The Causes And Impacts Of A Natural Disaster

Critical incidents require immediate action (Levinson & Granot, 2002). Additionally, they also require ongoing support in order to ensure that they are correctly managed and the long-term effects are mitigated (Schneid & Collins, 2001). Addressed here are four specific events - earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornados. There are ways to mitigate the damage of these events, and there are also ways to try to prepare for them. Additionally, the type of response to these events is important as is the recovery from them. For earthquakes, mitigation is limited. It is possible to build houses and buildings stronger and more able to withstand shaking, and in earthquake-prone areas the cabinets often have latches and large appliances are strapped to the wall (U.S., 2007). People who live there should also have emergency supplies of food and water, and should be prepared for an earthquake by knowing information about evacuation routes (U.S., 2007). The response to earthquakes and the recovery from them are usually strong, because the areas that are most prone are also most prepared. When an earthquake hits in an unusual area, however, it can take much longer to help people and to rebuild the infrastructure.

Disasters are totalizing events, impacting and influencing every aspect of a community when they occur. As the anthropology of disaster grows, both in the number of publications and the number of researchers, the scope of topics related to disasters will also grow. Economic implications, vulnerable populations, and human ecology already contribute heavily to the

Sudden-onset of natural disasters disrupts daily life and, in the worst cases, causes devastation. Disasters are occurring at a rate many people cannot absorb psychologically and financially. Therefore, affecting people’s decisions to move away from disaster-prone areas, mainly if they were displaced, lost their possessions, or had a traumatic experience. To help alleviate some of these effects, FEMA has not only developed mitigation planning guides for local governments to adopt as a guide but also serves a starting point for reducing such disasters. (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2003). Political leaders, influential residents, fire department, police department and other participants are involved in the planning process in identifying

Disasters rip through communities, states, and regions daily. At some point the effects of a natural disaster will directly or indirectly affect every living person. The positive or negative outcomes of a disaster reflects strongly on the ability of the local people responding to the disastrous even. The purpose of this paper is to explore the natural disaster of Hurricane Matthew including information about the type of disaster, characteristics of the disaster, and an in-depth look into disaster management stages.

Natural disaster occurs across the world and create damage across our nation. They have affected us mentally and physically. Natural disaster are event or accident created by the environment resulting in a lot of damage sometimes. Destroying Our house, lives and communities. Natural disaster can range from a flood to a hurricane or cyclone. Over the past twenty years there has been thousand even millions of damage created by disaster across the U.S. There are many ways a natural disaster occur. We focused on three main topics of Natural disaster which are the types of natural disaster, how they affect us and how we they have affected the US.

When a disaster hits an area it does not discriminate on where it hits or who is affected. When it comes to effective emergency management it is important that managers take into account certain preimpact conditions in order to properly prepare, mitigate, respond and recover from a disaster regardless of the magnitude. One preimpact condition that is important to consider is the Social Vulnerability. Social vulnerability is important because it assesses the resilience of communities and how disasters or external stressors can impact them (Lindell et al, 2006, pg. 153). It is important for emergency personnel to understand the social vulnerability of a community in order to alleviate the amount of human suffering and economic loss that can occur post disaster.

This goes along with the strain theory because it causes large amounts of strain on some. Communities that are impacted by the disaster are under strain as well as those feeling obligated to aid. The environment in which we live is a huge part of the stability we have and when something such as a natural disaster alters that environment, we react.

In this text, Dr. Jorn Birkmann takes an in-depth look at the interaction between society and natural hazards. Birkmann explores, among other things, the concept of vulnerability and how it relates to calamity. There is a focus on how the knowledge of particular natural hazard can be combined with information regarding the vulnerability of a society before a disaster to reduce risk. Overall, this text will provide me with relevant information on the complex interactions between natural hazards and society.

According to UNISDR (2009), disaster can be defined 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.” Disaster risk is the combination of likelihood of a catastrophic event occurring; the exposure to the affected areas; and vulnerability of the affected communities or country (Global Reinsurance Forum, 2014). The impacts of disaster risk include not only loss of life and physical damages but also increase the potential outbreak of secondary hazards such as diseases and negative effect on physical, mental and social wellbeing of human being, services, social, economic and environment sectors. Disaster risk management include avoiding or mitigating the potential of hazard occurrence and exposure and reducing the vulnerability level by strengthening the tangible and intangible capacities.

Earthquakes are deadly. “An earthquake is a shaking of the ground caused by the sudden breaking and movement of large sections (tectonic plates) of the earth's rocky outermost crust. The edges of the tectonic plates are marked by faults (or fractures). Most earthquakes occur along the fault lines when the plates slide past each other or collide against each other” (Moon). Earthquakes

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

Disasters of any type affect the entire community and more importantly the lives of people in that community. Among those living in the community the vulnerable populations, particularly the older adults, experience the effects of disaster disproportionately given their health conditions, illness states due to chronic diseases and other special needs.

Various disasters throughout the Nation remain a great threat to our communities. In most cases, many of these disasters catch first responders and emergency managers off guard, and create disruption in the lives and livelihood of individuals, their families, and communities. In this paper, I provide an example and description of the three categories of disasters: natural disaster, accidental human-made disaster, and deliberate human-made disaster. Additionally, I discuss psychological effects of disasters and the differences that distinguish each disaster from each other. Lastly, I conclude with future recommendations for emergency management as it pertains to the three disasters.

Natural disasters can have a significant impact on the health of a countries population. A disaster is defined as “any occurrence that causes damage, ecological destruction, loss of human lives, or deterioration of health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response.” 1 Several factors play into how severly a country will be impacted following a natural disaster such as their economic status, access to healthcare services, infrastructure, political economies, etc. As the world is currently dealing with climate change affecting weather patterns countries in the Caribbean and Latin America are more at risk now than ever to face natural disasters. Latin America and the Caribbean faced a year of disaster in

During the past two decades, natural disasters have killed millions of people, adversely affected the lives of at least billion more people, and resulted in substantial economic damages (Watson, Gayer, & Connolly, 2007).