GE8071 DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Unit – I
Introduction to disasters
Content
• Understanding disaster, Hazard, vulnerability, resilience, risk
• Types of disaster
• Classification, causes and impacts
• Global trends in disasters
• Dos and Donts during disasters
What is Disaster?
It is defined as any event that
causes damage, loss or
destruction of life and property.
• Generally unpredictable, happens instantly or without giving enough
time to react
• Immeasurable and varies with geographical location, climate and
type of earth surface
• Disrupts the normal life and leads to a large scale loss of life and
property
• always finding the administration and affected people struggling to
respond in the desired manner
• leaving deep psychological, political and economic after effects
which persist for a long time to come.
What is a HAZARD?

Any event that has the potential for causing injury or

damage to life and property. (which may cause a
disaster)

• Hazards may be inevitable but

disasters can be prevented.
• Hazards could be either
manmade or naturally occurring.
 What is VULNERABILITY?

The extent to which a community, structure, service, or

geographic area is likely to be damaged or disrupted by
the impact of particular hazard, on account of their
nature, construction and proximity to hazardous
terrain or a disaster prone area.
RESILIENCE
• The capacity to prevent and mitigate, prepare, respond and recover
from the impacts of disasters.
• Building disaster resilience means improving the capabilities of
individuals, families and communities and that of businesses and
governments
• It reduces the disaster risks and produces co-ordinated and effective
efforts during disaster events.
National
•
disaster resilience program
Aims - to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards by
supporting local governments and other stakeholders to
build community resilience.

• Disaster management community resilience and education

program – is a public education and training program for local and
regionally based schools, businesses, community groups, service
clubs, emergency services, volunteers and neighbouring councils.
• National disability services – improve disaster readiness,
response and recovery by strengthening support networks and
engagement of people with disability and their family and their
neighbours.
• Climate – towards a greener strategy
• Disaster preparedness in vulnerable communities – to
assist them to adapt to the effects of climate change by
increasing the ability of local governments, business,
households, families and individuals to become more
resilient and self-reliant.
• Support our heroes – strengthening the capability of
state emergency services and rural fire service by
providing additional equipment and resources,
supporting existing volunteers and attracting new
volunteers.
• Bushfire community training package – developing
and supporting a network of volunteer community
educators to deliver bushfire education and natural
disaster community safety messages to their local
communities.
• Disaster management warehouses and caches – to
ensure rapid and reliable deployment of high volumes
of essential supplies to local communities to assist in
response or recovery situations.
• Volunteering youth communication and resilience
project – educating youth and connecting with them
using application software.
• Keeping our mob climate safe – to help remote
indigenous communities prepare for the impacts by
working with indigenous councils to enhance disaster
management planning and recruit and support
volunteers for disaster management roles.
 RISK

Risk is a measure of the expected losses due to a hazard of

a particular magnitude occurring in a given area over a
specific time period.
Level of risk depends on
1. Nature of hazard
2. Vulnerability of the affected
3. Economic value of the affected
 CLASSIFICATION OF
DISASTERS

Disasters occur in varied forms

• Some are predictable in advance and Some are
sudden and unpredictable
• Some are annual or seasonal
Factors leading to a Disaster
• Ecological, Meteorological, Geological,
Hydrological, Climatological and Extra Terrestrial.
 Disaste
r
Man-
Natural
made

Major Minor Major Minor

Road or train
accidents
Cold Wave Setting of Fire
Flood Riots
Thunderstor Epidemic
Cyclone m Food
Deforestation
poisoning
Drought Heat Waves Chemical
Industrial
Earthquake Mud Slides pollution
disaster
Storm Wars
Environmenta
l pollution
 Do’s and Don’ts during disasters

• Should be familiar with it before the disaster and ready to act on it, as
it happens.
• Keep important documents (birth certificates, passport, social security
cards etc) in safe place, easy to grab and leave the house when
needed.
• Ready a go-bag that will keep you safe, warm, fed and any medical
needs that lasts a few days.
• Plan and practise the escape routes with family members. Decide a
common meeting place.
EARTHQUAKE
• An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in
the Earth's crust (7 major plates) that creates seismic waves.
• It manifests by vibration, shaking and sometimes
displacement of the ground. The underground point of origin
of the earthquake is called the focus. The point directly
above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter.
• Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is
usually the secondary events that they trigger, such as
building collapse, fires, tsunamis (seismic sea waves) and
volcanoes, that are actually the human disaster.
• UNDP has selected ALWER and BIKANER ( seismic zone) for
DRR ( disaster risk reduction) project.
Safety measures
Earthquake gives no warning - plan early
• Keep bottled water, non-perishable food, first-aid kit, torchlight and
battery-operated radio etc. in designated places.
• Practice drills with family. Teach family members to how to react
during earthquake, how to turn electricity, gas etc.
• Identify the places in the house that can provide cover.
• Identify an out-of-town relative or friend as family’s emergency
contact.
 DO’S
• Move to a nearby safe place and if indoor take cover under a table or
desk.
• Hold on to a piece of heavy furniture for support.
• Stand away from trees, power lines and buildings if outdoor.
• Slow down the car and drive to a safe place. Turn of the ignition
• Keep the heavy objects at lower shelves, secure heavy furnitures and
fasten shelves to wall, store breakables in cabins and latch etc. make any
structural repairs needed.
DON’T
• Don’t turn on the gas, don’t light a match, there might be leakage.
• Check out for hanging wires, fires, gas leakages, falling glass or
uneven ground.
• Don’t go near the windows and doors.
• Stay away from damaged buildings and loose electric wires.
• Don’t stop the car under or over the bridge, overpasses or
underpasses.
• Don’t take an elevator.
Flood
• A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that
submerges land. o It may result from the volume of
water within a body of water, such as a river or lake,
which overflows or breaks levels, with the result that
some of the water escapes its usual boundaries. o
Reasons includes a steep increase in population, rapid
urbanization growing developmental and economic
activities in flood plains coupled with global warming,
inadequate carrying capacity of rivers, drainage
congestion and erosion of riverbanks. Cyclones, cyclonic
circulations and cloud bursts also cause flash floods
 DO’S
• Tune to your local radio/TV for warnings and advice.
• Take your emergency-kit, important documents, family members
and go, don’t wait for warning.
• Evacuate for higher ground.
• Look out for glass, downed power lines, ruptured gas lines,
damaged building etc.
• Construct house with walls upto highest known flood level.
• Drink boiled water. Store the water and food in clean containers
and seal them.
• Raise furniture and valuables onto beds, table and roof tops.

DON’T
• Stay away from drains, culverts and water over knee-deep.
• Don’t drive or walk through moving or rushing water.
• Do not use electrical appliances, switch off power, gas and water
mains.
Landslide
• Short bursts of rain may be dangerous, especially after long periods of heavy
rainfall and damp weather.
• Driving during intense storm is hazardous.
• If at home move to second storey.
• Evacuate, move out of way of the landslide or debris.
• Stay away from slide area.
• Listen to unusual sounds. (trees cracking or boulders knocking etc)
• If near stream or channel, be alert of sudden increase or decrease in water flow.
• Watch the road for collapsed pavement, mud, fallen rocks and other debris flow.
• Check for any damages in the building.
• Inform and help affected neighbours.
• Contact local officials. (fire station, police or PWDs)
• Check for injured and trapped persons near slide with caution.
Drought
• If a particular area has no rainfall or less rain than
normal for a long period of time is called drought.
• it is not only lack of rainfall that causes drought, hot dry
winds, very high temperature and evaporation of
moisture from the ground can result in conditions of
drought.
• A drought can lead to losses in agriculture, affect inland
navigation and hydropower plants, and cause a lack
drinking water and famine.
 Fires DO’S
• Open the windows, screens, security bars and doors.
• Ensure the smoke alarm is installed and working properly.
• Keep the fire extinguishers ready.
• Get to nearest exit immediately and contact the emergency
services.
• Ensure the switch or the gas valve is switched off or turned off.
DON’T
• Avoid the lift.
• Leave the door closed not locked.
• Don’t keep any inflammable article like kerosene, towels etc near
the kitchen.
• Don’t keep things in cabinet or shelves above the stove.
• Keep hair tied back.
• Keep the curtains of the window near stove tied back.
 Tornadoes
• Get out of its way and stay clear.
• Have a disaster plan.
• Familiarize with the warning signs. (thunderstorm or hurricanes, clouds rotate in
circular pattern)
• Don’t believe in myths. (wont cross river, wont happen in rough terrain or
mountains etc)
• Listen to emergency radio.
• Understand the difference between a tornado watch (favourable conditions) and a
tornado warning (seen the event)
• During - Stay low and get way from the windows or exterior walls. Go to lower floor
and interior of the house.
• If driving, drive to closest place to take shelter. In emergency lay face-down, hands
over your head in a ditch or a lower level nearby away from vehicle, or take shelter
in your vehicle.
• Avoid overpasses, bridges, tall buildings and flying debris.
• Watch out for debris, nails and damaged structures.
Hurricanes
• Hurricanes bring flood, thunderstorm and tornadoes with them along
with sustained rains and winds.
• Secure your home (install storm shutters, secure the roof, reinforce
the garage doors etc) and learn local evacuation routes.
• Prepare your disaster plan, go-bag and important documents and
vehicle well in advance and prepare for travel.
• Monitor emergency radio, news radio, or TV news for relevant
information.
• Inspect the house for any damage, ruptured gas lines, contaminated
water etc.
• Don’t assume the hazard is over, check with the authority, before
moving.
Man-made Disaster
• "anthropogenic/ man made disasters" means threats
having an element of human intent, negligence, or
error; or involving a failure of a man-made system.
Airplane crashes and terrorist attacks are examples of
man-made disasters: they cause pollution, kill people,
and damage property.
CLASSIFICATION OF DISASTERS

Biological Geophysical Hydrological Meterological Climatological

Epidemic Mass Flood Storm Extreme
• Viral movement • General • Tropical Temperature
infectious • Rockfall flood cyclone • Heat wave
disease • Avalanche • Flash flood • Extra- • Cold wave
• Bacterial • Landslide • Storm Tropical • Extreme
infectious • Subsidence Surge/Coa cyclone Winter
disease stal flood • Local condition
• Parasitic Storm
infectious
disease
• Fungal
infectious Earthquake Mass Drought
disease Movement
• Prion Volcano • Rockfall Wildfire
infectious • Avalanche • Forest fire
disease
Insect Infestation • Landslide • Land fire
• Subsidence
Animal Stampede
Causes
• Environmental
• Health after disaster
• Social impacts
• Psychosocial impacts
• Economic impacts
• Political impacts
Environmental
1. Priority areas for intervention
a. high population and severe disruption of services
b. high population and moderate disruption of services or moderate
population and severe disruption of services
c. low population and minor disruption of services.
2. Priority environmental health services
d. ensure adequate safe drinking water, basic sanitation facilities,
disposal of excreta, wastewater, solid wastes and adequate shelter.
e. provide food protection measures, vector control measures and
promoting personal hygiene.
3. Human resources
f. Lack of experts familiar with local condition and local environmental
health services might misjudge priorities. Use locally available
manpower
4. Water supply
a. Survey all the public water supplies from distribution system to water
source needs to be done. Determine the physical integrity of system
components, remaining capacities and bacteriological and chemical
quality of water.
b. If the water source is contaminated select alternate water sources. (deep
groundwater, shallow groundwater and spring water, rain water and
surface water and private water supply in case of emergency )
c. Chlorination and routine testing of residual chlorine is necessary.
5. Food safety – kitchen sanitation and washed utensils should be used, also
store food in containers.
6. Solid waste management
d. Refuse, garbage removal is accompanied by debris from buildings, utilities,
trees, plants and dead animals.
e. Quick removal is necessary for rehabilitation and accessing the roads
f. Sanitary disposal helps to control vector-borne disease.
g. Avoid open dumping. Burying and burial of organic solid waste is
recommended.
7. Basic sanitation and personal hygiene
a. Provide basic hand washing, cleaning and bathing facilities
b. Waste water requires proper disposal. (soak away or seepage pit or
absorption trench)
8. Vector control – Leptospirosis and rat bite fever, Dengue fever and malaria,
Typhus, Plague.
c. Adopt proper sanitation disposal.
d. Identify and eliminate the breeding sites.
e. Environmental sanitation and personal hygiene is necessary.
9. Burial of dead
a. Burial or cremation should be adopted, avoid disposing into water bodies.
10. Public information and the media
a. Inform the affected of available environmental health services and resources
Health after Disaster
1. Consequences
a. Effects the health status of the community. People lose their lives
and suffer pain and disability
b. Patient overload and staff shortages and not sufficient equipment
to treat at that time.
c. Infrastructural failure and Loss of services, interrupting the
healthcare to continue to care for its patients.
2. Prevention
a. By providing with physical needs (shelter, food, water etc)
b. Health needs (immunisation, medical care, dealing with injuries
etc)
c. Social, emotional and psychological needs of effected.
Factors influencing Health
• Overcrowding and poor shelter
• Poor sanitation, hygiene and contaminated water supply
• Breakdown of health services
• Animals
• Generation of extra waste
• Disposal of dead bodies
• Inadequate food supply and storage
• Change of environment
• Vulnerability to physical injuries
• Social, emotional and psychological problems
• Large scale emergency surgeries
• Electrostatic charges
• Lack of financial resources at personal level
Social impacts
• Physical impacts include casualities and property
damage, easy to measure.
• It includes psychosocial, demographic, economic and
political impacts.
• These are difficult to measure and important to monitor
or predict them if possible, as it effects in long term
functioning.
Psychosocial impacts
• Psychophysiological effects includes fatigue,
gastrointestinal upset as well as cognitive signs such as
confusion, impaired concentration and attention deficits.
• Psychological impacts include emotional signs like anxiety,
depression and grief. Also includes behaviour effects like
sleep and appetite changes, ritualistic behaviour etc
• The population segment requiring attention are the
children, frail elderly and people with pre-existing mental
illness etc.
• There is increased incidence of pro-social behaviours and
decreased incidence of antisocial behaviours.
Demographic impacts
Pa – Pb = B – D + IM – OM
• where, Pa & Pb = population after and before the disaster
B & D = no. of births and deaths
IM & OM = no. of immigrants and emigrants
• Magnitude of disaster impact Pa – Pb is computed for the
population of a specific geographical area and two specific
points in time
Economic impact
• The property damage creates losses in asset values that
can be measured by the cost of repair or replacement.
• Losses are borne by the affected household, business
and local government agencies or some losses are
redistributed during the recovery process.
• Some assets are not replaced, causing a reduction in
consumption or investment.
• There is a decreased revenue.
Political impact
• Attempts to change prevailing pattern of governance can
arise.
• Existing community groups with an explicit political
agenda can expand their membership to increase their
strength.
• New groups can emerge to influence local, state or federal
government agencies and legislators.
 Emergency management interventions
1. Hazard mitigation practices
• Defined as pre-impact actions that protect passively against casualities and damage.
• It includes hazard source control, community protection works, building construction
practices, land use practices and building content protection.
2. Emergency preparedness practices
• Pre-impact actions that provide the human and material resources needed to support
active responses at the time of hazard impact.
• Emergency response functions include emergency assessment, hazard operations,
population protection and incident management.
• Responsibilities are assigned to the organizations, who develop procedure and acquire
the resources to implement their plan.
• They maintain preparedness for emergency response through continued planning,
training, drills and exercises.
3. Recovery preparedness practices
• Pre-impact actions intended to develop the financial and material resources needed to
support a prompt and effective disaster recovery.
• It includes buying hazard insurances, defining disaster recovery organizations,
identifying temporary housing, ways to accomplish essential tasks, licensing and
monitoring of contractors and retail price controls etc.
Differential impacts
• Hazard event characteristics
• Improvised disaster response
• Improvised disaster recovery
• Impacts in terms of caste, class and gender
• Impacts in terms of age
• Impacts in terms of location
• Impacts in terms of disability
• Differential impacts can be reduced by emergency management
interventions.
• Information about disaster impact process helps to determine the
level of disaster impact and identify the specific segment of each
community that will be affected disproportionately. Based on which a
suitable emergency management intervention is adopted.
• Effects of disaster are determined by
a. Hazard exposure (reduced by improved disaster response and
improved disaster recovery)
b. Physical vulnerability (reduced by hazard mitigation practices
and emergency preparedness practices)
c. Social vulnerability (reduced by recovery preparedness practices)
 Event – specific conditions
1. Hazard event characteristics
• Difficult to characterize as a given hazard may initiate a no. of different
threats.
• The threats can be distinguished by characterizing in terms of the speed of
onset, availability of perceptual cues, the intensity, scope and duration of
impact and the probability of occurrence.
2. Improved disaster response
• Adaptive response is delayed because of delayed realization that an
improbable event is occurring, limited information about the situation etc.
• Convergence on the disaster impact areas, organizations expand in terms of
members and tasks, new organizations emerges.
3. Improved disaster recovery
• Includes damage assessment, debris clearance, reconstruction of
infrastructure and buildings in residential, commercial and industrial
sectors.
• Improved by assistance from resources provided by individuals and
organizations, by additional funds by affected, financial assistance and
contributions by the community and local government, tax deductions etc.
 Impacts in terms of caste, class and gender
• Caste, class and gender are rigid and dynamic and influences the survival mechanisms
especially by the women headed households.
• Caste, class and gender are interlinked and create inequalities.
• Caste is based on ritualized purity and class is based on political and economic status.
• Impact is greater when the lower caste families also happen to be very poor.
• Belonging to a privileged class can help a women to overcome barriers that obstruct a less
thriving classes.
• Caste practices have undergone changes due to independent movement, rapid population
growth, education, industrialization, urbanization etc.
• For intermediary caste, the highs and lows in social ladder make a significant difference in the
way they cope with the multiple disasters.
• Different castes show different survival strategies.
• Ex. Upper class occupy elevated area, not affected by flood and middle and low caste occupy
the periphery, close to river. Upper caste took shelter in concrete houses of neighbours,
during cyclone.
• Ex. Women keep themselves awake and on guard for safety. Special boats for women for
sanitation facility.
• Ex. House owners denied access to their house on grounds of maintaining purity and
cleanliness of their caste. Were given place in the veranda.
Impact in terms of age
• Ageing population are increasingly exposed to natural and
technological hazards.
• Data disaggregated by sex, age and disability to demonstrate
the impact of disaster on older people and to develop
appropriate strategies to save them.
• Older people are often passive recipients of aid in disaster
risk reduction activities, as they are not engaged or
consulted.
 Impact in terms of location
• Natural disaster in India is mainly related to the climate and its
impact varies with the location.
• Landslides are common in the lower Himalayas and low intensity
of landslides are experienced in parts of western ghats.
• Heavy southwest monsoon rains cause the Brahmaputra and
other rivers to flood surrounding areas. Flash flood and torrential
rains are common in central India.
• Cyclones are common in the northern reaches of the Indian
Ocean in and around the Bay of Bengal. Cyclones often bring with
them heavy rains, storm surges and winds that adds to the
disaster impact.
Impacts in terms of disability
• Disabled persons like other persons lose their family members,
home, belongings etc.
• Difficult to adjust to new terrains. And suffer severe injury.
• Also get psychologically affected, difficulty in sleeping, expose
them to severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Access to medicines required by the disabled becomes difficult
and repair of their medical aid is difficult as shops remain close.
• Lack of information and lack of care by relatives has a serious
effect on disabled persons health, welfare, safety,
opportunities and the exercise of their rights.
 Global Trends in disasters
• Increased accuracy in the disaster statistics helps to provide greater
visualization and confirmation.
• The nature of disaster is changing as a result of human actions and
development patterns.
• It is seen that more disasters are occurring each year, has greater intensity
and many more people are getting affected directly or indirectly.
• Primarily due to climate change and environmental degradation. Loss of
natural buffer zones, destabilization of slopes, unnatural increases and
decreases in average global temperatures are other related factors.
• Humans settle based on the needs of individuals and societies. As human
population grows and settlement in high risk areas increases the hazard
risk increases.
• Overall the disasters are becoming less deadly.
• Natural disaster are merely the result of humans placing themselves
directly into the path of these natural events. People have modified their
• This is possible by more organized and comprehensive preparedness campaigns,
early warning systems, disaster specific protection structures, building code creation
and enforcements, proper zoning procedures and enforcement etc.
• Overall the disasters are becoming costlier.
• Reason - increasing urbanization in high risk zone which concentrates the wealth,
physical structures and infrastructure in high risk areas, economies are more
dependent upon technologies that fail during disaster, increasing population etc.
• The poor countries are disproportionately affected by disaster consequences.
• Reason – unable to afford seismic resistant houses, live is substandard houses, live
along disaster prone area, not educated about survival strategies and other
secondary reasons.
• Minimal or non-existent enforcement of safety standards, building codes and zoning
regulation effects the poor countries.
• Disaster management programs are seen as a luxury. At disaster they divert the
funds from development programs to emergency relief and recovery.
• The rich countries suffer higher economic losses, but have mechanisms to absorb
these costs, and mechanisms to reduce loss of life. (EWS, enforced building codes
and zoning). They have the immediate emergency and medical care (resources) to
increases survivability and contain spread of disease. And transfer the risk to
insurance providers.
Urban disasters
• Urban disasters are becoming more common, increasingly
expensive and have a magnified economic impact.
• Through improved building codes, enforcing no-build zones
along shorelines, prohibiting construction in flood plains, or
creating infrastructure designed to mitigate disaster, urban
governments are to a greater extend precious resources into
Disaster Risk Reduction activities to minimize the economic
impact.
Pandemics
• Pandemics is an epidemic of infectious disease that has
spread through human populations across a large region. Ex.
Smallpox, tuberculosis etc.
• Biological disasters are a result of process or phenomenon
of organic origin or conveyed by biological vectors, including
exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms, toxins and
bioactive substances that may cause loss of life, injury,
illness or other health impact, property damage, loss of
livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption or
environmental damage.
Preparation by ensuring prevention measures
• Personal cleanliness.
• Hand hygiene while cooking and eating food.
• Eat nutritious and balanced food.
• Immunization should be followed
• Prevent overcrowding
• Good ventilation
• Protect from hot and cold weather
• Health education
• Surveillance
• Take a first aid and Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training
• Subscribe to medical insurance plan
• Use water from safe source. Store the water and food in closed containers.
• Consume boiled water and thoroughly cooked food, consume while it is still hot.
• Don’t eat cut fruits from vendors.
• Don’t defecate in open area
• Keep the premises free of rats and housefly.
Complex Emergencies
• It includes food insecurity, epidemics, conflicts and displaced
populations.
• Complex emergencies are characterized by
a. Extensive violence and loss of life
b. Displacements of population
c. Widespread damage to societies and economies
d. The need for large-scale, multi-faceted humanitarian assistance
e. The hindrance or prevention of humanitarian assistance by
political and military constraints
f. Significant security risks for humanitarian relief workers in some
areas
Climate change
• Climate change related disasters cause tremendous impact on societies, environment and
economic wealth of effected countries.
• Sectors closely related to climate such as agriculture, tourism and water are facing burden
by extreme events.
• Expertise from climate change science and disaster risk management was combined with
scientists with knowledge in adaptation, vulnerability and impact analysis. The report
concluded that climate extremes are a natural part of the climate system, however the
changing climate leads to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration,
timing of extreme weather and climate events and can result in unprecedented extreme
weather and climate events.
• Certain past trends and future predictions can be established with varying confidence,
improved by model development and data availability. The projected precipitation and
temperature patterns are most likely impacting natural hazards.
• The cold days and nights have decreased, while warm days and nights have increased.
Increased heat waves frequency and heavy precipitations events have been detected in
many regions. The confidence remains medium or low regarding predictions of droughts,
floods and cyclone activity. Sea-level is projected to continue to increase and regarding
cyclone projections, precipitation rates and average wind speed are expected to increase.
Event attribution
• Event attribution tries to understand and quantify the human and natural
influences on individual extreme events. (is a particular extreme event
more or less likely with or without human influence on the climate?)
• Uses fractional attribution method, assess what fraction can be attributed
to natural cycles and what fraction attributed to human influence on
climate.
• This method is based on the physical understanding of the climate system
and the individual hazard itself, on data comparison as well as on climate
models. The result depends on the model and data availability, reliability,
resolution and length of historic records.
• Event attribution cannot relate a specific event with absolute confidence
to human causes. It means only the influence of factors on the probability
and intensity of an extreme event can be assessed.
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