Disaster Management - An Overview

When a  cyclone, or an earthquake or a terrorist attack strikes our world, we all start talking about the ill preparedness of the State in dealing with it or in other words we say the Disaster management was not good.

I have tried my bit to explain the various facets, meanings and usage of various terms related to Disaster Management used by a common man in day to day life ( to begin with).  I shall be writing about what to do to save yourself and your family and your community when a disaster strikes.

But, as a starter, let's see what the terms actually mean....


What is a Hazard?

Hazard is a dangerous event, natural or human induced that could cause injury, loss of life or damage to property, livelihood or environment.  a hazard could be natural, socio-natural or human induced. 

What is a Disaster?

A disaster whether natural or human-induced, is an event which results in widespread human loss.  It is accompanied by loss of livelihood, property causing suffering and loss in a definite area (Say a cyclone)

When Does a Hazard lead to a disaster?

A disaster occurs when the impact of hazard on a section of society is such that the people are unable to cope with the event, causing death, injury, loss of property and/or economic losses. An earthquake, if occurs in a very low populated area like a Desert may not have that impact as it would have in a densely populated city, hence here a hazard can become a disaster.

What is vulnerability?

It is the condition determined by physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards. People living in highly dense residential areas with bad exit routes are more physically vulnerable. People who are socially and economically under-privileged, obviously living in kutcha houses, or in low lying flood prone areas are more vulnerable.  Also, small children, women, old people are socially vulnerable group which will affected more severely than others.

What is Mitigation?

Mitigation, as we know is 'Any measure taken to minimize the impact of a disaster or potential disaster.  Mitigation can take place before, during or after a disaster, but the term is most often used to refer to actions taken against potential disasters."


How does Mitigation help the society?

Mitigation efforts help the people by creating safer communities and reducing loss of life and property.  Mitigation measures include enforcing strict building codes (in earthquake prone areas), flood proofing requirements, construction of houses away from hazardous areas etc

What is Disaster management?

Disaster Management covers the range of activities designed to maintain control over disasters/emergency situations and to provide a framework for helping people to avoid, reduce the effects of, or recover from impact of a disaster.  These activities may be related to preparedness, mitigation, emergency response, relief and recovery(Reconstruction and rehabilitation) and may be conducted before, during or after a disaster (Source : Living with Risk, UN ISDR 2002)

The various stages of Disaster Management

Finally, just would like to add that more emphasis in our country is on the rescue and relief operations and less on the preparedness to minimize the effect of a disaster. 

Dear reader, a big part of the northern India is in the seismic zone, prone to earthquake, therefore, to start, I shall bring out the points to be taken care of in the advent of an earthquake, the do's and the don'ts and the emergency kit that all households should have.

take care


RESTLESS

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