Unit-1 Understanding of Disaster

1) Disaster:
“A disaster can be defined as any occurrence that cause damage, ecological
Disruption, loss of human life, deterioration of health and health services on a
Scale, sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected
Community or area”.(W.H.O.)

“A disaster can be defined as an occurrence either nature or manmade that causes

human suffering and creates human needs that victims cannot alleviate without
assistance”. American Red Cross (ARC) ’

In simple words it is a sudden, event that causes a wide spread and Immeasurable
damage, loss, and alot of destruction to life, Property, livelihood, Economy and
Environment.

Disaster management
refers to all such measures or activities taken for the safety and protection of the life and property
from any natural or human induced disaster and disasters are the consequences of natural or
human induced hazards. Since we cannot prevent coming of any hazard or disaster but we can
reduce their harmful effects through proper management, so that loss of life and property can be
minimized, therefore disaster management measures and activities helps to prevent hazard from
being turn into a disaster.

Disaster management is essentially a dynamic process. It encompasses the classical arrangement

functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling. It also involves many
organizations which must work together to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover
from the effects of disaster
PHASES OF DISASTER

Disast
er
Preparedne Impact
Response
Pre- ss Post
Disaster Disaster
Risk
Reductio Mitigation Recovery Recover
n Phase y Phase

Prevention Development

Key Phases of Disaster Management

There are three key phases of activity within disaster management:

1. Pre – Disaster: Before a disaster to reduce the potential for human, material or
environmental losses caused by hazards and to ensure that these losses are minimized when
the disaster actually strikes.
During Disaster: It is to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met to alleviate
2.
and minimize suffering.
Post Disaster: After a disaster to achieve rapid and durable recovery which does not
3. reproduce the original vulnerable conditions

Pre – Disaster Phase

Prevention and Mitigation

Reducing the risk of disasters involves doing things to make the threats less
harmful. We can either make the threats smaller or less intense, or we can make the
things at risk safer. Sometimes, people use the word "prevention" to describe these
protective actions, but that can be misleading because we can't completely stop
natural disasters from happening. So, it's better to use the word "reduction" to talk
about actions that make the impact of disasters less severe.
Mitigation includes all the steps we take to make both the hazard itself and the
things at risk less dangerous, so that if a disaster happens in the future, it won't be
as bad. Besides physical actions, we should also try to reduce how much people
and communities are vulnerable to these threats. This means addressing things like
land ownership, making sure buildings are strong enough to withstand earthquakes,
and making sure people have enough money and resources to cope with disasters.
By doing all of these things, we can make our communities safer and better
prepared for any future disasters.

Preparedness

This brings us to the all-important issue of disaster preparedness. The process

embraces

Measures that enables governments, communities and individuals to respond

rapidly to disaster situations to cope with them effectively. Preparedness includes
for example, the formulation of viable emergency plans, the development of
warning systems, the maintenance of inventories, public awareness and education
and the training of personnel. It may also embrace search and rescue measures as
well as evacuation plans for areas that may be „at risk‟ from a recurring disaster.
All preparedness planning needs to be supported by appropriate rules and
regulations with clear allocation of responsibilities and budgetary provision.
Early Warning

This is the process of monitoring the situation in communities or areas known to be vulnerable to
slow onset hazards, and passing the knowledge of the pending hazard to people in harm’s way.
To be effective, warnings must be related to mass education and training of the population who
know what actions they must take when warned.

The Disaster impact

This refers to the “real-time event of a hazard occurring and affecting elements at risk.The
Duration of the event will depend on the type of threat; ground shaking may only occur in a
matter of seconds during an earthquake while flooding may take place over a longer sustained
period.

During disaster Phase

Response

This refers to the first stage response to any calamity, which include for examples such as setting

up control rooms, putting the contingency plan in action, issue warning, action for evacuation,
taking people to safer areas, rendering medical aid to the needy etc., simultaneously rendering
relief to the homeless, food, drinking water, clothing etc. to the needy, restoration of
communication, disbursement of assistance in cash or kind.

The emergency relief activities undertaken during and immediately following a disaster, which
includes immediate relief, rescue, and the damage needs assessment and debris clearance.

The Post- disaster Phase

Recovery: Recovery is used to describe the activities that encompass the three overlapping
phases of emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Rehabilitation: Rehabilitation includes the provision of temporary public utilities and housing
as interim measures to assist long-term recovery.

Reconstruction: Reconstruction attempts to return communities to improved pre-disaster

functioning. It includes such as the replacement of buildings; infrastructure and lifeline facilities
so that long-term development prospects are enhanced rather than reproducing the same
conditions, which made an area or population vulnerable in the first place.

Development: In an evolving economy, the development process is an ongoing activity. Long-

term prevention/disaster reduction measures for examples like construction of embankments
against flooding, irrigation facilities as drought proofing measures, increasing plant cover to
reduce the occurrences of landslides, land use planning, construction of houses capable of
withstanding the onslaught of heavy rain/wind speed and shocks of earthquakes are some of the
activities that can be taken up as part of the development plan.

3)Hazard

A hazard is a potential source of harm. Substances, events, or circumstances can constitute

hazards when their nature would allow them, even just theoretically, to cause damage to health,
life, property, or any other interest of value.

➔ Hazard is a condition that can cause injury or death, damage to or loss of equipment or
property or environmental harm.

Example: Electricity, chemicals, working up a ladder, noise machinery, stress etc.

➔ It can also be defined as anything has the potential to cause harm, injury, damage to
property and environment.
4)Difference between a hazard and a disaster

Hazard is a condition/event that has potential for causing injury/ loss of life or damage to
property/environment.

Disaster is an event that occurs suddenly/unexpectedly in most cases and disrupts the normal
course of life in affected area; results in loss or damage to life property or environment and is
beyond the coping capacity of local affected population/society and therefore requires external
help.

Example Imagine you are in the desert and earthquake occurs. Now earthquake is a hazard but
in open desert it does not make in damage to you. No threat to your life. So it does not become
disaster. It remains as a hazard. Now imagine earthquake in a city. There buildings collapse,
people die or are injured, normal life is disrupted. This is disaster situation. A hazard is a
situation where there is a threat to life, health, environment or property. ... These hazards are
termed as disasters when they cause widespread destruction of property and human lives. Once a
hazard becomes active and is no longer just a threat, it becomes a disaster.

5)Effects of natural disasters The effects of natural disasters are many and varied. Some are
short term effects that can be fixed with relative ease while others last for years.

 Natural disasters have three general types of effects: primary effects, secondary
effects, and tertiary effects.
 Primary effects are the direct result of the natural disaster, such as collapsed
buildings and water damage.
 Secondary effects are the result of primary effects. Examples of secondary effects
include power outages due to fallen trees or damaged building and fires from broken
gas lines. In these examples, the fallen trees and the damaged building would be
primary effects that caused the power outages and fires (secondary effects).
 Tertiary effects are the long term effects of natural disasters. These include changes
in the landscape and natural features, loss of habitat, and crop failure or reduction due
to cooler temperatures or other interference.

6)Risk

The probability of any injury or loss occurring from the hazard.

A risk is combination of the probability of the hazardous event occurring and the consequences
of the event.

Probability -The extent to which some thing is likely to happen or be the case.

Consequences-A result or effect typically unpleasant.

It considers the probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries,

property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environmentally damaged) resulting from
interactions between natural or human induced hazards and vulnerable conditions.
Risk can be calculated using the following equation: Risk = Probability of Hazard x Degree of
Vulnerability.
There are different ways of dealing with risk, such as:
Risk Acceptance: An informed decision to accept the possible consequences and likelihood of a
particular risk.
Risk Avoidance: An informed decision to avoid involvement in activities leading to risk
realization.
Risk Reduction refers to the application of appropriate techniques to reduce the likelihood of
risk occurrence and its consequences.
Risk Transfer involves shifting of the burden of risk to another party. One of the most common
forms of risk transfer is Insurance.

7)Vulnerability General Definition is the inability to resist a hazard or to respond when

a disaster has occurred. For instance, people who live on plains are more vulnerable to floods
than people who live higher up.
Vulnerability describes the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset
that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard. There are many aspects of
vulnerability, arising from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors.
Examples may include:
 poor design and construction of buildings,
 Inadequate protection of assets,
  Lack of public information and awareness,
 Limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures, and
 Disregard for wise environmental management.
There are four (4) main types of vulnerability:
1. Physical Vulnerability may be determined by aspects such as population density levels,
remoteness of a settlement, the site, design and materials used for critical infrastructure and
for housing (UNISDR).
Example: Wooden homes are less likely to collapse in an earthquake, but are more vulnerable to
fire.
2. Social Vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations and societies to withstand
adverse impacts to hazards due to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions and
systems of cultural values. It is linked to the level of well being of individuals, communities and
society. It includes aspects related to levels of literacy and education, the existence of peace and
security, access to basic human rights, systems of good governance, social equity, positive
traditional values, customs and ideological beliefs and overall collective organizational systems
(UNISDR).
Example: When flooding occurs some citizens, such as children, elderly and differently-able,
may be unable to protect themselves or evacuate if necessary.
3. Economic Vulnerability. The level of vulnerability is highly dependent upon the economic
status of individuals, communities and nations The poor are usually more vulnerable to disasters
because they lack the resources to build sturdy structures and put other engineering measures in
place to protect themselves from being negatively impacted by disasters.
Example: Poorer families may live in squatter settlements because they cannot afford to live in
safer (more expensive) areas.
4. Environmental Vulnerability. Natural resource depletion and resource degradation are key
aspects of environmental vulnerability.
Example: Wetlands, such as the Caroni Swamp, are sensitive to increasing salinity from sea
water, and pollution from storm water runoff containing agricultural chemicals, eroded soils, etc.

8)The frequency of a natural hazard event is the number of times it occurs within a specified
time interval
A longer length of time can be divided into a number of shorter periods of time, all of the same
length. These are called time intervals.

9) Resilience is the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist,

absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient
manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and
functions.

Examples of structural measures are levees and floodways, disaster-resistant construction,

retrofitting of existing buildings, and securing of building components. Well-enforced building
codes also can result in more resilient physical structures.

10) Capacity is the combination of all the strengths and resources available within a community,
society or organization that can reduce the level of risk or the effects of a disaster.

Types of capacities

11)Factors responsible for occurrence of disaster - The magnitude of each disaster, measured
in deaths, damage, or costs for a given developing country increases with the increased
marginalization of the population.

 This is caused by a high birthrate, problems of land tenure and economic opportunity, and
the lack or misallocation of recourse to meet the basic human needs of an expanding
population.
 Poverty The most important single influence on the impact of a disaster. All other factors
could be lessened if the affected population were not also limited by poverty. Virtually all
disaster studies show that the wealthiest of the population either survive the disaster
unaffected or are able to recover quickly. Across the broad spectrum of disaster, poverty
generally makes people vulnerable to the impact of hazards. Poverty explains why people
in urban areas are forced to live on hills that are prone to landslides, or why people settle
near volcanoes or rivers that invariably flood their banks.
 Poverty explains why droughts claim poor peasant farmers as victims an rarely the
wealthy, and why famines more other than not are the result of a lack of purchasing
power to buy food rather than an absence of food. Population Growth There is an obvious
connection between the increase in losses from a disaster and the increase in population.
If there are more people and structures where a disaster strikes, then it is likely there will
be more of an impact.
 The growth of population has been so spectacular that it is inevitable that more people
will be affected by disaster because more will be forced to live and work in unsafe areas.
Increasing numbers of people will be competing for a limited amount of resources (such
as, employment opportunities, and land) which can lead to conflict.
 Rapid Urbanization Rapid population growth and migration are related to the major
phenomenon of rapid urbanization. This process is also accelerated in developing
countries.
 It is catageroised by the rural poor or civilians in an area of conflict moving to
metropolitan areas in search of economic opportunities and security.
 These massive numbers of urban poor increasingly find fewer options for availability of
safe and desirable places to build their houses.
 Here again, competition for scare resources, an inevitable consequence, can lead to
human made disaster.
 Transitions in cultural practices Many of the inevitable changes that occur in all
societies lead to an increase in the societies, vulnerability to disaster.
 Obviously, all societies are constantly changing and in a continual state of transition.
These transitions are often extremely disruptive and uneven, leaving gaps in social
coping mechanisms and technology.
 These transitions include nomadic populations that become sedentary rural people who
move to urban areas, and both rural and urban people who move from one economic level
to another. More broadly, these examples are typical of a shift from non-industrialized to
industrializing societies. Environmental degradation Many disasters are either caused or
exacerbated by environmental degradation.
 Deforestation leads to rapid rain run off, which contributes to flooding. The destruction
of mangrove swamps decreases a coast line’s ability to resist tropical winds and storm
surges.
 Lack of awareness and information Disaster can also happen because people
vulnerable to them simply didn’t know how to get out of harm’s way or to take protective
measures. This ignorance may not necessarily be a function of poverty, but a lack of
awareness of what measures can be taken to build safe structures on safe locations.
Perhaps some people did not know about safe evacuation routes and procedures. Other
population may not know where to turn for assistance in times for acute distress.
 Nevertheless; this point should not be taken as a justification for ignoring the coping
mechanisms of the majority of people affected by disaster. In most disaster prone
societies, there is wealth of understanding about disaster threats and responses.
  This understanding should be incorporated into any efforts to provide external assistance.
War and civil strife In this text war and civil strife are regarded as hazards that are
extreme events that produce disaster.
 War and civil strife often results in displaced people, a target population of this training
programme.The causal factors of war and civil strife include competition for scarce
resources, religious or ethnic intolerance, and ideological differences. Many of these are
also byproducts of the preceding six causal factors of disaster.

12) Risk Severity is the amount of damage or harm a hazard could create and it is often
ranked on a four point scale as follows:

 Catastrophic - 4 Operating conditions are such that human error, environment, design
deficiencies, element, subsystem or component failure, or procedural deficiencies may
commonly cause death or major system loss, thereby requiring immediate cessation of
the unsafe activity or operation.
 Critical - 3 Operating conditions are such that human error, environment, design
deficiencies, element, subsystem or component failure or procedural deficiencies may
commonly cause severe injury or illness or major system damage thereby requiring
immediate corrective action.
 Marginal - 2 Operating conditions may commonly cause minor injury or illness or
minor systems damage such that human error, environment, design deficiencies,
subsystem or component failure or procedural deficiencies can be counteracted or
controlled without severe injury, illness or major system damage.
 Negligible - 1 Operating conditions are such that personnel error, environment, design
deficiencies, subsystem or component failure or procedural deficiencies will result in no,
or less than minor, illness, injury or system damage.

IMPACTS OF DISASTER

 Deaths

 Disability

 Increase in communicable disease

 Psychological problems

 Food shortage
 Socioeconomic losses

 Shortage of drugs and medical supplies.

 Environmental disruption

MITIGATION MEASURES

 This involves lessening the likely effects of emergencies.

 These include depending upon the disaster, protection of vulnerable population and
structure.
 Eg. Improving structural qualities of schools, houses and such other buildings so that
medical causalities can be minimized.
 Similarly ensuring the safety of health facilities and public health services including
water supply and sewerage system to reduce the cost of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
 This mitigation compliments the disaster preparedness and disaster response activities.