NATURAL OR MAN-MADE DISASTER?

A. BASIC DEFINITION OF DISASTER

According to Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Disaster is defined as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community to cope using its own resources. Other definition of Disaster is an event, either man-made or natural, sudden or progressive, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses. Apparently, The underlined impacts of disaster are the occurrence of large number of victims/looses of lives and country’s economical losses.

As mentioned above, disaster occurs due to many causes, either natural causes or man-made causes. To elaborate the definition of the term of disaster, some types of disaster are presented as examples representing the explanation of what does disaster mean.

B. NATURAL DISASTER

Natural Disaster defined as an emergency situation posing significant danger to life and property that resulted from natural causes/forces (http://www. thefreedictionary.com/Natural+disaster). It also can be described as large-scale crisis or damages which are caused by the forces of nature (http://dictionary.babylon.com/ natural%20disaster ).
There are many types of natural disasters that can be described, but in order to make it easier to be understood, natural disasters can be divided into five categories based on the triggering hazards that can cause disasters, which are:

1. Biological Disaster
A biological hazard or biohazard is an organism, or substance derived from an organism, that poses a threat to (primarily) human health. This can include medical waste or samples of a microorganism, virus or toxin (from a biological source) that can impact human health. It can also include substances harmful to animals. The term and its associated symbol is generally used as a warning, so that those potentially exposed to the substances will know to take precautions. There is also a biohazard HCS/Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) logo which utilizes the same symbol.

The United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categorizes various diseases in levels of biohazard, Level 1 being minimum risk and Level 4 being extreme risk.
• Biohazard Level 1: Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria.

• Biohazard Level 2: Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, and HIV.

• Biohazard Level 3: Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.

• Biohazard Level 4: Exclusively viruses that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu) dengue fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Y. Pestis and other hemorrhagic diseases.

Defining an epidemic can be subjective, depending in a part on what is "expected". An epidemic may be restricted to one local (an outbreak), more general (an "epidemic") or even global (pandemic). Because it is based on what is "expected" or thought normal, a few cases of a very rare disease like rabies may be classified as an "epidemic," while many cases of a common disease (like the common cold) would not.

a. Endemic diseases
Common diseases that occur at a constant but relatively low rate in the population are said to be "endemic." An example of an endemic disease is malaria in some parts of Africa (for example, Liberia) in which a large portion of the population is expected to get malaria at some point in their lifetimes (www.en.wikipedia.org)

b. Non-infectious disease usage

The term "epidemic" is often used in a sense to refer to widespread and growing societal problems, for example, in discussions of obesity, mental illness or drug addiction. It can also be used metaphorically to relate a type of problem like those mentioned above.

2. Geophysical Disaster
a. Earthquake: a shaking of the Earths surface. Earthquakes happen when energy stored in the rocky layer under Earths surface is released in waves.
b. Tsunami: huge waves caused by an earthquake, volcanoes or Landslides under an ocean or sea.
c. Volcano: a mountain or hill formed by the build-up of ash and lava through one or more openings (or vents) in the surface of the earth.

Some of the deadliest natural disasters caused by geophysical factors around the world in the past 40 years are (The Huffington Post, June 11, 2008, from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/worst-natural-disasters-l_n_106564. html):













- May 12, 2008: Earthquake (magnitude 7.9) hits Sichuan province in central China. More than 69,000 people are killed and over 17,000 remain missing.
- October 2005: Northern Pakistan earthquake (magnitude 7.6) kills about 78,000 people.
- December 2003: Southeastern Iran earthquake (magnitude 6.5) kills 26,000.
- August 1999: Western Turkey earthquake (magnitude 7.4) kills 17,000.- December 2004: Indian Ocean tsunami (triggered by magnitude 9.0 earthquake ) kills 230,000 in a dozen countries.












3. Climatological Disaster
a. Drought: abnormally dry weather that damages crops and causes reservoirs and wells to dry up
b. Forest Fire: also called wild land fires are spread by the transfer of heat in grass, brush, shrubs, and trees.

4. Hydrological Disaster

a. Flood: an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows, with the result that some of the water escapes its normal boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless such escapes of water endangers land areas used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area.









Floods can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows out of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders and cause damage to homes and businesses along such rivers. While flood damage can be virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of mind, man has lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel and commerce by being near water. That humans continue to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is only evidence that the value of being near the water far exceeds the costs of repeated periodic flooding.

5. Meterological Disaster

a. Blizzard: a severe storm with very cold strong winds and a lot of snow; most common in the western U.S.

b. Cyclone: an area of low pressure surrounding by strong blowing winds that cause
c. Hurricane: a severe rainstorm that is actually a type of cyclone. It starts over oceans near the equator, especially near the West Indies, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
d. Tornado: a very strong windstorm that usually forms over land, and looks like a spinning funnel coming from a dark cloud. It usually has little rain. It sometimes also called as Twister.

e. Tropical Storm: a strong rainstorm (not as violent as a hurricane) that starts over oceans and seas near the equator.

f. Typhoon: a type of cyclone that starts over the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Some of the deadliest natural disasters caused by meteorological factors around the world in the past 40 years are (The Huffington Post, June 11, 2008):
- August 2005: U.S. Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina kills at least 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.
- May 2-3, 2008: Cyclone Nargis strikes Myanmar, killing at least 78,000 and leaving 56,000 others missing.

C. MAN-MADE DISASTER

Man-made hazards are threats having an element of human intent, negligence, error or involving a failure of a system. Man-made disasters are the result of man-made hazards for which adequate emergency management measures have not been adopted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-made_hazards).

Based on its triggering factors, man-made disaster can be divided into two categories (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Man-made+hazards) as follows:

1. Sociological Disaster
a. Arson

Arson is the criminal intent of setting a fire with intent to cause damage. The definition of arson was originally limited to setting fire to buildings, but was later expanded to include other objects, such as bridges, vehicles, and private property. Arson is the greatest cause of fires in data repositories. Sometimes, human-induced fires can be accidental: failing machinery such as a kitchen stove is a major cause of accidental fires.

b. Civil disorder

Civil disorder is a broad term that is typically used by law enforcement to describe one or more forms of disturbance. Examples of disastrous civil disorder include, but are not necessarily limited to: riots; sabotage; and other forms of crime. Although civil disorder does not necessarily escalate to a disaster in all cases, the event may escalate into general chaos. Rioting has many causes, from low minimum wage to racial segregation. There were riots in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California in 1968 and 1992. The 1992 riots which started at the intersections of Florence and Normandee streets started immediately after the Rodney King verdict was announced on live TV. About 50 people died in the 1992 riots.

c. Terrorism

Terrorism is a controversial term with multiple definitions. One definition means a violent action targeting civilians exclusively. Another definition is the use or threatened use of violence for the purpose of creating fear in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological goal. Under the second definition, the targets of terrorist acts can be anyone, including civilians, government officials, military personnel, or people serving the interests of governments. In the early 21st century, terrorism has been considered by some a constant threat to all people of the world, after the worst disaster of its kind struck in 2001 (predominantly known as September 11th, 2001, the date of the attack), in which four airliners were hijacked from American international airports: two were flown by the hijackers into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, causing both to collapse, another was possibly flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a final was forced down by passengers' action into a small field in Stonycreek Township outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A total of just under 3,000 people were killed. In 2004, a series of bombings struck several waiting passenger cars in a Madrid, Spain, train station, and in 2005 the transportation systems of London were bombed in four synchronized locations (some times know as the 7/7 bombings).

d. War

War is conflict, between relatively large groups of people, which involves physical force inflicted by the use of weapons. Warfare has destroyed entire cultures, countries, economies and inflicted great suffering on humanity. Other terms for war can include armed conflict, hostilities, and police action. Acts of war are normally excluded from insurance contracts and disaster planning.

2. Technological Disaster
a. Industrial hazards
Industrial disasters occur in a commercial context, such as mining disasters. They often have an environmental impact.
b. Structure collapse

Structure collapses are often caused by engineering failures. Bridge failures may be caused in several ways, such as under-design as in the Tay Rail Bridge, by corrosion attack such as in the Silver Bridge and by aerodynamic flutter of the deck as in the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Failure of dams was not infrequent during the Victorian period, such as the Dale Dyke dam failure in Sheffield, England in the 1860s, causing the Great Sheffield Flood. Other failures include balcony collapses.

c. Power outage

A power outage is an interruption of normal sources of electrical power. Short-term power outages (up to a few hours) are common and have minor adverse effect, since most businesses and health facilities are prepared to deal with them. Extended power outages, however, can disrupt personal and business activities as well as medical and rescue services, leading to business losses and medical emergencies. Extended loss of power can lead to civil disorder, as in the New York City blackout of 1977. Only very rarely do power outages escalate to disaster proportions, however, they often accompany other types of disasters, such as hurricanes and floods, which hampers relief efforts.

d. Fire

Bush fires, forest fires and mine fires are generally started by lightning, but also by human negligence or arson. They can burn thousands of square kilometers. If a fire intensifies enough to produce its own winds and "weather", it will form into a firestorm. A good example of a mine fire is the one near Centralia, Pennsylvania: started in 1962, it ruined the town and continues to burn today. Some of the biggest city-related fires are The Great Chicago Fire, The Peshtigo Fire (both of 1871) and The Great Fire of London in 1666.

e. Radiation contamination

When nuclear weapons are detonated or nuclear containment systems are otherwise compromised, airborne radioactive particles Nuclear fallout can scatter and irradiate large areas. Not only is it deadly, but it is also a long-term effect on the next-generation for those who are contaminated. Ionizing radiation is hazardous to living things, and in such a case much of the affected area could be unsafe for human habitation. In the 1940s United States troops dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: as a result, the radiation fallout contaminated the cities' water supplies and food sources, and half of the populations of each city were stricken with disease. The Soviet republics of Ukraine and Belarus are part of a scenario like this after a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant suffered a meltdown in 1986. To this day, several small towns and the city of Chernobyl remain abandoned and uninhabitable due to fallout. In the 1970s a similar threat scared millions of Americans when a failure occurred at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania, which was fortunately resolved with little contamination resulting.that was great writing

g. CBRNs

A catch-all initialism meaning Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear. The term is used to describe a non-conventional terror threat that, if used by a nation, would be considered use of a weapon of mass destruction. This term is used primarily in the United Kingdom. Planning for the possibility of a CBRN event may be appropriate for certain high-risk or high-value facilities and governments. Examples include the Halabja poison gas attack on the Kurdish purported by Saddam Hussein, the Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo and the preceding test runs in Matsumoto, Japan 100 kilometers outside of Tokyo, and Lord Amherst giving smallpox laden blankets to Native Americans.

f. Transportation

Disasters have afflicted travellers by train, bus, and ship. One of the largest transportation disasters in history, not involving an act of War, is the shipwreck of the RMS Titanic, due to the collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean.

h. Aviation

An aviation incident is an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations, passengers or pilots. The category of the vehicle can range from a helicopter, an airliner, or a space shuttle. One of the more devastating events occurred 1977 on the island of Tenerife of the Canary Islands, when miscommunications between and amongst air traffic control and an aircrew caused two fully loaded jets (KLM and Pan-Am) to collide on the runway, killing over 550 passengers.

i. Space disasters

Space disasters, either during operations or training, have killed around 20 astronauts and cosmonauts, and a much larger number of ground crew and civilians. These disasters include either malfunctions on the ground, during launch or in orbit with technology, or of natural forces. Not all are space disasters result in human fatalities: unmanned orbiting satellites that drop to the Earth can incinerate and send debris spewing across the sky. One of the worst manned space disasters, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion of 1986, cost all of the lives on board. The shuttle exploded several seconds after taking off from the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Another example is the Space Shuttle Columbia which disintegrated during a landing attempt over Texas in 2003, with a loss of 7 astronauts on board. The debris field extended as far as from eastern New Mexico to Mississippi. An example of a space disaster killing nearby residents occurred on the 15 February 1996, in Sichuan Province, China, when a Long March 3B rocket crashed at takeoff.