INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS A DISASTER
A disaster can be defined as “A serious
disruption in the functioning of the community
or a society causing wide spread material,
economic, social or environmental losses which
exceed the ability of the affected society to cope
using its own resources”.
A disaster is a result from the combination of
hazard, vulnerability and insufficient capacity or
measures to reduce the potential chances of
risk. A disaster happens when a hazard impacts
on the vulnerable population and causes
damage, casualties and disruption.
Any hazard
–
flood, earthquake or cyclone which
is a triggering event along with greater
vulnerability (inadequate access to resources,
sick and old people, lack of awareness etc.)
would lead to disaster causing greater loss to life
and property.
TYPES OF DISASTERS
Disasters can be of two types:
NATURAL and MAN-MADE
These disasters can be further
classified into various categories:
NATURAL
Meteorological
Cyclones, Floods, Blizzard, Tornado,
Thunderstorms, Droughts, Extreme
Cold/Hot
Geological
Earthquake, Landslide, Volcanic
Eruptions, Tsunami
Environmental /Biological
Global Warming, Climate Change,
Ozone Depletion, Solar Flares,
Plagues, Epidemics
MAN-MADE
Technological
Transport
accidents,
Structure failures,
Explosion, Fires
Industry
Pollution, Chemical
Spill, Radiation, Gas
leaks, Poisoning
Terrorism, War,
Internal Conflicts,
Civil unrest
saster Risk Reduction can take place in the
following ways:
Preparedness:
This protective process embraces measures
which enable governments, communities and
individuals to respond rapidly to disaster
situations to cope with them effectively.
!
Preparedness includes the formulation of
viable emergency plans, the development of
warning systems, the maintenance of
inventories 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.
!
Preparedness therefore encompasses those
measures taken before a disaster event which
are aimed at minimizing loss of life, disruption of
Critical services and damage. Of critical services
,and damage when the duster occur.
Mitigation:
Mitigation embraces measures taken to
reduce both the effect of the hazard and the
vulnerable conditions to it in order to reduce
the scale of a future disaster.
Therefore mitigation activities can be focused
on the hazard itself or the elements exposed
to the threat. Examples of mitigation
measures which are hazard specific include
water management in drought prone areas,
relocating people away from the hazard prone
areas and by strengthening structures to
reduce damage when a hazard occurs.
!DISASTER MANAGMENT CYCLE
In addition to these physical measures,
mitigation should also aim at reducing the
economic and social vulnerabilities of
potential disasters
Disaster Management Cycle
Disaster Risk Management includes sum
total of all activities, programs and
measures which can be taken up before,
during and after a disaster with the
purpose to avoid a disaster, reduce its
impact or recover from its losses. The
three key stages of activities that are
taken up within disaster risk
management are:
(i) Pre-disaster
(ii) Disaster occurrence
(iii) Post disaster
