Disaster

The word disaster is derived from Middle French désastre and that from Old Italian disastrocode: ita promoted to code: it , which in turn comes from the Ancient Greek pejorative prefix δυσ- (dus-) "bad"[9] and ἀστήρ (aster), "star".[10] The root of the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes from an astrological sense of a calamity blamed on the position of planets.[11]

Painting of the Cathedral and the Academy building after the Great Fire of Turku, by Gustaf Wilhelm Finnberg, 1827

Disasters are routinely divided into natural or human-made. However, in modern times, the divide between natural, man-made and man-accelerated disasters is quite difficult to draw.[3][4][5]

Complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example is an earthquake that causes a tsunami, resulting in coastal flooding, resulting in damage to a nuclear power plant (such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster). Some manufactured disasters have been wrongly ascribed to nature, such as smog and acid rain.[12]

Some researchers also differentiate between recurring events, such as seasonal flooding, and those considered unpredictable.[13]

Natural disasters (caused by natural hazards)

This section is an excerpt from Natural disaster.[edit]

Global multihazard proportional economic loss by natural disasters as cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, floods, landslides and volcanoes

A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community".[14] A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property,[15] and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake. The severity of the damage depends on the affected population's resilience and on the infrastructure available.[16] Examples of natural hazards include: avalanche, coastal flooding, cold wave, drought, earthquake, hail, heat wave, hurricane (tropical cyclone), ice storm, landslide, lightning, riverine flooding, strong wind, tornado, typhoon, tsunami, volcanic activity, wildfire, winter weather.[14]

In modern times, the divide between natural, man-made and man-accelerated disasters is quite difficult to draw.[17][18][19] Human choices and activities like architecture,[20] fire,[21][22] resource management[22][23] or even climate change[24] potentially play a role in causing "natural disasters". In fact, the term "natural disaster" has been called a misnomer already in 1976.[25] A disaster is a result of a natural or man-made hazard impacting a vulnerable community. It is the combination of the hazard along with exposure of a vulnerable society that results in a disaster.

Natural disasters can be aggravated by inadequate building norms, marginalization of people, inequities, overexploitation of resources, extreme urban sprawl and climate change.[17] The rapid growth of the world's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environments has escalated both the frequency and severity of disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable landforms, coupled with deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation, non-engineered constructions make the disaster-prone areas more vulnerable. Developing countries suffer more or less chronically from natural disasters due to ineffective communication combined with insufficient budgetary allocation for disaster prevention and management.[26]

Haiti earthquake damage

Driving through flash flood

Human-instigated disasters (caused by anthropogenic hazards)

Airplane crashes and terrorist attacks are examples of man-made disasters: they cause pollution, kill people, and damage property. This example is of the September 11 attacks in 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York City.

Human-instigated disasters are the consequence of technological or human hazards. Examples include war, social unrest, stampedes, fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, conflicts, oil spills, terrorist attacks, and nuclear explosions/nuclear radiation.[27]

Other types of induced disasters include the more cosmic scenarios of catastrophic climate change, nuclear war, and bioterrorism.

One opinion argues that all disasters can be seen as human-made, due to human failure to introduce appropriate emergency management measures.[28]

Famines may be caused locally by drought, flood, fire, or pestilence, but in modern times there is plenty of food globally, and sustained localized shortages are generally due to government mismanagement, violent conflict, or an economic system that does not distribute food where needed. Earthquakes are mainly hazardous because of human-created buildings and dams; avoiding earthquake-generated tsunamis and landslides is largely a matter of location.

The following table categorizes some disasters and notes first response initiatives.[29]

The Wikibook History has a page on the topic of: Historical Disasters and Tragedies

• List of Disasters at ReliefWeb of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
• The Disaster Roundtable of the National Academy of Sciences
• EM-DAT International Disaster Database of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
• Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System – The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System is a joint initiative of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the European Commission
• UN-SPIDER – UN-SPIDER, the United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response], a project of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)