Natural Disasters in India with Special Reference to Tamil Nadu

Floods are common natural disasters that occur all over the world. Flooding has devastating impacts on the lives of people who are affected by the disaster. Floods can ruin crops, demolish homes, take innocent lives and cause many other types of hardships. These disasters can also leave people with a financial burden and emotional effects. Studies have shown that floods have led to various sickness and health complications. This common disaster has recently taken place in the state of Louisiana. Louisiana has been suffering from an enormous flood and has left people without homes, without food, and without personal belongings.

2. Physiographic natural disasters: Southeast Asia is a realm of islands, peninsulas containing high mountains and deep valleys that is under constant threat from natural disasters. From earthquakes, tsunami, to volcano eruptions, this region has seen it all, including cyclones, floods, landslides, and other hazards. The Pacific Rim is part of the Ring of Fire, in 2004 a tsunami will 300,000 people, 1883 the Krakatau volcano erupted killing 30,000, and in 1815 the Tambora volcano erupted affecting the climate for 20 years. There is a widespread of casualities in this diverse region, putting a struggle on human survival.

Flooding is most frequently caused from substantial precipitation when waterways are full and the additional water has nowhere to go. Though rainfall isn’t always the cause of floods; they can be the outcome of other occurrences, mostly in coastal areas where inundation can be triggered by a storm surge linked with a tropical cyclone, a tsunami or a high tide corresponding with above average river levels.

In fact, 50 states have reports of flooding. The reason behind this is that hurricanes or tropical storms are not the only causes of natural flooding. Flooding inside homes can also be due to the flash flooding and rising river water.

Floods occur in Australia mostly due to the unusual amounts of heavy rainfall which can cause floods quite easily and hit a lot of people with strife, as they are quite unpredictable and although they can happen all throughout the year the most common time is during the wet season which is usually December to March. There are two main types of floods being, Rapid-onset floods which are floods which occur quite quickly and can turn out to be the most tragic having the least amount of warning. They occur mostly in coastal areas as well as mountain headwaters of major rivers. The second group of floods is flash floods which occur when areas have been hit with high amounts of precipitation due to storms and are the most dangerous having little or no warning becoming a growing problem in city areas. The main features of a flood include; large amounts of water which can lead to little to large amounts of destruction to buildings as well as nature, many injured or deaths and even contamination of toxins in the water. Floods can be minor or major having the potential to just flood a small street or being able to cover a whole city. The QLD coast floods were not just one flood but consisted a series of them over time.

Natural hazards — are different natural phenomena that disrupt the usual live of a population, destroy and demolish objects of material value. They often have a negative effect on nature, and can happen anywhere in the world. Many different types of natural hazards exist; for example, earth quakes, landslides, floods, snow drifts, hurricanes, droughts, volcano eruptions, storms, etc. Natural hazards can happen independently or can be related to each other. If there is an earthquake, it can lead to a tsunami or massive fires. Some of them happen as a result of mankind’s doings; construction work, depending on the location, can cause snow drifts, or massive fires.

Ignorance is something that should be avoided regarding this matter. Know as much as you can when it comes to flooding areas and flood zones and flood coverage and rates.

Rapid flow of floods has ripped away crops and mangrove trees. Forests are utterly destroyed. Soils and waterways are contaminated with chemicals from nearby industrial centers. Toxins in rivers have a serious impact on the marine creatures such as prawns and crabs. Water borne diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera and hepatitis a are likely to develop. Vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue are also subjected to emerge from floods. These environmental impacts are significant and an immense number of ecosystems are in

The methodology used was to utilize the Recurrence Interval formula (R) = (N+1)/M, to determine the recurrence interval and magnitude of historical floods provided on the Stream Gauge Data of Peak Flood Discharges on Clearwater River in Hazard City. Also, I reviewed the flood insurance map to

Australia floods of 2010–11, natural disaster that principally affected the three eastern states of Australia and was one of the worst in the country’s history. Queensland, in the north, was hit hardest, but the widespread flooding—of a scale not seen since the mid-1970s—that began in late November spread southward to inundate portions of the neighbouring states of New South Wales and Victoria by early 2011. Some 35 people died in the flooding, and property damage and other economic losses amounted to billions of dollars.

The 2010 and 2011 Queensland floods are a good example of the damage that places and people can face. 78%

Due to diverse geo-climatic conditions prevalent in different parts of the globe, different types of natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones, landslides, and volcanoes etc may strike according to the vulnerability of the area.

As the Marxist approach puts it, “underlying states of human marginalisation are conceived as the principle cause of disaster.” (Pelling, 2001, p. 179). This resource exclusion to particular categories of people within society creates their vulnerability to risk, and in turn disaster. McLaughlin and Dietz (2007) suggest there are three dimensions that make up vulnerability including exposure, sensitivity and resilience. An example displaying the vulnerability of lower classed social categories is in North Bihar, India, where floods have been managed through engineering works to create embankments. While the Government appears to be reducing the hazard, this has increased the vulnerability of the local people. Soil fertility has decreased reducing agricultural success, dangerous flash floods are occurring due to embankment walls collapsing and communities have settled on apparently safe embankments and are now highly exposed (Pelling, 2001). The natural flood hazard was dangerous, but these works by society have created a natural disaster (Pelling, 2001). Power inequalities have created this disastrous situation where lower classes are at high exposure to floods due to profit hungry management bodies. This technological approach is clearly failing but the Government and other managing groups make large profits off flood engineering works and have the power to decide how to control the issue (Pelling, 2001). This has resulted in creating

Natural disasters may be defined as natural catastrophes which cause great damage by disrupting the functioning of a society thus rendering the country incapable of coping through using its own resources as there is a need for outsider assistance in order to effectively preserve lives and the environment. Conversely, Natural hazards are natural phenomena that are potential threats to people within a society, structures or economic assets and may cause disaster. Natural disasters are inevitable and ubiquitous worldwide. Within the Caribbean, they are chiefly present in the forms of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, droughts, and volcanoes. The great damages caused by natural disasters may be divided into three categories: social, economic

Bangladesh is one of the largest deltas in the world which is highly Penetrable to Natural Disasters because of its Geographical location, Flat and low-lying landscape, Poverty, Population density, Illiteracy, Lack of Institutional setup etc. Similarly the Physical, Social as well as Economic states of Bangladesh are very typical to any of the most Penetrable countries to Natural Disasters in the world . The total land area is 147,570 sq. km. consists mostly of Floodplains (almost 80%) leaving major part of the country (with the exception of the north-western highlands) prone to flooding in the rainy season. Moreover, the adverse affects of Climate Change – especially High Temperature, Cyclones and Sea-level Rise, Storm Surges, Salinity Intrusion, Heavy Monsoon Downpours etc. has aggravated the overall Economic Development scenario of the country to a great extent.