything from a
mild cough that lasts a few weeks or months to full-blown persistent wheezing or asthma (Martin, 2020). He added that when there is
a severe respiratory infection, recovery can be prolonged with a general increase in shortness of breath — even after normal lung
function returns. Since COVID19 is a respiratory disease, the public is advised by health authorities to do health precaution to prevent
social contamination. Examples are: observing physical distancing, appropriate

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washing of the hands, wearing of mask at all times once outside of one’s home, and boosting one’s immune system.

COVID19 patients who have strong immune system can likely soon recover from the
disease. Also, those who follow the health precaution strictly have less chance of
being infected. As such, the effects of a biological disaster can be reduced.

Effects of Biological Disasters:

● loss of lives
● public demobilization
● negative economic effect
● unemployment
● hunger

MODULE 5
Vulnerability Defined
Vulnerability is a state of being at risk. According to Republic Act 10121 also known as ‘Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction
and Management Act of 2010’, vulnerability is defined as the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or resource
that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard. With all the identified hazard at home, there is a possibility that some
family members might be susceptible or prone to the accident due to the presence of hazard.
Vulnerability is also situation specific. This means that if a specific province is prone to earthquake, it does not mean that all
localities on that province is vulnerable to it. The vulnerability of different towns or cities or even provinces differ in the way they
prepare for the hazard and the amount and type of resources they have in order prevent and manage it. To lessen vulnerability means to
make the community prepared and ready for the possible damaging effect of the hazard. This further means that to make the
community less vulnerable, it must be resilient. So, to develop resiliency at home, you should first identify the hazards and be
prepared all the time for the possible outcome and respond immediately. Moreover, it is also hazard specific. A community that is
vulnerable to earthquake hazards does not necessarily mean that it is also vulnerable to typhoons. Hazards have different traits that can
influence the disasters possible to happen.

MODULE 6
Level of the vulnerability of an area or community can be assessed based on different factors. These factors can affect one
another or can lead to other factors.

Factor’s affecting vulnerability of one’s community:

1. Population density near a hazard event.
● Population differs from population density.
● Population refers to the number of individuals inhabiting in a particular space at the same time. If people are well
distributed, there is a lesser effect of disaster.
● Population density refers to the number of individuals living in an area in relation to the size of an area. If
population density is high, it means the number of individuals is high but the space is very small. In that case, if a
fire broke out in that area, there is little space for the population to escape quickly and easily.
● The primary consideration is not the population size but the population density.
2. Capacity and efficiency to reduce Disaster Risk
● Community that is less vulnerable have the capacity to reduce disaster risk because;
a. It can provide accessibility and availability of services and facilities during and after a disaster.
b. It has the ability to anticipate, adapt, and respond to possible disasters.
● Is it appropriate to say that the Philippines is less vulnerable to a typhoon? Nowadays our country has advanced
technology to predict super typhoons and several municipalities already provided evacuation centers to provide
temporary housing for victims when disasters occur.

MODULE 7

Vulnerabilities of different elements are determined due to their exposure to particular and specific hazard.

Physical vulnerability
includes population density levels, place of a settlement, the site design, and materials used for infrastructure and housing. When
hazardous events occur, normally physical elements are severely damaged. For example, UP Visayas buildings were totally destroyed

6
during the super typhoon Yolanda in 2008 leaving the structure totally damaged. Another example is the decreased in population
density like what happened in Baguio during the 1990 earthquake in North Luzon when a lot of people were injured and died.

Social vulnerability
happens due to inability of people, organization, and societies to prevent severe effects from hazards because of the expected behavior
in social interactions, institutions, and system of cultural values. For example, during typhoon the line of communications were cut off
when cell sites shutdown or disruption of transport system due to inability of small vehicles to pass through the flooded areas or
unpassable roads and bridges. With some difficulties in the delivery of services such as relief goods and medicines, a lot of problems
occurred like shortage of food and spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, when social elements were exposed to hazard, these may
lead to disruption of normal processes and activities in the community.

Level of economic vulnerability is based on the economic status of individuals, communities, and nations. The poorer the
country, the more vulnerable to disasters because they lack the funds or budgets to build sturdy structures and put other engineering
measures in place which protect them from being affected by disasters. So, we can say that Philippines is more vulnerable to an event
such as earthquake compared to Japan. Though both countries are exposed to earthquake hazard because both are located in the Pacific
ring of fire, but due to differences in economic status, Japan is more resilient because of its ability to afford changes in architectural
and engineering designs of building and infrastructures to make them less vulnerable to earthquake. Another example is the Covid-19
pandemic wherein the most affected are those who belong to low income and informal workers.

Social and economic vulnerability can be combined also known as socioeconomic vulnerability.

Environmental vulnerability is caused by natural resources depletion and destruction. Organisms like humans, animals, and
plants are all dependent on the environment for survival. Human activities like deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, and kaingin affect
the natural abilities of the environment to protect itself from any natural hazard due to absence of trees which may cause landslide and
flashfloods. Sometimes the effects are irreversible.

Quantifying vulnerability is used in estimating how much mitigation and preparedness measures will be applied.
Computation is based on the previous hazard events and severity of their effects. Vulnerability can be expressed as: 0 = lowest degree
of vulnerability and 1 as the highest degree. Vulnerability of people is the ratio of casualties or injured to the total population.
Vulnerability of buildings is expressed as a repair cost or degree of damage

The Philippines has high vulnerability due to the following reasons:

● It lies in the Pacific typhoon belt and we are visited by an average of 20 typhoons every year.
● Rugged nature of the landscape makes it vulnerable to landslide, mudflows, and other disasters.
● It is an archipelagic country with many small islands where some areas are at below sea level.
● It has the longest shoreline in the world at 32,400 km making it vulnerable to storm surges.
● It is still a primary agricultural and fishing economy.
● With poor institutional and social capacity to manage, respond, and recover from natural hazard events.
● With high level of poverty
● Aside from typhoon, it is also at risk to volcanic eruptions, quakes, and floods.