Natural disaster
In 1976, scholars began challenging the term natural disaster as a misnomer. Terry Cannon published Vulnerability Analysis and The Explanation Of Natural Disasters in 1994 to argue that disasters result from the combination of hazards and vulnerable communities. An earthquake is a hazard which caused the 1906 San Francisco earthquake disaster. A natural hazard is a threat of an event that will likely have a negative impact. A natural disaster is the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community. Nature alone is blamed for disasters even when disasters result from failures in development. Poor land and policy planning and deregulation can create worse conditions. They often involve development activities that ignore or fail to reduce the disaster risks. Using natural to describe disasters misleads people to think the devastating results are inevitable, out of our control, and are simply part of a natural process. Hazards like earthquakes, hurricanes, pandemics, drought etc. are inevitable, but the impact they have on society is not.
Between 1995 and 2015, the greatest number of natural disasters occurred in America, China and India. In 2012, there were 905 natural disasters worldwide, 93% of which were weather-related disasters. Overall costs were US$170 billion and insured losses $70 billion. The Asia-Pacific region is the world's most disaster prone region. A person in Asia-Pacific is five times more likely to be hit by a natural disaster than someone living in other regions. As of 2019, the countries with the highest share of disability-adjusted life years lost due to natural disasters are Bahamas, Haiti, Zimbabwe and Armenia. Direct losses from disasters have averaged above US$330 billion annually between 2015 and 2021. Global economic losses due to extreme weather, climate and water events are increasing. Costs have increased sevenfold from the 1970s to the 2010s. Developing countries often have ineffective communication systems as well as insufficient support for disaster risk reduction and emergency management. This makes them more vulnerable to natural disasters than high income countries. Globally, the total number of deaths from natural disasters has been reduced by 75% over the last 100 years.
In the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, more women died than men, partly due to the fact that fewer women knew how to swim. During and after a natural disaster, women are at increased risk of being affected by gender based violence and are increasingly vulnerable to sexual violence. Disrupted police enforcement, lax regulations, and displacement all contribute to increased risk of gender based violence and sexual assault. Pregnant women are one of the groups disproportionately affected by natural disasters. Inadequate nutrition, little access to clean water, lack of health-care services and psychological stress in the aftermath of the disaster can lead to a significant increase in maternal morbidity and mortality. The death rate from natural disasters is highest in developing countries due to the lower quality of building construction, infrastructure, and medical facilities. Some things can make natural disasters worse. Examples are inadequate building norms, marginalization of people and poor choices on land use planning. Many developing countries do not have proper disaster risk reduction systems. Once a vulnerable population has experienced a disaster, the community can take many years to repair and that repair period can lead to further vulnerability.
The 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy in which the town of Armero was buried and an estimated 23,000 people were killed. An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking, and sometimes displacement of the ground. Volcanic ash may form a cloud and settle thickly in nearby locations. When mixed with water, this forms a concrete-like material. In sufficient quantities, ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight. Even small quantities will harm humans if inhaled. It has the consistency of ground glass and therefore causes laceration to the throat and lungs. The main killer of humans in the immediate surroundings of a volcanic eruption is pyroclastic flows, consisting of a cloud of hot ash which builds up in the air above the volcano and rushes down the slopes when the eruption no longer supports the lifting of the gases. It is believed that Pompeii was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow. A tsunami occurred near Fukushima, Japan on the 11th of March 2011 and spread through the Pacific Ocean.
In January 2025 megafires destroyed several sectors of Los Angeles. On land heat waves coupled with severe winds are now causing hundreds of major wildfires every year, burning thousands of square kilometers of forests. Well-known historical droughts include the 1997, 2009 Millennium Drought in Australia which led to a water supply crisis across much of the country. In 2011, the State of Texas lived under a drought emergency declaration for the entire calendar year and suffered severe economic losses. The deadliest hurricane ever was the 1970 Bhola cyclone; the deadliest Atlantic hurricane was the Great Hurricane of 1780, which devastated Martinique, St. Eustatius and Barbados. Another notable hurricane is Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005. Hurricanes may become more intense and produce more heavy rainfall as a consequence of human-induced climate change. A particularly damaging hailstorm hit Munich, Germany, on the 12th of July 1984, causing about $2 billion in insurance claims. The Great Blizzard of 1888 affected the United States, when many tons of wheat crops were destroyed.
The tsunami in Japan in 2011 produced huge amounts of debris: estimates of 5 million tonnes of waste were reported by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Some of this waste, mostly plastic and styrofoam washed up on the coasts of Canada and the United States in late 2011. Along the west coast of the United States, this increased the amount of litter by a factor of 10. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the generation of waste from relief operations was referred to as a second disaster. The United States military reported that millions of water bottles and styrofoam food packages were distributed although there was no operational waste management system. Over 700,000 plastic tarpaulins and 100,000 tents were required for emergency shelters. The increase in plastic waste, combined with poor disposal practices, resulted in open drainage channels being blocked, increasing the risk of disease. A study by Lo et al. in 2020 reported a 100% increase in the amount of microplastics on beaches surveyed following a typhoon in Hong Kong in 2018.
Some evidence, based on data from the United States, reveals that incumbent parties can lose votes if citizens perceives them as responsible for a poor disaster response or gain votes based on perceptions of well-executed relief work. Disasters stress government capacity, as the government tries to conduct routine as well as emergency operations. Some theorists of voting behavior propose that citizens update information about government effectiveness based on their response to disasters, which affects their vote choice in the next election. The latter study also finds, however, that voters do not reward incumbent parties for disaster preparedness, which may end up affecting government incentives to invest in such preparedness. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the cornerstone documents for refugee protection and population displacement. The 1998 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and 2009 Kampala Convention protect people displaced due to natural disasters. Disaster management is a main function of civil protection authorities. It should address all four of the phases of disasters: mitigation and prevention, disaster response, recovery and preparedness.
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Common questions
What is the definition of a natural disaster according to Terry Cannon?
A natural disaster is the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community. This concept emerged from 1994 publications by Terry Cannon which argued that disasters result from the combination of hazards and vulnerable communities rather than nature alone.
Which countries experienced the greatest number of natural disasters between 1995 and 2015?
Between 1995 and 2015, the greatest number of natural disasters occurred in America, China and India. The Asia-Pacific region remains the world's most disaster prone region where a person is five times more likely to be hit by a natural disaster than someone living in other regions.
How did the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami affect women differently than men?
During the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami more women died than men partly due to the fact that fewer women knew how to swim. Women are at increased risk of being affected by gender based violence during and after a natural disaster due to disrupted police enforcement and lax regulations.
What caused the 1985 Armero tragedy and how many people were killed?
The 1985 Armero tragedy was caused by a lahar as was the 1953 Tangiwai disaster. An estimated 23,000 people were killed when the town of Armero was buried by volcanic ash which forms a concrete-like material when mixed with water.
When did megafires destroy several sectors of Los Angeles according to the script text?
In January 2025 megafires destroyed several sectors of Los Angeles. On land heat waves coupled with severe winds are now causing hundreds of major wildfires every year burning thousands of square kilometers of forests.