An essay on natural disasters

An essay on natural disasters

Natural Disasters Essay for Students in English,Latest Articles

WebA natural disaster is defined as an event of nature, which overwhelms local resources and threatens the function and safety of the community. Natural disasters are the WebNatural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and hurricanes inflict serious damage and so seem to be bad for the economy. For firms, natural disasters destroy WebJan 27,  · 64 Natural Disasters Essay Topics Why are the Great Plains of the central US ideal for tornado formation? Research the atmospheric parameters inside a WebJan 25,  · Nature possesses the character of a special balance in which all living beings live together in harmony with their environment. But whenever this balance is disturbed, WebSep 1,  · The sudden and extreme events caused by environmental factors that injure people and damage property are known as Natural Disaster. Earthquakes, windstorms, ... read more

Professional training in disaster management is essential and should be built into the existing pedagogic research and education. Specialised courses should be treated as a distinct academic and professional discipline, the subject needs to be discussed and taught as a specific component in professional and specialised courses like medicine, nursing, engineering, environmental sciences, architecture, and town and country planning. Secondly, there has to be a focus towards preventive disaster management and development of a national ethos of prevention calls for an awareness generation at all levels. An appropriate level of awareness at the school level will help increase awareness among children and, in many cases, parents and other family members through these children.

Curriculum development with a focus towards dissemination of disaster related information on a sustained basis, covering all school levels may be worked out by the different school boards in the country. Training facilities for government personnel involved in disaster management are conducted at the national level by the National Centre for Disaster Management at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, in New Delhi which functions as the nodal institution in the country for training, research and documentation of disasters. At the State level, disaster management cells operating within the State Administrative Training Institutes ATIs provide the necessary training. Presently, 24 ATIs have dedicated faculties. There is a need for strengthening specialized training, including training of personnel in disaster response.

Finally, capacity building should not be limited to professionals and personnel involved in disaster management but should also focus on building the knowledge, attitude and skills of a community to cope with the effects of disasters. Identification and training of volunteers from the community towards first response measures as well as mitigation measures is an urgent imperative. A programme of periodic drills should be introduced in vulnerable areas to enable prompt and appropriate community response in the event of a disaster which can help save valuable lives. Disaster management programme must strive to build a disaster resilient community equipped with safer living and sustainable livelihoods to serve its own development purposes.

The community is also the first responder in any critical situation there by emphasizing the need for community level initiatives in managing disasters. There is a need to create awareness through education training and information dissemination, community based approach followed by most NGOs and Community Based Organizations CBOs should be incorporated in the disaster management sector as an effective means of community participation. Finally, within a vulnerable community, there exist groups that are more vulnerable like women and children, aged and in firm and physically challenged people who need special care and attention especially during crisis. Efforts are required for identifying such vulnerable groups and providing special assistance in terms of evacuation, relief, aid and medical attention.

Management of disasters should therefore be an interface between a community effort to mitigate and prevent disasters as also an effort from the government machinery to buttress and support popular initiatives. Given the damage caused by disaster, planned expenditure on disaster management and prevention measures in addition to the CRF is required. The Central Sector Scheme of Natural Disaster Management Programme has been implemented since by the Department of Agriculture and Co-operation with the objective to focus on disaster preparedness with emphasis on mitigation and preparedness measures for enhanced capability to reduce the adverse impact of disasters.

The major activities undertaken within this scheme include the setting up of the National Centre for Disaster Management NCDM at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, creation of 24 disaster management faculties in 23 states, research and consultancy services, documentation of major disaster events and forging regional cooperation. The Eighth Plan allocation of Rs. Within this scheme, NCDM has conducted over 50 training programme, training more than people, while 24 disaster management centers with dedicated faculty have been established in the states. Over people have been trained at the State level. In addition, some important publications and audio-visual training modules have been prepared and documentation of disaster events has been done.

Though limited in scope and outlays, the Scheme has made an impact on the training and research activities in the country. Creation of faculties in disaster management in all 28 states is proposed to be taken up in the Tenth Plan in addition to community mobilisation, human resource development, establishment of Control Rooms and forging international cooperation in disaster management. There is also an urgent need for strengthening the disaster management pedagogy by creating disaster management faculties in universities, rural development institutes and other organisations of premier research. Sustainability is the key word in the development process. Development activities that do not consider the disaster loss perspective fail to be sustainable. The compounded costs of disasters relating to loss of life, loss of assets, economic activities, and cost of reconstruction of not only assets but of lives can scarcely be borne by any community or nation.

Therefore, all development schemes in vulnerable areas should include a disaster mitigation analysis, where by the feasibility of a project is assessed with respect to vulnerability of the area and the mitigation measures required for sustainability. Environmental protection, afforestation programme, pollution control, construction of earthquake resistant structures etc. Building codes, critical front-line defence for achieving stronger engineered structures, need to be drawn up in accordance with the vulnerability of the area and implemented through appropriate techno-legal measures. Mitigation measures need to be considered in land use and site planning activities. Constructions in hazardous areas like flood plains or steep soft slopes are more vulnerable to disasters.

Necessary mitigation measures need to be built into the design and costing of development projects. Insurance is a potentially important mitigation measure in disaster-prone areas as it brings quality in the infrastructure consciousness and a culture of safety by its insistence on following building codes, norms, guidelines, quality materials in construction etc. Natural disasters have become a recurring phenomenon in the recent past. In the last twenty years or so three million people have been killed as a result of such events. There is a need to focus and develop a plan that would focus on disaster management planning for prevention, reduction, mitigation, preparedness and response to reduce life and property due to natural disaster.

If we take it in the Indian context, the five year plans have never really taken into consideration the issues relating to the management and mitigation of natural disasters. Disasters can have devastating impact on the economy and is a significant setback to the development in a given region. Two recent disasters, the Orissa Cyclone and the Gujarat Earthquake, are cases in point. The development process needs to be sensitive towards disaster prevention and mitigation aspects. There is thus a need to look at disasters from a development perspective as well. Disaster management may not be directly associated with planned financing, but number of schemes are in operation, such as for drought proofing, afforestation, drinking water, etc.

Extra assistance for post-disaster reconstruction and streamlining of management structures also is a major consideration of the plan. A specific, centrally sponsored scheme on disaster management also exists. The plan thus already has a defined role in dealing with the subject. There have been an increasing number of natural disaster over the past years, and with it, increasing losses on account of urbanisation and population growth, as a result of which the impact of natural disasters is now felt to a larger extent. Devastations in the aftermath of powerful earthquakes that struck Gujarat, El Salvador and Peru; floods that ravaged many countries in Africa, Asia and elsewhere; droughts that plagued Central Asia including Afghanistan, Africa and Central America; the cyclone in Madagascar and Orissa; and floods in Bolivia are global events in recent memory.

However, what is disturbing is the knowledge that these trends of destruction and devastation are on the rise instead of being kept in check. Natural disasters know no political boundaries and have no social or economic considerations. They are borderless as they affect both developing and developed countries. They are also merciless, and as such the vulnerable tend to suffer more at the impact of natural disasters. For example, the developing countries are much more seriously affected in terms of the loss of lives, hardship borne by population and the percentage of their GNP lost.

Since number of the most vulnerable regions is in India, natural disaster management has emerged as a high priority for the country. Going beyond the historical focus on relief and rehabilitation after the event, we now have to look ahead and plan for disaster preparedness and mitigation, in order that the periodic shocks to our development efforts are minimized. Physical vulnerabilities have a direct impact on the population their proximity to the hazard zone and standards of safety maintained to counter the effects. For instance, some people are vulnerable to flood only because they live in a flood prone area. Physical vulnerability also relates to the technical capacity of buildings and structures to resist the forces acting upon them during a hazard event.

However, physical calamities is not the only criteria, there are prevailing social and economic conditions and its consequential effect on human activities within a given society. Parts of the Indian sub-continent are susceptible to different types of disasters owing to the unique topographic and climatic characteristics. The decade , has been one of very high disaster losses within the country, losses in the Orissa Cyclone in , and later, the Gujarat Earthquake in alone amount to several thousand crore of Rupees, while the total expenditure incurred on relief and reconstruction in Gujarat alone has been to the tune of Rs.

Disasters often result in enormous economic losses that are both immediate as well as long term in nature and demand additional revenues. Also, as an immediate fall-out, disasters reduce revenues from the affected region due to lower levels of economic activity leading to loss of direct and indirect taxes. In addition, unplanned budgetary allocation to disaster recovery can hamper development interventions and lead to unmet developmental targets. I was sitting in front of my desk when suddenly a message arrived on my phone with an alert from the national weather bureau letting the population knew that a tornado was on its way to the area where I live.

I was terrified when Tornado Natural Disasters. Introduction Natural hazard refers to catastrophic events or phenomenon of atmospheric, geological, and hydrological origins that can cause fatalities, property damage, social environmental disruption and can indirectly cause social grievances and resource scarcities. These includes earthquake, tornadoes, Volcanic eruption, tsunamis, floods, typhoons and thunderstorms, hurricanes A tornado is a destructive vortex of violently rotating winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud and advancing beneath the base of a thunderstorm connecting to the ground. It is made up of water, dust, and debris.

A tornado is the most violent of Natural hazards have always fascinated me and therefore I made a decision to write this article on the subject. Earthquakes just like other hazards of nature are unpredictable and remain one of the most devastating among all natural disasters. A disturbing yet an inevitable fact Nature is the most precious thing that the earth has. However, there are times when Mother Nature gets angry and natural disasters come down. It may be a long-term rainstorm causing flooding, which may be prolonged droughts, etc. No matter how it occurs, natural disasters Abstract Climate change has, since the s become an increasingly unanimous science, with fewer and fewer people dissenting to the view that man is causing the climate to shift, i.

is the cause of anthropogenic climate change. However, solutions to this used to be viewed Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and hurricanes inflict serious damage and so seem to be bad for the economy. For firms, natural disasters destroy tangible assets such as buildings and equipment as well as human capital and thereby deteriorate their production capacity. Hurricane Katrina is one of only a handful of catastrophic events that will never be overlooked. The result impacts of this storm were very damaging, and most people were still in shock months to years later. This event is close to being as tragic as Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Natural Disasters.

Hurricane Dorian hit the Abaco Islands in September 1st. with winds of mph. Grand Bahama was later affected at an identical intensity, northern side hit with the as a minimum wind speed for 24hrs. That resulted to the utmost catastrophic damages; most structures In many instances, disasters act as catalysts in the adoption of new and emerging technologies. Spawned by the need to rapidly collect vital information for disaster management, technology innovations have often helped emergency responders to assess the impact of large disasters more efficiently and rapidly, Storm Natural Disasters. Abstract The location of Puerto Rico makes it vulnerable to seismic activity due to the different sources that surround the Island.

This is why the risk of a tsunami affecting the island increases as it did in The Puerto Rico Trench, located to the Puerto Rico Natural Disasters. Their hometown was hit by a tornado, and they felt the urge to offer their help to the townsfolk. They realized that when a disaster occurs more so naturally, there is In the 21st century the world has been taken aback by the yearly natural and man-made disasters that have occurred everywhere. No matter how prepared we believe are there is always area of improvement or an area of learning after each and every disaster. Nuclear waste — hundreds of millions of gallons of it — are buried underground after the Cold War.

Years later, it threatens to contaminate major sources of food and water for an entire nation. The government Nuclear Power Natural Disasters Nuclear Energy. Think about how life would be if there is no earthquake? Build an imagery of what Earth will look like. addClass d[8] ,"y"! add c[1]. add s[1]. removeClass d[11] : s[1]. addClass d[11] ,l. addClass d[9] ,n. overflowed[0] n. removeClass d[5] :o. top,e frameElement. top,e t. left]:[0,0];switch o {case"pointerdown":case"MSPointerDown":case"pointermove":case"MSPointerMove":case"pointerup":case"MSPointerUp":return a? touches[0] t. length t. length;return t. autoExpandScrollbar }}. bind "touchmove.

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The definition of natural disasters is any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth. The severity of a disaster is measured in lives lost, economic loss, and the ability of the population to rebuild. Events that occur in unpopulated areas are not considered disasters. So a flood on an uninhabited island would not count as a disaster, but a flood in a populated area is called a natural disaster. All natural disasters cause loss in some way. Depending on the severity, lives can be lost in any number of disasters. Falling buildings or trees, freezing to death, being washed away, or heat stroke are just some of the deadly effects.

Some disasters cause more loss of life than others, and population density affects the death count as well. Fields saturated in salt water after tsunamis take years to grow crops again. Homes destroyed by floods, hurricanes, cyclones, landslides and avalanches, a volcanic eruption, or an earthquake are often beyond repair or take a lot of time to become livable again. Personal effects, memorabilia, vehicles, and documents also take a hit after many natural disasters. The natural disasters that really affect people worldwide tend to become more intense as the years go on. Frequency of earthquakes, mega storms, and heat waves has gone up considerably in the last few decades.

Heavy population in areas that get hit by floods, cyclones, and hurricanes has meant that more lives are lost. In some areas, the population has gotten somewhat prepared for the eventuality of disasters and shelters are built for hurricanes and tornadoes. Scientists, geologists, and storm watchers work hard to predict major disasters and avert as much damage as possible. But there arestill natural disasters that come up rather unexpectedly, such as earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, or even volcanic eruptions. Areas that are not used to disasters affected by flash floods or sudden hail storms can be affected in an extreme way. However, despite the many natural disasters the world over, mankind has shown amazing resilience. When an area or country is badly affected by a natural disaster, the reaction is always one of solidarity and aid is quick to come.

There are organizations set up with the primary goal of being prepared for natural disasters. These groups work on global and local scale rescue work. Many people talk about when a disaster has hit and their neighbours and countrymen have come to aid, often to their own loss. People will step in and donate items, time, and skills in order to help those affected by a natural disaster. Celebrities will often do what they can to raise money through concerts, phone marathons, and visiting affected areas with aid. People have also shown that they can rebuild, lives can be remade or start over. Trauma is a big after effect of natural disasters and getting counseling has been the focus of aid-to heal emotionally as well as physically.

However, science is making it more possible to predict, aid is faster at coming, and people are learning how to rebuild in safer areas. India is having a high risk towards earthquakes. During the last 20 years, India has experienced 10 major earthquakes that have resulted in more than 35, deaths. The most vulnerable areas, according to the present seismic zone map of India include the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan regions, Kutch and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Though the regions of the country away from the Himalayas and other inter-plate boundaries were considered to be relatively safe from damaging earthquakes, the presence of a large number of non-engineering structures and buildings with poor foundations in these areas make these regions also susceptible to earthquakes.

In the recent past, even these areas also have experienced earthquake, of lower magnitude than the Himalayan earthquakes. The North-eastern part of the country continues to experience moderate to strong earthquakes. On an average, this region experiences an earthquake with magnitude greater than 5. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are situated on an inter-plate boundary and therefore are likely to experience damaging earthquakes frequently. The increase in the use of high-technology equipment and tools in manufacturing and service industries have also made them susceptible to disruption due to relatively moderate ground shaking.

The country receives an annual precipitation of million hectare meters. The flood hazard is compounded by the problems of sediment deposition, drainage congestion and synchronization of river floods with sea tides in the coastal plains. The area vulnerable to floods is 40 million hectares and the average area affected by floods annually is about 8 million hectares. About 30 million people are affected by flood every year. Floods in the Indo-Gangetic-Brahmaputra plains are an annual feature. Drought prone areas comprise About 50 million people are affected annually by drought. Of approximately 90 million hectares of rain-fed areas, about 40 million hectares are prone to scanty or no rain.

Of these, the majority has their initial genesis over the Bay of Bengal and strike the east coast of India. On an average, five to six tropical cyclones form every year, of which two or three could be severe. Cyclones occur frequently on both the Coasts the West Coast —Arabian Sea; and the East Coast —Bay of Bengal. More Cyclones occur in the Bay of Bengal than in the Arabian Sea and the ratio is approximately An analysis of the frequency of cyclones on the East and West Coasts of India between and shows that nearly cyclones occurred 92 severe in a 50 km wide strip on the East Coast. Less severe cyclonic activity has been noticed on the West Coast, with 33 cyclones occurring in the same period, out of which 19 of these were severe.

In India, Tropical cyclones occur in the months of May-June and October-November. The cyclones of severe intensity and frequency in the north Indian Ocean are bi-modal in character, with their primary peak in November and secondary peak in May. The disaster potential is particularly high at the time of landfall in the north Indian Ocean Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea due to the accompanying destructive wind, storm surges and torrential rainfall. Of these, storm surges are the greatest killers of a cyclone, by which sea water inundates low lying areas of coastal regions and causes heavy floods, erodes beaches and embankments, destroys vegetation and reduces soil fertility.

In the hilly terrain of India including the Himalayas, landslides have been a major and widely spread natural disasters that often strike life and property and occupy a position of major concern. One of the worst tragedies took place at Malpa Uttrakhand on 11th and 17th August, When nearly people were killed when massive landslides washed away the entire village. This included 60 pilgrims going to Lake. Mansarovar in Tibet. In Cloud burst led flash mudslides and flash floods killed people, including 6 foreigners and injured more than and swept away number of houses, sweeping away buildings, bus stand and military installations in trans-Himalaya Leh town of Jammu and Kashmir.

Giving due consideration to the severity of the problem various land reform measures have been initiated as mitigation measures. Landslides occur in the hilly regions such as the Himalayas, North-East India, the Nilgiris, and Eastern and Western Ghats. Avalanches are river like speedy flow of snow or ice descending from the mountain tops. Avalanches are very damaging and cause huge loss to life and property. In Himalayas, avalanches are common in Drass, Pir Panijat, Lahaul-Spiti and Badrinath areas. As per Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment SASE , of Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO , on an average around 30 people are killed every year due to this disaster in various zones of the Himalayas. Beside killing people, avalanches also damage the roads and others properties and settlements falling in its way.

Tsunami, or seismic sea waves, are large ocean waves generated by impulses from geophysical events occurring on the ocean floor or along the coastline, such as earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions. Mostly occurring in the Pacific Ocean, tsunamis, although hardly noticeable at sea, can reach gigantic proportions as they reach shallow, coastal waters. In Hawaii and Japan, for example, tsunamis have been known to reach 30 m in height. At least 22 countries along the rim of the Pacific are estimated to beat risk from potential tsunami. The fact that tsunamis can travel 10, km at velocities exceeding km per hour with little loss of energy and are, therefore, capable of hitting areas not directly affected by the inducing event, has led to the establishment of a tsunami early warning service for the whole circum-Pacific area.

However, only a few of the 22 countries most at risk are considered to have standard operating procedures for immediate evacuation or reliable, rapid communication systems capable of receiving real-time warnings from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. About 6,people have been killed by tsunami during alone. Probably the best documented of these events is the occurrence at Noshiro, Japan, in which caused approximately deaths and extensive property damage and flooding. The tsunami Dec. Tsunamis have multiple origin— Over past two thousand years there have been 10, 00, deaths attributed to tsunami in the Pacific region alone.

Earlier Pacific Tsunami warning system was established for forecasting the event. Judged by the frequency with which they cause damage and by the surface area of the regions they strike, windstorms can be said to be the most significant of all natural hazards. Windstorms influence precipitation systems floods and, most importantly, cause severe destruction to crops and properties. Today increasing attention is being paid to windstorms, particularly tropical cyclones as some scientists see their incidence as being a possible indicator of global climatic change and predict an increase in their frequency.

Have tropical cyclone frequencies or their intensities increased with global changes throughout the last century? However, global listings of disasters rarely include those which occur in small states such as island states, which in areas such as the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South Pacific are particularly prone to tropical cyclones. This is because listings often set a criteria based on magnitude of impact with which small states cannot compete against larger countries. However, the proportional impact upon small states is often far greater in terms of population, housing and economics. The impact of cyclones goes far beyond just deaths and building damage.

In developing countries destruction of infrastructure and primary agriculture can lead to a decrease in exports and gross national product, while increasing the likelihood of forfeiture of international loan repayments. Contamination of water supplies and destruction of crops can also lead to disease and starvation. Many mid-latitude cyclonic depressions can give rise to exceptionally heavy rain and widespread flooding and snow fall too. Dust storms are windstorms accompanied by suspended clay, silt materials, usually but not always without precipitation. Average million tonnes of dust are entrained by winds each year. Severe windstorms with high level of flush rain often called thunderstorms associated with lightning, hail and tornadoes cause massive destruction of properties and also human lives through out the world.

Early warning and emergency relief operation are the major management activity. Forest or bush fire, though not causing much loss to human life, is a major hazard for forest cover in the country. As per Forest Survey of India report, 50 per cent of the forest cover of the country is fire prone, out of which 6. Average annual physical loss due to forest fire in the country is estimated to worth Rs. The major loss due to forest fire is caused to the environment which gets adversely affected by this calamity.

Cause & Effect Essay: Natural Disasters and Their Causes,Latest Posts

WebNatural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and hurricanes inflict serious damage and so seem to be bad for the economy. For firms, natural disasters destroy WebJan 25,  · Nature possesses the character of a special balance in which all living beings live together in harmony with their environment. But whenever this balance is disturbed, WebSep 1,  · The sudden and extreme events caused by environmental factors that injure people and damage property are known as Natural Disaster. Earthquakes, windstorms, WebOne common natural disaster is flooding, which occurs when a river bursts its banks and the water spills out onto the floodplain. This is far more likely to happen when there is a great WebJun 15,  · A disaster is any natural or human made incident that causes disruption, destruction or devastation requiring external assistance (Stanhope & Lancaster ). It WebJan 27,  · 64 Natural Disasters Essay Topics Why are the Great Plains of the central US ideal for tornado formation? Research the atmospheric parameters inside a ... read more

On an average, five to six tropical cyclones form every year, of which two or three could be severe. It includes meaning, types, causes, images and political consequences of natural disasters. axis s. In East Asian government chronicles, such worries were recorded during a low-profile way as an unlucky name or place requiring change. find "img". Landslides: Landslides generally occur in mountains or hilly areas. So disaster preparedness is in a state of readiness to contain the effects of a forecasted disastrous event to minimize loss of life, injury, and damage to property, it can provide rescue, relief, rehabilitation, and other services in the aftermath of the disaster.

Use our essay topic generator to get more ideas. Some the natural disasters are now predictable before their occurrence but prevention of most natural phenomena is about next to impossible. Disasters happen when a risk realized overwhelms the response capability of the community. But we can reduce the quantity of damage by an essay on natural disasters upcoming natural disaster. Home — Essay Samples — Environment — Disasters — Natural Disasters.