Natural Disasters

The book is written exceptionally well and is very easy to follow. With an overwhelming amount of evidence and an incisive argument, Steinberg is able to skew the focus from a political agenda and powerfully raise questions in the mind of the reader. Steinberg brings light to the widely overlooked aspect of human influence with regard to natural disasters. The research presented is able to effects show the effects this neglect of information has had on an overwhelming number of poor victims. This book is a valuable read and presents numerous issues that need to be brought to the attention of both national and local officials. As stated by Oxford University Press, “Acts of God is a call to action that needs desperately to be

Effective disaster management is highly important when it comes to assisting in rescue and relief to affected. This does not only include post disaster rescue efforts but these disaster management activities should be proactive. They start right from taking preventive measures before the disaster actually occurs and goes on till the effected people are resettled back in their lives. This disaster management pertaining to human life is not only associated with physical well being but also focuses on psychological, emotional, and spiritual rehabilitation.

In attempt to provide background on the impacts of past natural disasters, condensed case studies of two major natural disasters are summarized, outlining the damage – both financial and physical. The aftermath of any natural disaster highlights the weaker areas of emergency management and as a result, the federal government has made significant efforts to strengthen those areas through preparedness and mitigation measures. Additionally, emphasis on mitigation and preparedness has increased following the vast number of natural disasters that the United States has endured, not only in the federal sector but also in the education and research sector. Today,

Disasters are human made or natural and occur sudden and unexpected. As disasters cannot be prevented, government has to be prepared for any emergency situation. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2014), there are four stages in the disaster management: Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2014, p 250), public health professionals study disaster effects on populations while American Red Cross work with local and other communities in preparedness, response and recovery phase of disaster.

Regardless of their causes, disasters invoke human reactions in the context of social institution, small communities or long-term care facilities. The attempt to reestablish the social order of the culture after a disaster requires anticipation and collaborative planning prior to any disaster. Planning is acquired through government officials and scientists in an attempt to avoid future

The time I helped someone out of their house during a natural disaster was about 7 years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. Hot, Wind-fed tornado swirled around southern California. The lady that I saved had been through a natural disaster before and never been harmed. So the lady stayed put.

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

In the last decade alone, there have been a number of natural disasters that have caused substantial physical damage and great emotional distress to the people who were affected. The aftermath of a natural disaster presents many concerns; communities become displaced, health risks and complications occur, food scarcity becomes a result of lost crops, and emotional aftershocks become apparent. Some Haitian’s have yet to recover from the earthquake they experienced in 2010. (Davis, 2015) “According to FEMA, the total damage for hurricane Katrina is estimated at $108 billion.” (CNN News, 2015), and 86,000 lives were taken in the earthquake of Pakistan in 2005 (EERI, 2006). In 2008, communities of Sichuan, China, endured a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that collapsed several buildings, killing over 87,000 people. Buildings had very poor infrastructures, which caused the destruction of many local schools. This contributed to the deaths of thousands of school aged children (BBC News, 2013). However, the Boxing Day tsunami was one of the largest and most destructive natural disasters of

Catastrophic events were surrounding Burnham, in both his personal life and his work life. Everything seems to be falling apart, which creates a anxious mood in the book. The author also creates a melancholic mood since everything around him is not going the way he imagined it going at all, and is instead going the complete opposite. Losing a friend is tremendously difficult alone, and Burnham is having to deal with the stress of the fair and the loss of his friend, which made me feel empathy toward him. This part of the book also made me realize the way life can suddenly, without warning shift, and produce a feeling making you think it is the end of the world, and how many people do not cherish or are grateful for friends and family until

Disasters are events that not in control situations which exceed public sector capacities, push societal linkages to a breaking point, and demand extraordinary and selfless behavior from citizens, businesses, communities, and nongovernmental organizations. Disasters challenge have their most sorrowful impact at the level of the individual, where crises of natural and technical variety undermine the comfort and stability people feel and leave them injure, and looking for direction and meaning in institutions and believed larger than themselves. Even when local government officials act relating, individuals still look to other segments of the public sector, such as nonprofit groups or religious organizations, for urgency needed support. In a

After a disaster, there are many issues that communities and responding agencies have to be concerned with. Examples are loss of life, injury, the spread of disease, damage to personal property, overwhelming destruction, breakdown of available basic needs, and the collapse of social norms victims have come to rely on. Emergency management officials and disaster recovery agencies have seen the changing effects of the physical and social environments of these communities and how this change can set the stage for violence after a disaster. According to the World Health Organization, the effects of disasters are likely to “increase individuals, families and communities vulnerability to violence”. (World Health Organization, 1996, pp. 197–8) First responders and agencies need to be acutely aware of this vulnerability and the possibility of an “increasing rate of violence both in the short and long-term recovery period”. (World Health Organization, 2008, p. 43) Following a disaster emotional stress and anxiety are likely to increase not only with the affected population, but also with first responders. There is evidence, which suggests that “between 30%-50% of all persons exposed to natural disasters may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety disorders”. (World Health Organization, 2001, p.

Numerous definitions of disasters exist with differing criteria such as the number of fatalities or amount of property damage. This author defines disasters in the following manner. Within a country a disaster occurs when its magnitude overwhelms the ability of the local resources to adequately respond the to victims. For international disasters, the magnitude must overwhelm the ability of the entire country to adequately respond to the victims. The philosophy, mission, and purpose for domestic disaster assistance shall now be compared and contrasted with international disaster assistance.

While natural disasters such as floods, drought and hurricanes are commonly thought to occur due to environmental forces such as weather, climate and tectonic movements; a deeper investigation into the ‘disaster’ displays other contributing forces. Human factors have a large, if not equal, contribution to the occurrance and outcome of such disasters (Pelling, 2001). As Pelling (2001) argues, there is both a physical and human dimension to ‘natural disasters’. The extent to which the natural occurrence of a physical process, such as a flood or earthquake, impacts on society is constructed by that society, creating a ‘disaster’ as measured by a

Throughout history there have been various definitions present on what a disaster is and the effects that it contains in relation to the environment and residents within the area. Society often has specific dominant worldviews in regards to disasters, which can pertain to or focus around disasters being seen as a “hazard”, “unlucky”, or an “unavoidable “ event (Scandlyn et al, 2009). Generally, many individuals tend to reflect on definitions in relation to conventional theories because the media often prioritizes disasters as being catastrophic or an end of the world phenomenon. What these individuals fail to understand is the importance of recognizing that we cannot only view disasters in this way, however we must also understand how

This paper will discuss the differences between two different natural and man-made disasters. The disasters that will be discussed are Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Additionally, this paper will look into the specifics of what constitutes a natural and man-made disaster. Specifically, this paper will look into each disaster to include the events surrounding them; the risks; and the assessments. Furthermore, this paper will look at some of the details of each disaster and why there was so much devastation. Finally, this paper will look at a few similarities, but mainly the differences between the two, and how the effects of each still linger today.