“Disaster, Types and Classification”

Introduction:
Disaster is a sudden calamitous event bringing great damages, loss
anddestruction and devastation to life and property. The damage caused by
disaster isimmeasurable and varies with the geographical location, climate and
the type of theearth surface degree of vulnerability. This influences the mental,
socio – economic,political and cultural state of the affected area. It may also be
termed as a serious disruption of the functioning of society,causing wide
spreads human, material or environment losses which exceed the abilityof the
affected society to scope using its own resources.
Etymology of Disaster:
The term “DISASTER” owes its origin to French word “Disastre”, which
acombination of two words “Des” meaning “Bad” and “Aster” meaning “Star”
thus theterm Disaster refers to “Bad or Evil Star”. In earlier days disasters were
considered tobe an outcome or outburst of some unfavorable star.
Definition of the term ‘Disaster’:
There are many different definitions of disaster. Most such definitionstend to
reflect the following characteristics:
• Disruption to normal patterns of life. Such disruption is usually severeand may
also be sudden, unexpected, and widespread.
• Human effects such as loss of life, injury, hardship, and adverseeffect on
health.
• Effects on social structure such as destruction of or damage togovernment
systems, buildings, communications, and essential services.
• Community needs such as shelter, food, clothing, medical assistance,and
social care.
Ideally, a disaster may be defined as an event concentrated in time andsolace
which threatens a society or a relative self-sufficient subdivision of a
societywith major unwanted consequences as a result of the collapse of
precautions whichhad hitter to been culturally accepted as adequate.

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A disaster can be defined as “A serious disruption in thefunctioning of the
community or a societycausing wide spread material, economic,social or
environmental losses which exceedthe ability of the affected society to
copeusing its own resources”.
Disaster according to ‘Disaster Management Act 2005’ means a
catastrophic,mishap, calamity on grave occurrences in any area, arising from
natural or manmadecauses or by accident on negligence which results in
substantial loss a life or humansuffering or damage to and destruction of
property on damage to or degradation ofenvironment and is of such a nature or
magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacityof the community of the affected
area.
In common parlance, the terms, disaster and crisis, are used interchangeably,or
synonymously. But strictly speaking, they have different meanings. According
tothe New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the English
Language,the term, disaster, means crushing misfortune, a calamity, a terrible
accident, and theterm, crisis, means a turning point in the progress of an affair,
or a series of events,critical moment.
Type of disasters
There are two types of disasters namely natural disasters and man-made
disasters. Forexample: fire, accidents (road, rail or air), industrial accidents or
epidemics are some ofthe examples of man-made disasters, both natural and
man-made disasters which havedevastating input resulting loss of human life,
loss of livelihoods, property and environmentaldegradation. Disasters disrupts
normal functioning of society and leave long lasting impact.Earth quake,
cyclone, flood and drought are examples of natural disasters.
1. Natural disasters are hazards which are caused because of natural
phenomenahazards with meteorological, geological or even biological origin).
Examplesof natural hazards are cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakeand volcanic
eruption which are exclusively of natural origin. Landslides,floods, drought,
fires are socio-natural hazards since their causes are bothnatural and man-made.
For example flooding may be caused because of heavyrains, landslide or
blocking of drains with human waste.

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Natural Disasters are further classified as below:
Disaster Definition Disaster Main Type
Subgroup
Geophysical Events originating from solid earth Earthquake, Volcano, Mass
Movement (dry)
Meteorological Events caused by short‐lived/small to Storm
meso scale atmospheric processes (in
the spectrum from minutes to days)
Hydrological Events caused by deviations in the Flood, Mass Movement (wet)
normal water cycle and/or overflow
of bodies of water caused by wind
set‐up
Climatological Events caused by long‐lived/meso to Extreme Temperature, Drought,
macro scale processes (in the Wildfire
spectrum from intra‐seasonal to
multi‐decadal climate variability)
Biological Disaster caused by the exposure of Epidemic, Insect Infestation, Animal
living organisms to germs and toxic Stampede
substances

2. Manmade disasters are hazards which are due to human

negligence.Manmade hazards are associated with industries or energy
generation facilitiesand include explosions, leakage of toxic waste, pollution,
dam failure, wars orcivil strife etc.
Examples for man-made Disasters are;

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Fire, Air, Rail and Road traffic accidents, industrial accidents Etc
Conclusion:
In nature catastrophes such as floods, drought, earth quake, tsunami, happen
from time totime causing immense damage to life and property. Most of the
world’s natural disasters occur in Asia and the Pacific. Theycause enormous
destruction and human suffering. It is important to devise means andmethods to
manage and minimize from natural disasters as far as possible.Disasters caused
by human activities such as fires, accidents, epidemics are no less suddenthan
natural disasters and may be equally devastating. There need to be a proper
disaster management strategy, broadly at community level, as well as
individually in the disaster prone areas.

References:
1. S.L. Goel, Encyclopedia of Disaster Management,Vol-1,Deep and Deep Publications,
NewDelhi,2006. P3
2. ‘Disaster and their management’, epaper taken from the environmental issues, module IV.
3. Activity book on ‘Disaster Management for School Children’ By National Institute of
Disaster Management.
4. Disaster management: a disaster manager’s handbook, Carter, W. Nick.(Mandaluyong
City, Phil.: Asian Development Bank, 2008).
5. Lecture notes on Disaster Management by Drkavitha Singh, Civil Engineering Institute of
Aeronautical Engineering, Dundigal, Hyderabad.
6. Natural Hazzards and Disaster Mangement: A supplementary Textbook in Geography for
class XI, by CBSE, PreethVihar, Delhi.
7. Module 4.3: Disaster Management, Materials written and compiled by Sue Lauer, William
Laisut (OLSH Kabaleo TC), SimonPakari (PNGEI) and Neville Unduka (PNGEI). By
Primary and Secondary Teacher Education ProjectAustralian Agency for International
Development (AusAID)GRM International.
8. Disaster Category Classification and peril Terminology for Operational Purposes, by
Regina Below, CRED, Angelika Wirtz, Munich RE, Debarati GUHA-SAPIR, CRED -
Common accordCentre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) andMunich
Reinsurance Company (Munich RE ).