The Importance Of Hazards

A natural disaster has the capability to cause large scale damage and destruction to an area. Seismic events have been known to alter landscapes and affect the livelihoods, health and development of communities. No two earthquake events are the same and the level of threat posed by an earthquake can vary due to both the human and physical factors of an area. The 2010 magnitude - 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Haiti is an example of where a natural disaster caused a previously vulnerable area to suffer tremendous loss and debilitating socio-economic impacts, to an already poverty-stricken nation.

55). This is because things like a small flood would effect croplands differently than an urban center. A crop my actually benefit from silt deposits but the New York Stock Exchange would not. However, when disasters increase in scale they almost always have a significant impact on the economy (World Bank & United Nations, 2010, p. 55). Unfortunately, even though these impacts may be short-term there are third order effects on the economy. After Hurricane Katrina many areas were completely abandoned but many more were bought by developers pushing out the lower income populations, completely changing the local economy. This also highlights the different effect that disasters have on different demographics. As an example, the economies of developing countries are effected more by disasters then those of developed nations (World Bank & United Nations, 2010, p. 56). Although this may be because of population density or lack of infrastructure, it shows that demographics as well as the disaster itself have influence over the impact on local economy and

Disaster is anything that can occur causing damages, an ecological disruption and deterioration of health and the health services. Disaster can be manmade or natural disasters such as floods. When disasters like flooding or tornadoes that may be accompanied by floods occur, the public health personnel and public health nurses are normally the first people who respond to the emergency, given that they are the people who understand and know the available resources used in providing first aids to the affected victims.

natural disasters). Gallup et al. (2003, pp.41, 46) have estimated that natural disasters in Latin America over the last 30 years have cost up to $3.3 billion and in extreme disasters costs can reach 10 per cent of a country’s GDP. This, coupled with the fact that they suffer regularly from natural disasters due to their location, means that they find it harder to recover from them. The destruction of crops causes vast economic loss which cannot be regained as farmers rely on monoculture. Furthermore, many buildings in developing countries are often built from weak materials which causes mass destruction and costly re-construction which these countries cannot afford.

According to Jack Herrmann is Asst. Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine “Disaster management is the preparation for, response to, and recovery from disaster. While there are different understandings of Disaster Management, it is generally viewed as a cycle with the following five key phases:

In the Article, “Agriculture in the Dominican Republic: Highly Vulnerable, Mostly uninsured, on Worldbank.org. Many countries are vulnerable to natural disaster, and the country is defenseless against price issues, and remains uninsured against major shocks. “Agricultural Risk Management in the Caribbean”, an article reported by worldbank.org, includes the many issues these agricultural workers have to face. In the past 20 years, these workers have spent 9% of their gross domestic product dealing with the effects of weather hazards (Worldbank.org). As a consequence due to these weather hazards, the agricultural sector has been inactive. Farmers and the government have to accept the costs of weather hazards and price fluctuations (Worldbank.org). These weather hazards and price fluctuations have led to lower income levels, increased poverty, reduced economic growth, and competitiveness. The small farmers are the most affected, according to Worldbank.org. Agricultural activity in the Dominican Republic is centered on two crops, which is sugar cane and rice. These two crops alone make up for 11% of gross domestic product, and make up 15% of employment in the country. Agriculture is very important in the Dominican Republic, so the reduction of agriculture’s vulnerability to natural disasters is key (Worldbank.org). Natural disasters have become a major problem for the country’s finances. About

Further, analyze and understand the adequacy of the measures taken to adapt future climate change induced hazard risks. I have developed my capacity by doing the Masters’ Degrees in Disaster Management and Emergency Management with a research work.

The wildfires will have an impact on scarce resources because many buildings and thousands of acres of trees have been burned to the ground. It not only hurts the land category, but it hurts labor and capital categories. Labor includes the physical actions and mental activities that people contribute to the production of goods and services. Capitol includes all factory, storage, transportation, and distribution facilities. The people affected by the disaster will begin to act in self-interest. Self-interest simply means that each economic unit tries to achieve its own particular goal. The wineries will try to rebuild fast in order to have tourists return and begin to make profits. People will try to find a place to live until their homes are rebuilt. Natural disasters can destroy factories and cripple supply chains. This means the market system must develop methods for assessing and managing risk. In most cases, people would have insurance to cover the risk of a natural disaster so it does not have to solely rely on out of pocket money.

An emergency is a severe, sudden and sometimes risky circumstances requiring urgent action (Salman Sawalha, 2014). Escalation of an emergency situation can lead to disaster; which is an unusual event that can cause lost of life and property (Salman Sawalha, 2014). International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRRCS) define disaster as “unexpected devastating events that disrupts the operations of a population or public which leads to huge losses and overwhelmed the affected community 's ability to respond to the situation with the resources they have at hand”. There are two main types of disaster that can lead to emergency situations; these include natural and man-made disasters.

“We’ve never seen anything like this” is the word increasingly heard in every part of the world in the wake of natural disasters. Certainly, strong natural disasters have increased nearly four times over the past four decades. There have been observed 70% increase in damage by floods and streams. According to recent UN report, Economic losses from disasters since 2000 are in range of $2.5 trillion, almost 50% higher than previous international estimates. The economic losses from disaster sometimes occur out of control and require partnership with private sector. The losses from earthquake and cyclonic wind damage are expected to be about $180 billion per year throughout this century- and this figure doesn’t include damage from floods, rockslides,

In the past decade alone, a person living in Asia-Pacific was twice as likely to be affected by a natural disaster as a person living in Africa, almost six times as likely as someone from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 30 times more likely to suffer from a disaster than someone living in North America or Europe (ESCAP: 2013). If history is any indicator of what the future has in store, the area will continue to suffer natural disasters at a pace that far surpasses that of anywhere else in the world. The strategic, economic and humanitarian impact of such disasters are devastating and improving our ability to respond and prevent such massive loss of life and destruction is something that is well worth continued effort. The region has certainly come a long way in improving its capabilities, but in the way ahead we must continue to train and plan together to reduce the impact of future inevitable

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.

Disasters can occur at any moment, anywhere; financial and human consequences are very difficult to predict. Disasters, over the last century have been increasing at a rapid rate as over 50% of events require Federal assistance. (FEMA, 2014) Federal mitigation plans and programs reduce the impact of a given disaster also with our dependence on taxes, Treasury for relief. Mitigation is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. (FEMA, 2014) In order for Mitigation to be effective we need to understand risks, choices, investment, and well-being. Mitigation has extreme value to society in general. It provides safer communities due a reduction in

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.