Natural Disasters Types and Deaths Prevention Research Paper

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Updated: Mar 1st, 2024

Abstract

A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard (e.g. volcanic eruption, earthquake, and landslide) that moves from potential in to an active phase, and as a result, affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or lack of appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, structural, and human losses. The resulting loss depends on the capacity of the population to support or resist the disaster, their resilience. This understanding is concentrated in the formulation: “disasters occur when hazards meet vulnerability”. A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, e.g. strong earthquakes in uninhabited areas. The term natural has consequently been disputed because the events simply are not hazards or disasters without human involvement.[3]

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The degree of potential loss can also depend on the nature of the hazard itself, ranging from a single lightning strike, which threatens a very small area, to impact events, which have the potential to end civilization. For lists of natural disasters, see the list of disasters or the list of deadliest natural disasters.

It is no secret that the frequency and impact of natural disasters are on the rise worldwide. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, forest fires, tornados, ice storms, and severe rainstorms are happening more often than ever before and costing us more dearly.

Consensus-type crises are best exemplified by disasters and catastrophes. Generally, the majority of disaster researchers have dealt with the human and social aspects associated with natural hazardous agents (such as hurricanes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunami), and with risk producing technological agents (such as explosions, fires, chemical and nuclear plant accidents, electric and energy system failures, biological poisonings, and large scale transportation wrecks and structural collapses). The events associated with the above occasions are all relatively sudden in appearance and generally have a fairly definable locale or area of impact. Most important, they are also characterized at the time of impact by widespread consensus on terminating the crises as soon as possible, although there may be disagreements on the means to be used for that purpose.

The conception of disaster, especially the attributed source of disasters has changed over time. For most of history, it was traditional to view certain sudden and extraordinary physical disturbances with marked negative effects as “Acts of God”. Whether it was volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, or tsunamis, the source of the disaster agent was placed in the supernatural domain.

In more recent times, and with the spread of more secular and non-religious ideologies, there was a shift to the term “natural” disaster, substituting nature for the supernatural. So earthquakes are the result of plate dynamics and floods the consequences of rainfall and drainage capabilities. But in either case, the imagery was that something external and beyond the control of the human victims were responsible for whatever negative happened.

However, in recent decades it has become progressively impossible to attribute all responsibility to God or nature, so the notion of human-created disasters has more and more been advanced. This was first stated with respect to the realm of technological accidents.

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So, to the Acts of God (or Nature) have been added Acts of Men and Women (or Society).

However, one consequence of this seeking for source or origin of the phenomena is a tendency to approach planning for disasters in agent-specific terms. Thus, in many places in the world, much disaster planning for disasters tends to be agent-specific. There is a tendency to organize separate and distinctive planning around specific disaster agents. Thus, there often are separate plans for disasters resulting from hazardous chemicals, separate plans for hurricane threats, separate plans for emergencies in nuclear plants, separate plans for flood threats, and so on. Planning is often separated with usually different organizations for preparing and responding to the separately viewed threats or impacts.

Types of natural disasters

Avalanche

An avalanche is a geophysical hazard involving a slide of a large snow (or rock) mass down a mountainside, caused when a buildup of snow is released down a slope, it is one of the major dangers faced in the mountains in winter. An avalanche is an example of a gravity current consisting of granular material. In an avalanche, lots of material or mixtures of different types of material fall or slide rapidly under the force of gravity. Avalanches are often classified by what they are made of.

Earthquake

An earthquake is a phenomenon that results from a sudden release of stored energy that radiates seismic waves. At the Earth’s surface, earthquakes may manifest themselves by a shaking or displacement of the ground and sometimes tsunamis. 90% of all earthquakes – and 81% of the largest – occur around the 40,000km long Pacific Ring of Fire, which roughly bounds the Pacific Plate. Many earthquakes happen each day, few of which are large enough to cause significant damage

Lahar

A Lahar is a type of natural disaster closely related to a volcanic eruption and involves a large amount of material, including mud, rock, and ash sliding down the side of the volcano at a rapid pace. These flows can destroy entire towns in seconds and kill thousands of people. The Tangiwai disaster is an excellent example, as is the one that killed an estimated 23,000 people in Armero, Colombia, during the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz.

Landslides and Mudflows

A landslide is a disaster closely related to an avalanche, but instead of occurring with snow, it occurs involving actual elements of the ground, including rocks, trees, parts of houses, and anything else which may happen to be swept up. Landslides can be caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or general instability in the surrounding land. Mudslides, or mudflows, are a special case of landslides, in which heavy rainfall causes loose soil on steep terrain to collapse and slide downwards (see also Lahar); these occur with some regularity in parts of California after periods of heavy rain.

Volcanic eruption

A volcanic eruption is a point in which a volcano is active and releases its power, and the eruptions come in many forms. They range from daily small eruptions which occur in places like Kilauea in Hawaii, or extremely infrequent supervolcano eruptions (where the volcano expels at least 1,000 cubic kilometers of material) in places like Lake Taupo, 26,500 years ago, or Yellowstone Caldera, which has the potential to become a supervolcano in the near geological future. Some eruptions from pyroclastic flows, which are high-temperature clouds of ash and steam that can trail down mountainsides at speed exceeding an airliner. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, 70 to 75 thousand years ago, a supervolcanic event at Lake Toba reduced the human population to 10,000 or even 1,000 breeding pairs, creating a bottleneck in human evolution.

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Sinkholes

A localized depression in the surface topography, usually caused by the collapse of a subterranean structure, such as a cave. Although rare, large sinkholes that develop suddenly in populated areas can lead to the collapse of buildings and other structures.

Flood

Prolonged rainfall from a storm, including thunderstorms, rapid melting of large amounts of snow, or rivers which swell from excess precipitation upstream and cause widespread damage to areas downstream, or less frequently the bursting of man-made dams or levees.

  • The Huang Ho (Yellow River) in China floods particularly often. The Great Flood of 1931 caused between 800,000 and 4,000,000 deaths.
  • The Great Flood of 1993 was one of the most costly floods in US history.
  • The 1998 Yangtze River Floods, also in China, left 14 million people homeless.
  • The 2000 Mozambique flood covered much of the country for three weeks, resulting in thousands of deaths, and leaving the country devastated for years afterward.

Tropical cyclones can result in extensive flooding, as happened with:

  • Bhola Cyclone, striking East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1970,

Limnic eruption

Also referred to as a ‘lake overturn’, a limnic eruption is a rare type of natural disaster in which CO2 suddenly erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat of suffocating wildlife, livestock, and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising CO2 displaces water. Scientists believe landslides, volcanic activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruption.

To date, only two limnic eruptions have been observed and recorded:

  • In 1984, in Cameroon, a limnic eruption in Lake Monoun caused the deaths of 37 nearby residents

Maelstrom

A large tidal whirlpool. The largest known maelstrom is Moskstraumen off the Lofoten islands in Norway. Powerful whirlpools have killed unlucky seafarers, but their power tends to be exaggerated in fiction. Maelstroms can reach speeds of 20-40km/h.

Tsunami

A tsunami is a wave of water caused by the displacement of a body of water. A tsunami can be caused by undersea earthquakes as in the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, or by landslides such as the one which occurred at Lituya Bay, Alaska. Meteotsunamis is caused by meteorological phenomena. A sunami is an informal term used to describe very large tsunamis. They are a highly local effect, either occurring on shores extremely close to the origin of a tsunami, or in deep, narrow inlets. The largest waves are caused by very large landslides, such as a collapsing island, into a body of water. The highest Tsunami ever recorded was estimated to be of 524m (1742 ft.) vertical run-up on July 10, 1958, in Lituya Bay, Alaska.

Drought

An abnormally dry period when there is not enough water to support agricultural, urban or environmental water needs. Extended droughts can result in deaths by starvation or disease, and can result in wildfires. Well-known historical droughts include:

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  • 1900 India, killing between 250,000 and 3.25 million.
  • 1921-22, the Soviet Union, in which over 5 million perished from starvation due to drought.

Hurricanes, Tropical cyclones, and Typhoons

Hurricane, tropical cyclone and typhoon are different names for the same phenomenon: a cyclonic storm system that forms over the oceans. It is caused by evaporated water that comes off of the ocean and becomes a storm. The Coriolis Effect causes the storms to spin, and a hurricane is declared when this spinning mass of storms attains a wind speed greater than 74 mph. Hurricane is used for these phenomena in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, tropical cyclones in the Indian, typhoons in the western Pacific. The deadliest hurricane ever was the 1970 Bhola cyclone; the deadliest Atlantic hurricane was the Great Hurricane of 1780, which devastated Martinique, St. Eustatius, and Barbados. Another notable hurricane is Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005.

Ice age

An ice age is a geologic period, but could also be viewed in the light of a catastrophic natural disaster since in an ice age, the climate all over the world would change and places which were once considered habitable would then be too cold to permanently inhabit. A side effect of an ice age could possibly be a famine, caused by a worldwide drought.

Famine

A social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic disease, and increased mortality. Although some famines occur – or are aggravated – by natural factors, it can and often is a result of economic or military policy that deprives people of the food that they require to survive.

In modern times, famine has hit Sub-Saharan Africa the hardest, although the number of victims of modern famines is much smaller than the number of people killed by the Asian famines of the 20th century.

The most horrible natural disaster happened since 1990

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes, and other storms are all clearly natural phenomena. The picture is less clear for disasters like floods and famine. What some people may consider a natural disaster, others may consider more of a political act (for instance, some of the world’s deadliest floods and famines were caused, at least in part, by policy decisions taken by hostile, indifferent, or negligent regimes).

Earthquakes/Tsunamis (with 100,000 deaths or more)

  • July 28, 1976 – The world’s most devastating quake of the 20th century (magnitude 7.8) hit the sleeping city of Tangshan, in northeast China. The official death toll was 242,000. But some unofficial estimates put the actual number of dead as high as 655,000.
  • May 22, 1927 – A magnitude 7.9 quake near Xining, China, killed 200,000.
  • Dec. 16, 1920 – China was also the site for the world’s third-deadliest quake of the 20th century. An estimated 200,000 died when a magnitude 8.6 temblor hit Gansu, triggering massive landslides.
  • Dec. 26, 2004 – A magnitude 9.0 quake struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering tsunamis that swept through the coastal regions of a dozen countries bordering the Indian Ocean. More than 156,000 died and thousands more are missing.
  • Sept. 1, 1923 – A third of Tokyo and most of Yokohama were leveled when a magnitude 8.3 earthquake shook Japan. About 143,000 were killed as fires ravaged much of Tokyo.
  • Dec. 28, 1908 – Southern Italy was ravaged by a 7.2 magnitude quake that triggered a tsunami that hit the Messina-Reggio-Calabria area, killing 123,000.
  • Oct. 5, 1948 – More than 110,000 were killed when a 7.3 quake rolled through the area around Ashgabat in Turkmenistan.

Volcanic Eruptions

  • May 8, 1902 – Mt. Pelee erupted on the Caribbean island of Martinique, destroying the capital city of St. Pierre. Up to 40,000 were killed.
  • Nov. 13-14, 1985 – At least 25,000 are killed near Armero, Colombia, when the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted, triggering mudslides.
  • July 15, 1991 – Mt. Pinatubo on Luzon Island in the Philippines erupted, blanketing 750 square kilometers with volcanic ash. More than 800 died.

Two of the most famous eruptions took place before our 1900 cut-off. In 1883, two-thirds of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa was destroyed when a volcano erupted. A resulting series of tsunamis killed more than 36,000. And in 79 AD, Mt. Vesuvius erupted in southern Italy, destroying the ancient Roman city of Pompeii and two other communities. Thousands died.

Hurricanes/Cyclones/Floods

  • July-August 1931 – Massive flooding of China’s Yangtze River led to more than three million deaths from drowning, disease, and starvation.
  • Nov. 13, 1970 – A cyclone in the Ganges Delta killed at least 300,000 in Bangladesh.
  • July 1, 1991 – Cyclones triggered flooding in Bangladesh that killed 138,000.
  • August 1971 – An estimated 100,000 died when heavy rains led to severe flooding around Hanoi in what was then North Vietnam.
  • Aug. 5, 1975 – At least 85.000 were killed along the Yangtze River in China when more than 60 dams failed following a series of storms, causing widespread flooding and famine. This disaster was kept secret by the Chinese government for 20 years.
  • Oct. 26 – Nov. 4, 1998 – Hurricane Mitch was the deadliest hurricane to hit the Americas. It killed 11,000 in Honduras and Nicaragua and left 2.5 million homeless.

Pandemics/Famines

  • 1918-1919 – An epidemic of the “Spanish Flu” spread around the world. At least 20 million died, although some estimates put the final toll at 50 million. It’s estimated that between 20 percent and 40 percent of the entire world’s population got sick.
  • 1957-1958 – The Asian flu swept around the world, making it the second flu pandemic of the century.
  • 1968 – The Hong Kong flu became the third flu pandemic of the 20th century. The World Health Organization estimated that a total of 1.5 million died in the Asian and Hong Kong flu pandemics.
  • 1980 to present – Toll from AIDS worldwide since 1980 is estimated at 25 million, with 40 million others infected with HIV.
  • 1959-1961 – The “Great Leap Famine” cost an estimated 20 million to 40 million lives in China as the policies of Mao Zedong resulted in massive social and economic upheaval. China was also hit by major famines in 1907, 1928-1930, 1936, and 1941-1942.
  • 1932-1933 – Failures in Soviet central planning and Stalin’s decision to withhold food from Ukraine led to huge loss of life. At least five million Ukrainians were among the seven million victims of that famine.
  • 1921 – A Soviet famine in 1921 began with a drought that caused massive crop failures. The initial death toll was greatly magnified when Lenin refused to acknowledge the famine and sent no aid. The Soviets later estimated that 5.1 million died.
  • 1984-1985 – Famine killed at least one million in Ethiopia as severe drought led to desperate food shortages.

How to prevent natural disaster deaths

Thousands of deaths in natural disasters in the developing world could be prevented each year if western governments put more emphasis on protecting vulnerable communities and preparing people to save their own lives, reveals that western governments and other major international donors concentrate much of their efforts on emergency responses to crises rather than measures to prevent them. it is ‘indefensible and illogical’ not to help poor communities prevent and prepare for disasters when very often, thousands of lives could be saved by even the simplest of measures. In Britain, other European nations, and the US, millions of pounds are invested into reducing the risks associated with floods, droughts, and earthquakes, yet we spend very little on helping poor communities do the same.

Before Disaster Strikes, warns that natural disasters – like the earthquake in Bam, Iran in which at least 25,000 people died in December 2003 and the floods which brought widespread devastation to Mozambique four years ago this month – are on the increase. This is due to factors such as climate change, rapid urbanization, poor land use, and environmental destruction

  • 98% of people killed by natural disasters now come from developing countries
  • By 2025 more than half the people living in the developing world will be highly vulnerable to floods and storms
  • one of the UK’s largest relief and development agencies, argues that while some disasters can be prevented, others can at the very least be prepared for, meaning that thousands of lives could be saved each year and millions of pounds of aid money made to go further.

Research carried out by researchers among major donors, including the United Nations, the European Union, and the governments of Britain, the United States, and Canada shows that there is general agreement that preventing disasters makes economic and moral sense. But governments’ approaches are still weighted towards ‘bandaging wounds’ rather than ‘preventing injuries’.

They found three main reasons why governments’ spending on reducing the risks of disaster is low:

  • Lack of Understanding: Many working in the development sector of government lack an understanding of the relevance of reducing the risk of disasters to their work.
  • Lack of Ownership: development and relief professionals in governments often see the job of reducing the risk of disasters as primarily the responsibility of the other discipline.
  • Competition: the sheer pressure of responding to other international aid needs such as HIV/Aids and conflict means that time and money are stretched.

They argue that, with disasters increasing in number, long-term development in poor countries is being seriously threatened.

National Weather Services preventing natural disasters

In 1992-2001, natural disasters worldwide were linked to over 6,22,000 deaths, affecting over 2 billion people and causing economic losses to the tune of $446 billion. Over the last several decades, the economic impact of natural disasters has increased.

While it may not be possible to avoid these hazards, they can be prevented from becoming disasters through the integration of risk assessments and early warning with prevention and mitigation measures. A reliable early warning system is essential for disaster preparedness. The NWS identify and monitor potential hazards and issue warnings. Implementing a plan for dealing with an emergency involves government departments and agencies at every level.

Such a national plan comprises mitigation phase, which involves identifying the vulnerability of every part of the country to a particular type of hazards; the preparedness phase, aimed at educating the citizens about the nature of hazards; and the response phase, under which the measures developed during the previous phases are implemented. The recovery phase comprises the steps taken after the event to repair the damage and reconstruct communities.

Now to focus on India, which is vulnerable to most of the natural hazards listed earlier. On average, 2.1 severe cyclonic storms strike the east and west coasts every year, some of them causing destruction owing to gale force winds, torrential rain, and storm surge. Since 1993, India has been affected by many disastrous events.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is the NWS for India and is fully equipped and geared to provide early warning of any type of weather-related disaster. A cyclone warning is one of the major activities of the IMD. The warnings are issued in several stages and disseminated through different types of communication channels. However, in respect of small-scale and short-lived disastrous weather events such as local severe storms, tornadoes, and very heavy rain over a small area, the warning lead time could be a few hours to less than a day.

At present, there are no scientific techniques to predict a seismological disastrous event such as an earthquake, though its occurrence, epicenter, and intensity can be accurately recorded. The data thus collected over a long period has been used in defining zones based on seismic risk. A tsunami is another natural hazard that provides only a shorter lead time to issue warnings. It should be possible to create a tsunami warning system for the Indian coast by establishing an independent ocean observation network or by joining an already established international setup, such as the Indian Ocean Observing System. Hazards based on extremes of weather appear to have of late increased in frequency over India.

With its population getting close to the 110-crore mark, India is more vulnerable to natural disasters. Practices such as strict observance of building code and development rules framed in accordance with seismic zoning, keeping construction activities 500 meters away from the tide level over coastal regions, not encroaching upon river streams, canals, and lakes to provide for natural drainage, would help to prevent disasters. But now this may sound utopian. In such a scenario, besides the NWS, national authorities, scientific communities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, the media, and the public, all have a role to play and the capacity to contribute to preventing and mitigating natural disasters.

References

Barton, Allan 1970 Communities in Disasters. Garden City, Anchor.

Bolton, Patricia 1986 Natural hazards and industrial crises: Emergency management considerations. Unpublished paper.

Boulle, Philippe 1990 “Will the 1990s be a decade of increasingly destructive natural disasters?” Natural Hazards.

Tamil Nadu How to prevent natural disaster retrieved 2004.

U.S. Geological Survey(2004) World Health Organization, Associated Press.

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