Background
A natural disaster is a critical phenomenon of a natural process from the earth such as an earthquake, flood, drought or typhoon which impacts significantly on human life and human social activities (March, 2002; Hutton, 2008). These natural disasters suddenly disturb a population everyday life placing them into a helpless state of emergency and suffering. The greater magnitude of the disaster is, the bigger it exerts pressure on the local resources and infrastructure to a breaking point where provision such as medical and nursing care, transportation of food and protection against harsh weather condition is shortage. Also by overwhelming the local resources, the normal smooth running of the community becomes a catastrophic stage (Dilley, et al., 2005; WHO, 2018).
WHO (2018) states that natural disasters are accountable for approximately 90,000 deaths and a further 160 million people’s lives are impacted worldwide every year. In additional, although people could survive from the disasters, the instant impact on human lives including the direct destruction of property, the environment and infrastructure cause damage for their health status both physical and psychological , well-being and quality of life with long term period (Wisner, et al., 2004). Several studies (Hutton, 2008; Cherniack, 2008; Jia, et al., 2010; Giuliani, et al., 2014) have found that older people are one of the most vulnerable population in emergency status and the most impacted in natural disasters during the initial exposure to the disaster. However, the impact on longer term health outcomes has been inconclusive (Rafiey, et al., 2016).
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (2010) reports that the most harmful natural disasters in the past epoch are earthquakes. It is a phenomenon which a plate (the earth crust) in the basement of the earth deviates and move and this can come to the ground and leads to shake. It can result in collapse of buildings and distorting or destroying road, railway lines and bridges. Moreover, it happens when the waves moving occur at seafloor, it can cause tsunami also triggers landslides, and occasionally volcanic activity (Rooney, 2006; WHO, 2018). An earthquake is a devastating
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Natural disasters are something that will likely plague the earth for years to come, even with the advancements seen in technology by 2030. Until forecasting and prediction technology is perfected, one can only hope to be adequately prepared when disaster strikes their location. Aside from technology, the rapidly increasing global population also does not help with mitigation efforts in terms of mitigating natural disaster casualties and destruction. Compared to a twenty year stretch ranging from 1993-2013, the annual natural disaster death toll has doubled from 68,000 deaths, to 150,000 deaths per year (1).
Every emergency or disaster, from a small house fire to a hurricane that devastates entire communities, have a distinct cycle. This is
Natural disasters affect millions of people globally every day. Earthquakes are one of the most powerful natural disasters that inflict damage on our environment and in turn cost trillions of dollars every year. To respect the power of earthquakes we must first understand their cause, how they differ from biological energy, where they happen, the types of damage they cause, how we can predict them, and how we can safeguard ourselves against them. Living in known seismic zones is dangerous and can result in large financial and life losses.
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