have to leave/evacuate their homes and seek shelter
in other places
Lesson 2: Effects and Different Perspectives
➔ A natural disaster can bring about many devastating
effects. Among these are deaths, destruction of
infrastructures, loss of livelihood and services, and
other physical and nonphysical effects.
Disaster
● is a damaging event that occurs suddenly and
involves loss of life and property.
It can be of two types
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, pollution, industrial accidents, and
epidemics.
● They are identified as man- made disasters because
they happen due to human actions and not by natural
forces.
Hazard
● is a dangerous situation or event that carries a threat
to humans.
● Hazards can only be considered disasters once it
affects humans. If a disaster happens in an
unpopulated area, it is still a hazard.
Disaster
● is an event that harms humans and disrupts the
operations of society.
The Human Effect of Natural and Man-Made Disasters
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.
● Population displacement is one of the most immediate
effects of natural disasters
● When a certain country is ravaged by earthquakes
and other powerful forces of nature, many people
● . A big influx of refugees can disrupt everything from
accessibility of health care and education to food
● supplies and basic hygiene. Bigger evacuation
centers are common for all natural disasters, and only
those who are fortunate enough will survive and face
a range of Challenges following disaster’s
widespread.
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.
Food Scarcity
● The aftermath of natural disasters affects 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 severe
malnutrition or worse.
● The impacts of hunger following an earthquake,
typhoon or hurricane can be tremendous, causing
lifelong damage to children’s development.
● young children, pregnant and nursing women,
unaccompanied children, widows, elderly people
without family support, disabled persons;
● the poor or marginalized people;
● migrants or individuals who leave or flee their habitual
residence to go to new places, usually abroad to seek
better and safer living;
● the displaced populations who leave their habitual
residence in groups, usually due to a sudden impact
disaster, like an earthquake, volcanic eruption or a
flood, threat or community conflict, as a coping
mechanism and with the intent to return; and the
former migrants or displaced people returning to their
homes (returnees).
● Household and community structures, community
facilities, livelihood and economic activities, and the
environment are also at risk in times of disaster.
● Disaster risk depends on the choices made by
individuals, households, communities and
governments. It might be increased or decreased
 depending on their preparedness level,
prevention and mitigation.
● Generally speaking, when we look into the social
status of certain individuals, family responsibilities or
reproductive role, women may be affected differently
from men but they are not necessarily vulnerable.
They are also resourceful and resilient in times of
crisis and play a vital role in recovery.
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.
According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA)
● before and after a disaster or crisis, it is common for
the children, adults, and first responders to feel
emotional distress.
● Natural and human-caused disasters can have a
devastating impact on people’s lives damage to
property, or the loss of a home or place of
employment.
● Anyone who sees or experiences this can be affected
in some way. Most stress symptoms are temporary
and will resolve on their own in a fairly short amount
of time.
● However, for some people, particularly children and
teens, these symptoms may last for weeks or even
months and may influence their relationships with
families and friends. Common warning signs of
emotional distress include:
For adults
- Eating or sleeping too much or too little
- Feeling guilty, helpless, or hopeless
- Avoiding family and friends
- Crying spells or bursts of anger
- Losing interest in daily activities
- Pulling away from people and things
- Having low or no energy
- Having unexplained aches and pains, such as
constant stomach aches or headaches
- Feeling helpless or hopeless
- Excessive smoking, drinking, or using drugs, including
prescription medications
- Worrying a lot of the time; feeling guilty but not sure
why
- Thinking of hurting or killing yourself or someone else
- Having difficulty readjusting to home or work life
For children (6-11 years old)
- Withdrawing from playgroups and friends
- Competing more for the attention of parents and
teachers
- Being unwilling to leave home
- Being less interested in schoolwork
- Becoming aggressive
- Having added conflict with peers or parents
- Having difficulty concentrating
- Become withdrawn
- Resist authority
- Become disruptive or aggressive at home or in the
classroom
- Experiment with high-risk behaviors such as
underage drinking or prescription drug misuse and
abuse
For teens
- For teens, the impact of disasters varies depending
on how much of a disruption the disaster causes their
family or community.
- Teens ages 12 to 18 are likely to have physical
complaints when under stress or be less interested in
schoolwork, chores, or other responsibilities.
Although some teens may compete vigorously for attention
from parents and teachers after a disaster, they also may:
- Become withdrawn
- Resist authority
- Become disruptive or aggressive at home or in the
classroom
- Experiment with high-risk behaviors such as
underage drinking or prescription drug misuse and
abuse
➔ For those who have lived through a natural or
human-caused disaster, the anniversary of the event
may renew feelings of fear, anxiety, and sadness.
Certain sounds, such as sirens, can also trigger
emotional distress.
➔ These and other environmental sensations can take
people right back to the disaster, or cause them to
fear that it’s about to trigger happen events” can again
happen.
➔ These(SAMHSA)at “any. 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:
● Check for hazards at home.
● Identify safe places indoors and outdoors 3. Educate
yourself and family members
● Have Disaster kits/supplies on hand.
● Develop an emergency communication plan.
● Help your community get ready.
● Practice the Disaster Preparedness Cycle

Lesson 2: Areas/Locations Exposed to Hazards
Disaster
● can be avoided or lessened if the people are
knowledgeable enough in choosing their location or
area of living.
● Choosing one’s reducing the risk of disaster and
looking for security.
The following are some of the areas or locations exposed
to hazards that may lead to disasters:
1. Flood Plains or Flood-Prone Areas
● What happens when there is heavy or continuous
rainfall exceeding the absorptive capacity of soil and
the flow capacity of rivers, streams, and coastal
areas? Yes, flooding happens.
● Flooding causes a watercourse to overflow its banks
onto lands adjacent to it. In general, flood plains are
lands most subject to recurring floods, located beside
or adjacent to rivers and streams.
● These are the lands that are inundated by water.
Flood plain is the large area of flat land on either side
of a river that is sometimes covered with water when
the river becomes too full.
● These are the “flood- prone”area and are very
hazardous to development activities if the acceptable
level of vulnerabilities exceeds.
● Owing to their continually changing nature, floodplains
and other flood-prone areas need to be examined in
the light of how they might affect or be affected by
development.
2. Landslide-prone areas
● Landslides occur when the stability of the slope
changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A
change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a
number of factors, acting together or alone.
Natural causes of landslides include:
In the Metro Manila, the
● groundwater (pore water) pressure acting to
destabilize the slop
● Loss or absence of vertical vegetative structure, soil
nutrients, and soil structure
○ (e.g. after a wildfire - a fire in forests lasting
for 3–4 days
● erosion of the toe of a slope by rivers or ocean waves
● weakening of a slope through saturation by snow
melt, glaciers melting, or heavy rains
● earthquakes adding loads to barely stable slope of
earthquake-caused liquefaction destabilizing slopes of
volcanic eruptions
Landslides are aggravated by human activities, such as:
● deforestation, cultivation and construction, which
destabilize the already fragile slopes
● vibrations from machinery or traffic o blasting
● earthwork which alters the shape of a slope, or which
imposes new loads on an existing slope
● in shallow soils, the removal of deep- rooted
vegetation that binds colluviums to bedrock
● Construction, agricultural or forestry activities
(logging) which change the amount of water which
infiltrates the soil.)
3. Area with Armed Conflicts
● The word “disaster” usually brings tsunamis and many
other kinds of disasters.
● Accordingly, human consequences, rather than the
phenomenon that causes it.
● The physical and psychological destruction of living
creatures is the main point of the word.
● Accordingly, disaster is an actual or threatened
accidental or uncomfortable events that are
concentrated in time, and space, in which society, or a
relatively self- sufficient subdivision of society
undergoes severe danger, and injuries such losses to
its members and physical appurtenances that the
social structure is disrupted and the fulfillment of all or
some of the essential functions.
● The society's basic structure is the purpose of any
terrorism disruption event. Disaster due to terrorism
always leaves messages to the societies causing
social disruption.
4. Fault line Areas
● In the previous years, you already knew that a fault, in
geography, is a discontinuity in a volume of rock,
across which there has been significant displacement
along the fractures as a result of earth movement.
● The Philippine fault system runs from north to south
and east to west of the archipelago.
● Knowing about it, the most important question to
answer is whether or not you, your family and your
properties are safe from earthquakes. It’s easier for
you to determine e eruptions or not but what about
earthquakes?
● Are you aware of all the locations of the fault lines in
the Philippines?
● The biggest fault line system is the Marikina Valley
Fault System or commonly called the Valley Fault
System. The Marikina Valley Fault System
● This active fault line system has the potential of
generating up to a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that can
devastate the capital and nearby provinces.
● PHIVOLCS Director, Renato Solidum Jr. said that a
new survey discovered new fault traces aside from
those previously mapped and since there is no early
warning when or where an earthquake occurs,
PHIVOLCS has bn calling for public preparedness
through earthquake drills and contingency plans and
checking the structural integrity of homes and
buildings.
● Now, with the use of the map above and with the
places cited, can you locate the place where your
relatives and friends live in Luzon? Are they living
near this fault or near any active fault? If so, it is time
for you to inform them. Informing them is capacitating
them. If they have that capacity or preparedness, then
it is pretty sure that the impacts of an earthquake will
be reduced. For you to have a clear picture about the
VFS, study the figure below. Aside from the fault lines,
trenches are also shown.

Lesson 3: Disaster from Different Perspectives
The different properties of Disaster
Physical Perspective
● Calamities are phenomena that cause great physical
damage in a community's 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 the most common. Natural
disasters generally affect the physical infrastructural
facilities, 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 towards reducing the
immediate effects of a disaster.
Effects of Physical Disasters
- Injuries
- Physical disabilities or illness - Sanitation
- Damage in infrastructure
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 a 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
- emotional effects
- hatred/revenge -dependence/insecurities
- guilt feeling -helplessness
- lack of trust
- hopelessness intrusion/avoidance
- cognitive Effects
- physical Effects grief/withdrawn/isolation interpersonal
effect
Socio-cultural Perspective
● 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 from
going 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 and 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
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 shutdown of
local business operations results in a lot of people
losing 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
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 - negative economic effect
disasters and governments are often considered to be - unemployment
responsible for the disaster effects. - hunger
Political Effects of a Disaster
- People who have trust in political institution will
assess the government’s risk assessments as
credible and accept their hazard policies (Johnson
1999)
- 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).
- IIf 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).
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.
Epidemic Level
● Biological disaster affects large numbers of people
within a given community or area. Ex: Dengue.
Pandemic Level
● Biological disaster affects a much large region,
sometimes spanning entire continents or the globe,
Example. Swine Flu
●
● 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 take health
precautions to prevent social contamination.
● Examples are: observing physical distance,
appropriate 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 precautions 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