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Classification and characteristics of natural disaster.
Natural disatsers
A disaster can be more precisely defined as an occurrence of widespread severe damage, injury,
or loss of life or property with which a community cannot cope and during which the society
undergoes severe disruption
While some developed nations may be as prone to disasters as poor nations, the people of
wealthier nations are not as vulnerable to disasters; they do not die in as large numbers nor does
their environment collapse as easily. Both Tokyo, Japan, and Managua, Nicaragua, are prone to
earthquakes. But the people of Tokyo are far less vulnerable to injury by earthquake because
Tokyo has strictly enforced building codes, zoning regulations and earthquake training and
communications systems. In Managua, there are still many people living in top-heavy mud
houses on hillsides. They are vulnerable.
For example between 1960-81:
• Japan suffered 43 earthquakes and other disasters and lost 2,700 people: 63 deaths per
disaster.
• Peru suffered 31 disasters with 91,000 dead, the vase majority lost in the single event of the
1970 earthquake.
Rapid population growth, urban migration, inequitable patterns of land ownership, lack of
education, subsistence agriculture on marginal lands, etc. lead to vulnerable conditions such as
unsafe siting of buildings and settlements, unsafe homes, malnutrition, unemployment and
underemployment, illiteracy, etc. The poor within the poor countries are the most vulnerable.
Landslides or flooding disasters are closely linked to rapid and unchecked urbanization that
forces low-income families to settle on the slopes of steep hillsides or ravines, or along the
banks of flood-prone rivers.
Famines can be closely linked to shortages of purchasing power caused by rural unemployment
or a sudden influx of refugees into a country from a strife-torn neighboring country.
High numbers of deaths accompanying earthquakes almost always result from structural
collapse of poor, low-cost houses.
In other disasters, such as cyclones and tsunamis, humans can increase their vulnerability by
removing bits of their natural environment that may act as buffers to these extreme natural
forces. Such acts include destroying reefs, cutting natural wind breaks and clearing inland
forests.
The poor countries that suffer the worst disasters are the same countries in which environmental
degradation is proceeding most rapidly. Countries with severe deforestation, erosion,
overcultivation and overgrazing tend to be hardest hit by disasters.
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Therefore, it can be said that nature causes extreme events (called “hazards” when they threaten
people), but people create disasters by:
• making faulty assessments of natural hazard risks
• undermining the resilience of impacted natural and social systems, and
• failing to practice appropriate protective measures.
Natural hazards are agents or trigger mechanisms that can come into contact with a vulnerable
human condition to result in a disaster.
Classifications of Disasters
Hazards and the disasters they cause are classified as
rapid onset or cataclysmic, and
long term or continuing
Rapid onset or cataclysmic
In a cataclysmic disaster, one large-scale event causes most of the damage and
destruction. Following this event, there may be a tremendous amount of suffering and
chaos, but things soon begin to improve.
Cataclysmic disasters include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclonic storms, and
floods.
The damaged area in a cataclysmic disaster is usually relatively small
Cataclysmic disasters destroy buildings and entire human settlements. Loss of life is
sudden and therefore dramatic. In terms of food and food distribution, cataclysmic
disasters are normally more disruptive than destructive. For example, they may disrupt
the transport and marketing systems. They can disrupt or damage irrigation systems and,
to a limited extent, they may destroy food supplies. But the extent of destruction depends
on the season, the location of the disaster, and the total area affected
Long term or continuing
In a long-term, continuing disaster, the situation after the event remains constant or may
even deteriorate as time passes.
Continuing natural disasters include droughts, crop failures, and environmental
degradation such as deforestation and desertification.
The area affected in a continuing disaster may be extremely large.
Continuing disasters disrupt water transportation and distribution networks, they can also
bring them to a complete halt and ultimately destroy the system itself.
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Phases of a Disaster
The time period of disaster can be classified as:
the pre-disaster periods,
the warning phase,
the emergency phase,
the rehabilitation phase,
the recovery phase, and
the reconstruction phase
It is difficult to set time limits on the post-disaster time phases or to accurately define the limits
of each, even for one specific type of disaster. For example, the emergency phase of a
hurricane or a flood may be only a few days, or as long as a week. A volcano may precipitate
an emergency period of only a few days or up to a month and may cause immediate danger to
the area for years. An earthquake may have continuing aftershocks after the first major tremor,
thus prolonging the emergency for a number of weeks.
Pre-disaster Activities.
These activities are normally subdivided into disaster prevention, disaster mitigation and
disaster preparedness.
The objective of prevention is to prevent the disaster from occurring at all.
Disaster mitigation accepts the fact that some natural event may occur but tries to lessen
the impact by improving the community’s ability to absorb the impact with little damage
or disruptive effects.
Disaster preparedness assumes that the disaster will occur and focuses on structuring
response and laying a framework for recovery.
Emergency Response Activities
Emergency response activities are those carried out during the actual emergency or immediately
prior to it. This may involve evacuation of threatened communities, emergency assistance during
the disaster, and actions taken in the immediate aftermath during the time when the community is
rather disorganized and basic services and infrastructure are not fully functioning. Because the
emergency period is both dramatic and traumatic, most attention by the press and international
community is focused here. Yet in most disasters (with the exception of droughts and civil
strife), the emergency passes rather quickly and, in reality, only accounts for a very small
percentage of the total picture.
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Post-disaster Activities
Post-disaster recovery can be subdivided into two phases.
The first begins at the end of the emergency phase. It is a transitional phase (often called the
rehabilitation phase) when people and community systems try to reestablish a semblance of
normalcy. This period is usually characterized by such activities as business reopening in
damaged structures, farmers returning to reclaim and clear their land, and resumption of basic
infrastructure services such as water and sanitation systems in urban areas.
The reconstruction phase is marked by large-scale efforts to replace damaged buildings,
revitalize economies or restore agricultural systems to their full pre-disaster production
capacity.
Effects of Disasters
Each type of disaster can have a number of disruptive effects. These in turn cause generally
predictable problems and needs of four kinds: environmental; health; social, economic, and
political; and administrative and managerial.
Environmental Effects
Disasters can have any number or combination of four effects: destruction and damage to homes
and buildings; decreased quantity or quality of water supplies; destruction of crops and/or food
stocks; and the presence of unburied human bodies or animal carcasses.
These environmental effects vary considerably from disaster to disaster. For example,
earthquakes affect buildings but usually not crops, while tropical cyclones may affect both.
Closely related to the environmental effects is the impact that disasters have on land tenure and
values. These effects also vary with the disaster type; for example, land values after earthquakes
will go up in zones that were not heavily damaged, but land values go down in zones of active
volcanoes.
Effects on Health
Sudden natural disasters are often believed to cause not only widespread death but also massive
social disruption and outbreaks of epidemic disease and famine, leaving survivors entirely
dependent on outside relief. Systematic observation of the effects of disaster on human health
has led to rather different conclusions, both about the effects of disaster on health and about the
most effective ways of providing relief. Though all disasters are unique in that they affect areas
with differing social, medical, and economic backgrounds, there are still similarities between
disasters that, if recognized, can optimize the management of health relief and use of resources.
The following points may be noted:
• There is a relationship between the type of disaster and its effect on health. This is particularly
true of the immediate impact in causing injuries: earthquakes regularly cause many injuries
requiring medical care, while floods, storm surges and seismic sea waves cause relatively few.
• Some effects are a potential rather than an inevitable threat to health. For example, population
movement and other environmental changes may lead to increased risk of disease transmission,
although epidemics generally do not result from disasters.
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• The actual and potential health risks after disaster do not all occur at the same time. Instead,
they tend to arise at different times and to vary in importance within a disaster-affected area.
Thus, casualties occur mainly at the time and place of impact and require immediate medical
care. The risks of increased disease transmission take longer to develop and are greatest
where there is crowding and reduced standards of sanitation.
• Disaster-created needs for food, shelter, and primary health care are usually not total. Even
displaced persons often salvage some of the basic necessities of life. Further, people generally
recover quickly from their immediate shock and spontaneously engage in search and rescue,
transport of the injured, and other private relief activities.
Economic, Social, and Political Effects
Disasters disrupt rather than destroy economies. During an emergency, people must leave their
jobs and devote their time to disaster-related activities, such as search and rescue, or to care of
survivors. During this period normal economic activities are severely curtailed, even if the
sources of employment are unaffected by the disaster. This period is short-lived, however, and
in the later phases of a disaster economic activities quickly assume a high priority for both
businesses and victims alike.
Whether or not an economy can recover quickly depends on the losses sustained. Physical
damage to businesses and industry may temporarily halt some activities, but most enterprises
can operate at reduced levels even with the loss of equipment. Often the workers in a damaged
factory can be put to work helping to repair or rebuild the facility. In any case, the loss of jobs is
usually only temporary.
Of far more concern is the impact of disasters on persons who are participating only marginally
in the economy, people such as subsistence farmers, small shopkeepers, and fishermen. After
a disaster it is not uncommon for many small enterprises to fail. For the owners, a disaster can
wipe out not only their investments but also their savings.
Several observers have noted that boom economies often develop after a widespread disaster
such as an earthquake or hurricane requiring major physical reconstruction. Long-term effects
are not yet known, but at least one study indicates that if low-income victims are given priority in
job hiring, boom economies can be a means of adjusting some of the losses
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Administrative and Managerial Effects
Administrative problems in disaster are made more difficult by four factors, which increase in
importance with the extent of the disaster.
1. Effects on community leadership. The loss of leaders due to death or injury can impair disaster
response.
2. Disruption of formal organizations. When a disaster strikes, large formal organizations are
most disrupted. Small, community-based organizations are generally better able to function, even
with loss of leaders.
3. Damage to critical facilities and lifelines. Widespread disasters can destroy or damage
facilities that may be critical not only for responding to the disaster but also for maintaining a
safe environment and public order. Among these are communications installations; electrical
generating and transmission facilities; water storage, purification, and pumping facilities; sewage
treatment facilities; hospitals; police stations; and other private buildings.
4. Disruption of transportation (and isolation of resources). During the initial stages of most
types of disasters, almost all surface means of transportation within a community are disrupted.
Bridges can be knocked out; roads can be cut by landslides; rubble can block streets and
highways.
Prevention, Mitigation and Preparedness
Up until this point, disasters have been discussed in terms of reaction, both by the affected
societies and the relief agencies. An underlying theme, however, has been that disasters are not
unforeseen events. The technology now exists to identify the hazards that threaten a community
and to estimate the areas and the settlements that will be affected. One can then take steps to
prevent the disaster, or prepare for the disaster and substantially reduce, or mitigate, its impact.
These actions are known as pre-disaster planning.
Frederick Krimgold pioneered the early conceptualization of pre-disaster planning, which he
describes as follows:
Planning may be defined as the process of preparing a set of decisions for action in the future
directed at achieving goals by optimal means. The stated goals of disaster relief are
the reduction of human suffering, the improvement of material well-being, and the increase
of personal security. It goes without saying that these goals are best served if disaster, in
the first place, can be avoided or reduced. Thus, the primary goal of pre-disaster planning
may be seen as the prevention or mitigation of disaster. If we refer to the definition of
disaster in terms of the need for outside help, we may describe the goal of pre-disaster
planning as the creation of self-sufficiency in dealing with natural phenomena. In those
cases where prevention is not possible, the goal must be to plan for the effective application
of aid... (1974)
Disaster prevention and mitigation should be in the forefront of the reader’s mind throughout this
course. Indeed, all disaster managers, whether full-time professionals or part-time volunteers,
are challenged to accept disaster prevention and mitigation not only as a role to play but as their
responsibility to their society, constituency, or clientele. One of the primary objectives of this
course is for its students to become advocates for programs in disaster prevention, mitigation or
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improvements in the disaster response system.
Individuals working within government will have opportunities to increase their country’s safety
by promoting several activities. The most appropriate activity will obviously depend on their
position in government. By the end of this course, each individual will no doubt be able to
identify opportunities for personal and official involvement. For example, a person within a
ministry devoted to natural resource development will see the need to conduct hazard mapping
of seismic risk areas, flood prone areas, and perhaps zones subject to landslides. An employee
within a ministry in charge of communication will see the need to integrate a complete disaster
warning system with the national communication networks and to develop guidelines on
communicating disaster emergencies to the central government and the public.
An official of a national bank will become aware of the need to include disaster mitigation
measures and also criteria for the financing of projects that take into account disaster risks.
Non-government organizations including private voluntary organizations (volags) have other
possible opportunities to implement improved disaster management programs. The traditional
role of these groups is to react to disasters in the form of emergency relief and sometimes
longterm recovery programs. As other courses offered by the Disaster Management Center will
show, there are many areas where other professional and effective disaster response is
achievable. It is also expected that the volags who are aware of disaster issues will support
projects that improve a community’s disaster risk awareness, promote economic or social devel
opment in ways that encourage disaster prevention or mitigation, and train their own staff and
local individuals in disaster management.
The objectives for all participants in effective hazard management are many. Some, such as
the reduction of loss of life, injury and property, have already been mentioned. Beyond those
primary concerns are the related benefits of the maintenance of economic and social stability
and the utilization of scarce resources for development instead of disaster recovery.
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