The Problem Of Disaster Prevention

Disasters are bound to strike at a given time and they more often find us unaware, this is the sole reason why the majority of the disasters that happen are usually fatal and destructive. This then calls for the need to try as much as possible to prevent these disasters and in particular in our cities. This is due to the fact that in the cities there are large populations that live close to each other or work in offices crammed together hence the likelihood of a disaster turning absolutely fatal if and when it strikes. However, due to the inevitable nature of these disasters, it is upon us to make adequate preparations that can enable us to minimize the effects of the natural disasters as much as possible when and if they happen.

Another human factor is the earthquake mitigation through education and community awareness. Schemes such as the one in Sichuan, China helped to save thousands of lives. The weekly intervals of training in case of an earthquake, educated children and adults of what to do when the quake struck. Evacuation schemes such as the window slides or hiding under tables was reported to have saved thousands when the magnitude 8.0 hit the area in 2008. However, some were not saved due to their unwillingness to move and evacuate the area. Some people of the village, notably the poorer and elderly refused to leave as they didn’t want to leave all they owned behind.

Today at 11:58:44 a.m, sept 1 1923, a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.9 on the Richter scale has hit modern industrial cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and the surrounding areas, Japan. The earthquake duration was almost 4 minutes and the geologists called it Great Kanto earthquake. Thousands of houses have been crashed within seconds and many people have been killed, while thousands of homes and restaurants had started fires for noon day meal preparation. Number of death and casualties are estimated around 142,800 persons. There has been huge damage at the Tokyo and Yokohama. Thousands of houses were either shaken or burned down. Firefighters are trying to control fire in many areas but broken water pipes made water inaccessible to fight the

Most people do not go through life thinking about a disaster until it is too late. Therefore, this phase helps in educating the public to be better prepared in the event of a future emergency (Haddow. G & Haddow. K, 2009). This phase can be achieved through a variety of initiatives through the federal state and local communities through early warning systems, the media and the emergency responders. However, the information that is communicated must be acted upon for it to be genuinely useful.

Actions taken to minimize adverse impact of disasters. These including structural measures like building of flood defences and non-structural measures like training etcetera. Public awareness related to disaster risk reduction, contribute in promoting a "culture of prevention" by changing attitudes. It revolves around civil institutions responsible to prevent disasters.

The United States experiences a variety of natural disasters throughout the year. Regardless of the location of a natural disaster in the United States, a program of disaster preparedness, mitigation, management, and prevention must be followed. Our community is nestled deep in the southeastern corner of the United States. The south Florida area is bordered by water to the west, south, and east. We are tested each year with flooding from torrential downpours, wildfires during the dry season, and the possibility of hurricane landfall. All three of these hazards have the potential for creating great damage to property, crippling local everyday life, and possibly causing loss of life.

The intent of this paper is to describe three natural disasters; for this paper we will describe a hurricane, an earthquake and a mudslide. We will briefly discuss how, or if, our ancestors were able to predict and therefore mitigate loss of life or damage to infrastructure for these types of disasters 100 years ago. Then we will look at how our modern society is able to accomplish this in current times. Finally, we will cover how we could better predict future events and plan accordingly. We will explore the

The devastating occurrence of natural disasters happen every year, affecting millions of individuals all over the world. Unfortunately, these events cannot be prevented as they are natural processes of the Earth, being uncontrollable and often unpredictable.1 On March 11th 2011, at 2:46 p.m JST, the northeastern coast of Japan would face its’ worst nightmare (Fig. 1).2 This day marks the birth of the fifth largest earthquake in the world recorded with modern instruments, now known as the “2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami”. A magnitude 9.0 mW megathrust earthquake shuddered northeastern Japan, triggering a powerful tsunami wave moments after.3

The most important issue related to this earthquake and tsunami is its preventability. Are such events preventable? It appears that such natural events at this size are particularly unavoidable. Life itself is precious and not one person is aware of the finality of its ending, however the titanic effect and loss of life due to the whims of nature has left serious mental problems for the entire region this disaster impacted. It is post traumatic syndrome on a national level which has serious implications on the day to day society events that occur.

On August 29, 2009, Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast. It was a Category 3 Hurricane, according to the Saffir Simpson Scale. Winds gusted to up to 140 miles per hour, and the hurricane was almost 400 miles wide . The storm itself did a tremendous amount of damage, but the storm’s aftermath was cataclysmic. Many claimed that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storm. This paper will examine the four elements of disaster management – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation – as well as an analysis on the data presented.

Natural disasters are not a new phenomenon, however, as of the last few centuries, human development has driven the amount of and severity of natural disasters up. As a result, there is an increasing amount of people forced to leave their homes to immigrate to other regions of the world to seek asylum. The international community refers to this phenomenon as internal displacement; when natural disasters are the driving force behind the displacement, it’s specifically referred to as environmental displacement. To address an issue like internal displacement, there are many complications to consider. Debates focus on political aspects like treaty compatibility or symmetry between countries, while other scholars argue the importance of

We hear about them on the news: tornadoes in Oklahoma, hurricanes in Mexico, floods in Bangladesh. When they hit close to us, or even worse, affect someone we know, we feel heartache or some other emotional reaction. If they hit far from us, we may passively acknowledge their happening and move forward. Disasters are an ever-present part of our lives; they scare us; they sadden us; they happen to us. But just what makes an event a disaster? A disaster, I argue, is an event that affects at least one person, and often property, in a devastating way. In other words, a disaster causes an effect that requires an active recovery for its victims. This in turn raises the point about experiences of the same disaster on different people in different places, and I argue that different perspectives on the same disaster allow us to prepare and respond to disaster more effectively and sufficiently.

Disaster risk reduction is a systematic approach in recognizing and reducing the risks of disasters. According to the UNISDR or the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, “The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout the society, to avoid or to limit the adverse impacts of hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development.” The capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Manama is where the most of the commercial centers, government departments and other service centers are located. Although the State of Bahrain consists of different, majority of its population is on the main Island, Bahrain. Due to the large increase in population,

In today’s world, there has been one disaster or another, and hurricanes are one of those disasters that always happens. But, for one reason or another we are never prepared or understand the danger of any type of hurricane over a category one. Most of us have been through many hurricanes, like this learner has when lived in Miami, Fla for over 30 years, and the last hurricane she experience was hurricane Andrew. Warnings are always given, first responders are trained to alert, and FEMA is supposed to be ready to jump in once the storm has done its damage. But we can never be prepared, because hurricanes are unpredictable, and can become deadly for citizens and create millions of dollars in damages. Within this post we will confer Hurricane Katrina, preparedness and Emergency management before and after the disaster.

(a) Discussion: During MEDCAP and DENCAP missions there is a need for an appropriate matrix to ascertain measures of effectiveness. Due to the fact that from one PHIBLEX to the next we do not revisit prior sites there is no way to adequately determine the measures of effectiveness that the MEDCAP/DENCAP had on the overall health of the population over a period of time. MOE’s in the Philippines are hard to determine because there is no one standard that can be applied to all locations in the Philippines. The fact that we do not do MEDCAP/DENCAP’s in the same location makes it near impossible to determine any measure of