Disaster

A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to

people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and
the affected community cannot handle it alone.[1][2]
Natural disasters like avalanches, floods,
earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by natural
hazards.[3] Human-made disasters like oil spills,
terrorist attacks and power outages are caused by
people. Nowadays, it is hard to separate natural and
human-made disasters because human actions can
make natural disasters worse.[4][5][6] Climate change
Ruins from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake,
also affects how often disasters due to extreme one of the worst disasters in the history of the
weather hazards happen. United States

Disasters usually hit people in developing countries

harder than people in wealthy countries. Over 95% of deaths from disasters happen in low-income
countries, and those countries lose a lot more money compared to richer countries. For example, the
damage from natural disasters is 20 times greater in developing countries than in industrialized
countries.[7][8] This is because low-income countries often do not have well-built buildings or good plans
to handle emergencies.

To reduce the damage from disasters, it is important to be prepared and have fit for purpose
infrastructure. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) aims to make communities stronger and better prepared to
handle disasters. It focuses on actions to reduce risk before a disaster occurs, rather than on response and
recovery after the event. DRR and climate change adaptation measures are similar in that they aim to
reduce vulnerability of people and places to natural hazards.

When a disaster happens, the response includes actions like warning and evacuating people, rescuing
those in danger, and quickly providing food, shelter, and medical care. The goal is to save lives and help
people recover as quickly as possible. In some cases, national or international help may be needed to
support recovery. This can happen, for example, through the work of humanitarian organizations.

Definitions
The UN defines a disaster as "a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any
scale".[9]: 13 It results from hazards in places where people live in exposed or vulnerable conditions. Some
human failures make communities vulnerable to climate hazards. These are poor planning or
development, or a lack of preparation.[10]

Disasters are events that have an effect on people. A hazard that overwhelms or injures a community is
considered a disaster.[11] The international disaster database EM-DAT defines a disaster as “a situation or
event that overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request for external assistance at the national or
international level; it is an unforeseen and often sudden event
that causes great damage, destruction and human
suffering.”[12] The effects of a disaster include all human,
material, economic and environmental losses and
impacts.[9]: 13

UNDRO (1984) defined a disaster in a more qualitative

fashion as:[13] "an event, concentrated in time and space, in
which a community undergoes severe danger and incurs such
Painting of the Cathedral and the
losses to its members and physical appurtenances that the Academy building after the Great Fire of
social structure is disrupted and the fulfilment of all or some Turku, by Gustaf Wilhelm Finnberg, 1827
of the essential functions of the society is prevented." Like
other definitions this looks beyond the social aspects of the
disaster impacts. It also focuses on losses. This raises the need for emergency response as an aspect of the
disaster.[14] It does not set out quantitative thresholds or scales for damage, death, or injury.

A study in 1969 defined major disasters as conforming to the following criteria, based on the amount of
deaths or damage:[14][15] At least 100 people dead, at least 100 people injured, or at least $1 million
damage. This definition includes indirect losses of life caused after the initial onset of the disaster. These
could be the effects of diseases such as cholera or dysentery arising from the disaster. This definition is
still commonly used. However it is limited to the number of deaths, injuries, and damage in money
terms.[14]

Types
The scale of a disaster matters. Small-scale disasters only affect local communities but need help beyond
the affected community. Large-scale disasters affect wider society and need national or international
help.[9]

It is usual to divide disasters into natural or human-made. Recently the divide between natural, man-made
and man-accelerated disasters has become harder to draw.[4][16][6] Some manufactured disasters such as
smog and acid rain have been wrongly attributed to nature.[17]

Related to natural hazards

Disasters with links to natural hazards are commonly called natural disasters. However experts have
questioned this term for a long time.[18]
 Disasters with links to natural hazards
Example Profile

The sudden, drastic flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers,
Avalanche such as loading from new snow or rain, or artificial triggers, such as explosives or
backcountry skiers.

Blizzard A severe snowstorm characterized by very strong winds and low temperatures
The shaking of the Earth's crust, caused by underground volcanic forces of breaking and
Earthquake
shifting rock beneath the Earth's surface

Fires that originate in uninhabited areas and which pose the risk to spread to inhabited
Fire (wild)
areas (see also Wildfire § Climate change effects)

Flash flooding: Small creeks, gullies, dry streambeds, ravines, culverts or even low-lying
Flood
areas flood quickly (see also Effects of climate change)
Freezing rain Rain occurring when outside surface temperature is below freezing

A prolonged period of excessively hot weather relative to the usual weather pattern of an
Heat wave area and relative to normal temperatures for the season (see also Effects of climate
change § Heat waves and temperature extremes).

Geological phenomenon which includes a range of ground movement, such as rock falls,
Landslide
deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows
Lightning strike An electrical discharge caused by lightning, typically during thunderstorms

Limnic eruption The sudden eruption of carbon dioxide from deep lake water

Rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level

Tropical cyclone atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that
produce heavy rain and squalls (see also Tropical cyclones and climate change)
A series of waves hitting shores strongly, mainly caused by the displacement of a large
volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake, usually caused by
Tsunami
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings,
meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water

Volcanic eruption The release of hot magma, volcanic ash and/or gases from a volcano

A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a

society or community brought by natural phenomenon
or hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include
avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat
waves, landslides - including submarine landslides,
tropical cyclones, volcanic activity and wildfires.[19]
Additional natural hazards include blizzards, dust
storms, firestorms, hails, ice storms, sinkholes,
thunderstorms, tornadoes and tsunamis.[19]

A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage

property. It typically causes economic damage. How
bad the damage is depends on how well people are Economic loss risk for six natural disasters:
prepared for disasters and how strong the buildings, tropical cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, floods,
roads, and other structures are.[20] landslides, and volcanoes.

Scholars have argued the term "natural disaster" is

unsuitable and should be abandoned.[21] Instead, the simpler term disaster could be used. At the same
time, the type of hazard would be specified.[22][23][24] A disaster happens when a natural or human-made
hazard impacts a vulnerable community. It results from the combination of the hazard and the exposure of
a vulnerable society.

Unrelated to natural hazards

Human-made disasters are serious harmful events caused by human
actions and social processes. Technological hazards also fall into this
category. That is because they result in human-instigated disasters.
Human-made hazards are sometimes called anthropogenic
hazards.[9]: 18 Examples include criminality, social unrest, crowd
crushes, fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, power
outages, oil spills, terrorist attacks, and nuclear explosions/nuclear
radiation.[25] Catastrophic climate change, nuclear war, and
bioterrorism also fall into this category.
Airplane crashes and terrorist
attacks are examples of man-
Climate change and environmental degradation are sometimes called
made disasters: they kill and
socio-natural hazards. These are hazards involving a combination of
injure people, destroy and
both natural and human factors.[9] : 18 All disasters can be regarded as damage property, and cause
human-made, because of failure to introduce the right emergency pollution. The pictured example
management measures.[26] is the September 11 attacks in
2001 at the World Trade Center
Famines may be caused locally by drought, flood, fire or pestilence. in New York City.
In modern times there is plenty of food globally. Long-lasting local
shortages are generally due to government mismanagement, violent
conflict, or an economic system that does not distribute food where needed.[27]

Disasters without links to natural hazards

Disaster Profile
Bioterrorism The intentional release or dissemination of biological agents as a means of coercion

A disturbance caused by a group of people that may include sit-ins and other forms of
Civil unrest obstructions, riots, sabotage and other forms of crime, and which is intended to be a
demonstration to the public and the government, but can escalate into general chaos

Fire (urban) Even with strict building fire codes, people still perish in fires
The escape of solids, liquids, or gases that can harm people, other living organisms,
Hazardous
property or the environment, from their intended controlled environment such as a
material spills
container.

Nuclear and An event involving the significant release of radioactivity to the environment or a reactor
radiation core meltdown and which leads to major undesirable consequences to people, the
accidents environment, or the facility
Caused by summer or winter storms, lightning or construction equipment digging in the
Power failure
wrong location

Others
Complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A
specific hazard may also spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an
earthquake that causes a tsunami. This results in coastal flooding, damaging a nuclear power plant on the
coast. The Fukushima nuclear disaster is a case in point. Experts examine these cascading events to see
how risks and impacts can amplify and spread. This is particularly important given the increase in climate
risks.[28]: 143–145

Some researchers distinguish between recurring events like seasonal flooding and unpredictable one-off
events.[29] Recurring events often carry an estimate of how often they occur. Experts call this the return
period.

Impacts
The effects of a disaster include all human, material, economic and environmental losses and
impacts.[9]: 13

The Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) records statistics about disasters related to natural hazards.
For 2023, EM-DAT recorded 399 disasters, which was higher than the 20-year average of 369.[12]

Economic losses
Between 2016 and 2020 the total reported economic losses amounted to $293 billion. This figure is likely
to be an underestimation. It is very challenging to measure the costs of disasters accurately, and many
countries lack the resources and technical capacity to do so.[30]: 50 Over the 40-year period from 1980 to
2020 losses were estimated at $5.2 trillion.

Human impacts
In 2023, natural hazard-related disasters resulted in 86,473 fatalities and affected 93.1 million people.[12]
Whilst the number of deaths was much higher than the 20-year average of 64,148, the number affected
was much lower than the 20-year average of 175.5 million.

According to a UN report, 91% of deaths from hazards from 1970 to 2019 occurred in developing
countries.[31] These countries already have higher vulnerability and lower resilience to these events,
which exacerbates the effects of the hazards.

Effects of climate change

Hazards such as droughts, floods, and cyclones are naturally occurring phenomena.[32] However, climate
change has caused these hazards to become more unreliable, frequent and severe. They thus contribute to
disaster risks. Countries contributing most to climate change are often at the lowest risk of feeling the
consequences.[33] As of 2019, countries with the highest vulnerability per capita release the lowest
amount of emissions per capita, and yet still experience the most heightened droughts and extreme
precipitation.[33]
Prevention and response

Disaster risk reduction

Disaster risk reduction aims to make disasters less likely to
happen. The approach, also called DRR or disaster risk
management, also aims to make disasters less damaging when
they do occur. DRR aims to make communities stronger and
better prepared to handle disasters. In technical terms, it aims
to make them more resilient or less vulnerable. When DRR is
successful, it makes communities less the vulnerable because
it mitigates the effects of disasters.[35] This means DRR can
make risky events fewer and less severe. Climate change can
Disaster risk reduction progress score for
increase climate hazards. So development efforts often
some countries in 2011. The score of 5 is
consider DRR and climate change adaptation together.[36] best. Assessments include four indicators
that reflect the degree to which countries
It is possible to include DRR in almost all areas of
have prioritized disaster risk reduction
development and humanitarian work. People from local
and the strengthening of relevant
communities, agencies or federal governments can all
propose DRR strategies. DRR policies aim to "define goals institutions.[34]
and objectives across different timescales and with concrete
targets, indicators and time frames."[35]: 16

Disaster response
Disaster response refers to the actions taken directly before,
during, or immediately after a disaster. The objective is to
save lives, ensure health and safety, and meet the subsistence
needs of the people affected.[37]: 16 It includes warning and
evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate
assistance, assessing damage, continuing assistance, and the
immediate restoration or construction of infrastructure. An
example of this would be building provisional storm drains or
diversion dams. Emergency response aims to provide Relief camp at Bhuj after the 2001
immediate help to keep people alive, improve their health and Gujarat earthquake
support their morale. It can involve specific but limited aid,
such as helping refugees with transport, temporary shelter,
and food. Or it can involve establishing semi-permanent settlements in camps and other locations. It may
also involve initial repairs to damage to infrastructure, or diverting it.

The response phase focuses on keeping people safe, preventing the next disasters and meeting people's
basic needs until more permanent and sustainable solutions are available. The governments where the
disaster has happened have the main responsibility for addressing these needs. Humanitarian
organisations are often present in this phase of the disaster management cycle. This is particularly so in
countries where the government does not have the resources for a full response.
Etymology
The word disaster is derived from Middle French désastre which comes from Old Italian disastro. This in
turn comes from the Ancient Greek pejorative prefix δυσ- (dus-) "bad"[38] and ἀστήρ (aster), "star".[39]
So the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes from an astrological sense of a calamity blamed on the
position of planets.[40]

See also
Act of God – Natural disaster outside human control
Emergency management – Dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies
List of accidents and disasters by death toll
Lists of disasters

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External links
ReliefWeb of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs –
ReliefWeb ([Link]
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – UNDRR ([Link]
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System – a joint initiative of the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the European Commission

Retrieved from "[Link]