Looking at Disasters

A Disaster is the misfortune of the natural or human-made danger that harmfully affects society or the environment. Disasters are seen as consequence of unsuitably managed danger. These perils are product of hazards and susceptibility. Hazards that hit in the areas with low susceptibility are not regarded a disaster, like is the case in unpopulated areas.

Developing countries undergo the maximum costs when the disaster hits, over 95 percent of all the deaths reasoned by disasters take place in mounting countries, and losses because of natural disasters are twenty times bigger (as the percentage of GDP) in the developing countries than in the industrialized countries. A disaster could be defined as any disastrous event that might entail at least one casualty of situation, like an accident, terrorist attack, fire or explosion.

The phrase derives from the Middle French désastre as well as that from the Old Italian disastro, which consecutively comes from Greek derogatory prefix δυσ-, (dus-) "bad" and αστήρ (aster), "star". The origin of the phrase disaster ("bad star" in Greek) emerges from an astrological thought that when stars are in a terrible position an awful event will take place.

Classification

For over a century investigators have been learning disasters and for over 40 years disaster investigation has been institutionalized by the Disaster Research Center. The studies reproduce a general opinion when they dispute that all the disasters could be seen as being individual-made, their analysis being that individual actions prior to the hit of the danger could stop it developing in a disaster. All tragedies are thus the outcome of human breakdown to initiate suitable disaster organization measures. Hazards are normally divided in natural or human-made, though multifaceted disasters, where there is not a single root reason, are more familiar in rising countries. A particular disaster might generate a secondary disaster which augments the impact. A typical instance is an earthquake which causes a tsunami, resultant in the coastal flooding.

Natural disasters

A Natural Disaster is the result when natural hazard (example, earthquake or volcanic eruption) influences humans. Human susceptibility, caused by lack of suitable tragedy management, leads to monetary environmental or individual impact. The resultant loss depends on capability of the inhabitants to help or resist the disaster: their flexibility. This understanding is focused in formulation: "disasters take place when hazards meet up vulnerability". A natural hazard will hence never result in a natural disaster in areas without vulnerability, example strong earthquakes in unpopulated areas. The word natural has therefore been disputed since the events merely are not disasters or hazards with no human participation.

Individual-made disasters

Disasters reasoned by the human action, carelessness, error, or concerning the breakdown of the system are known as human-made disasters. Human-made disasters are consecutively classified as sociological or technological. Technological disasters are outcomes of stoppage of technology, like engineering failures, environmental disasters or transport disasters. Sociological disasters have strong human motive, like criminal acts, riots, stampedes and war.