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What are disasters and it's components ? And what is disaster management ?

(I need a essay type answer to this question...)



1)  A disaster is a result of combination of hazard, vulnerability and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce the potential chances of risk.
 
2)   For example an earthquake becomes a disaster when it affects people, their properties, etc. Thus, disaster occurs only when hazards and vulnerability meet
 
3)  The three major components of disaster are hazard, vulnerability and capacity. With greater capacity of individual or community and environment to face these disasters, the impact of hazard reduces.
 
4)  Hazard – It is referred to as a dangerous condition or event that threat or have the potential for causing injury to life or damage to property or the environment.
 
5)  It can be grouped into two categories namely natural and manmade. Natural hazards are caused due to natural phenomena like meteorological, geological or biological etc. Some example of natural hazards are cyclones, tsunamis, earthquake, landslides, floods etc
 
6)  Manmade hazards occur due to human negligence. These hazards are associated with industries like explosion, leakage of toxic waste, pollution, dam failure, etc
 
7)  Vulnerability refers to the extent to which a community, structure, services 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 terrains or a disaster prone area
 
8)   Capacity refers to resources, means and strengths which exist in households and communities and which enable them to cope with, withstand, prepare for, prevent, mitigate or quickly recover from a disaster.
 
9)  Disaster management is a series of activities that comprise of different management arrangements that are capable of encompassing different kinds of disasters
 
10)   The different elements of disaster management are preparedness, relief and response, recovery and rehabilitation, and prevention and mitigation
 
11)  Preparedness includes all specific measures which are taken before a disaster strikes. Such measures enable communities to cope with the effects of a disaster in a far better way
 
12)  Relief and Response is the phase in which different Government and social agencies take various measures after the disaster has taken place. Under these relief measures, food, clothing, shelter are provided to those who are affected
 
13)  Recovery and Rehabilitation - Under this phase, the affected people are helped to reconstruct their houses and get employment. Moreover, the Centre and State government help in carrying out various development works like construction of roads, bridges, schools etc
 
14)  Prevention and Mitigation – In this phase all attempts are carried out to prevent in order to minimize the impact of any future disaster, if it occurs
 
 
 
 

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Disaster Management
DisasterMgmt.org provides detailed information on type of disasters, how to prepare for disasters, and how to respond to disasters.
Disasters whether natural or man-made can strike at any time. In general, the general response to a disaster is in terms of relief and rescue operations - after the event. However, if we are adequately prepared, its possible to severely reduce the impact of a disaster. The impact can be reduced through a good understanding of preventive actions, as well as having the knowledge of certain life-saving tools and techniques, which when used at the time of the event of disaster can control the total damage to life and belongings.
The biggest problem with the disasters is the suddenness and swiftness with which they arrive. Hence, in order to reduce the severity of a disaster the response also has to equally swift.
Lets first understand, what is a disaster. Dictionary meaning of "disaster" may be taken as: "a sudden accident or natural event that causes great damage or loss of life" - Oxford Dictionary. So, as can be seen, disaster by definition itself is "sudden" and causes immense damage to property and/or life.
Almost all of us can think of several disasters that have occurred in the recent past.Earthquakes, industrial accidents, oil-spills, forest-fires, terrorist activities etc. are some of the more commonly encountered disasters.
Disasters themselves are not limited to specific parts of world, though, certain areas might be more prone to certain specific type of disaster, e.g. area around Pacific rim is more prone to earthquakes, some countries are more prone to terrorist activities, some coastal areas are more prone to cyclones, and, some areas are more prone to floods. However, the more advanced a nation is, typically, their level of preparedness is higher. This higher level of preparedness allows them to have a better control over the loss.
There are certain types of disasters, where, the loss during the actual event is not necessarily as high, but, the losses become very high due to inability to manage the situation in a timely manner. More often than not, it happens due to confusion and chaos in the context of too much loss, and, inefficient utilization of resources - which are already strained.
Another thing which causes a lot of loss during certain kind of disasters is the inability to properly manage and secure the utilities, like: electricity, gas, water etc. On one side, each of these utilities are very important, and, on the other side, due to leakages/ruptures, some of these might come in contact with each other, when they should not - causing further damage.
Thus, the main motivation behind disaster management is to minimize the losses at the time of a disaster as well as ensure most efficient utilization of resources - which are already scarce.
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