Tsunami, landslides, floods, heat waves, earthquakes, and wildfires, just to name a few are some of the leading disasters that can strike without warning. A natural disaster could result in several effects for both developed and developing countries. Several developing countries today face grave effects of natural disasters, especially in the economic sector, where they are ravished by poverty, debt, and a social services system that is breaking down. In case a natural disaster occurs in a developing country, the severity of the side effects depends on how big the disaster was. While natural disasters are wholly caused by nature, and we do have not much power over their occurrence, several natural causes result in natural disasters. It is important that countries are aware of these natural causes will enable us to be better prepared in case such disasters occur. There are three types of natural disasters, which include geological disasters, hydrological disasters, and meteorological disasters. Let us look into these in detail:
Geological disasters
Geological disasters occur when our activities are affected by natural geological processes, either through economic loss, injury, or loss of life. A geological hazard is a possible geological disaster. The impacts of geological disasters are comparatively minor in the provinces of Labrador and Newfoundland in comparison to most regions in the world. This region is mostly hazard-proof because this region is a mostly inactive seismic area with a low population density. However, geological hazards and disasters still result in a major social and economic cost to the province. Such disasters are preventable or avoidable to differing degrees if the hazards are identified promptly. Examples of geological eruptions include volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, earthquakes, and avalanches. An earthquake results after a sudden ejection of seismic energy into the planet’s crust, which results in a massive land eruption and geological shaking. The best way to reduce the risk of an earthquake is through preparation, which includes earthquake engineering, preparedness, and prediction. Earthquake engineering aims at minimizing seismic risk through civil and mechanical engineering, earthquake preparedness involves an evacuation plan and emergency management of an earthquake-prone region, and earthquake prediction is the incorporation of seismic and geological measures to predict the particular place and approximate time when an earthquake is most likely to occur. An avalanche is a rapid and unpredicted flow of snow on an incline, which results whenever a natural or human-made activity pushes a snowpack beyond its critical point. Several precautionary measures can be taken to prevent the occurrence of avalanches. In addition to incorporating artificial barriers and ski advisories that will guide the flow of snow, the safety administrators can also make use of controlled denotations to eliminate smaller avalanches, which will break down the heavily accumulated snow into tinier fragments that are more manageable.
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Hydrological disasters
Hydrological disasters are harmful, violent, and sharp amendments either to the movement, distribution, or quality of the earth’s water that is ashore in the atmosphere or below the earth’s surface. These kinds of disasters include tsunamis, floods, tidal waves, and in some cases, limnic eruptions. A flood is an overflow of large expanses of water, which ends up submerging land, vegetation, and buildings. According to the EU Floods directive, a flood is a brief submersion of land which was previously not lined with water by water masses. With the idea of “flowing water” in mind, this term could be used to define an influx of a tide. Flooding could result after a water body like a dam, or a lake breaks its boundaries and levels resulting in large amounts of water escaping the usual dimensions of the water body. The levels of flooding usually vary with the seasonal changes in snow softening and precipitation. However, a flood cannot be considered major unless the water spans across a large piece of land that is occupied by man such as expanses of farmland, a town, a village, etc. Human-made and natural flood disasters pose a major disaster to both humans and their property. The risks presented can be high, especially when ignored or there is a failure of proper precautions being taken. The most commonly experienced natural disasters in Myanmar are usually tropical clones and are associated with drought, surges, and floods. Some of the most notable floods in history include The Johnstown Flood that occurred in 1889, where more than 2200 people lost their lives. The Nice Flood that occurred in 1993, resulted in the most financial impacts that a flood has ever caused in US history. The North Sea Flood occurred in 19553, where 2251 people lost their lives in Japanese England and the European nation. The Yellow River (Hwang Ho) in China Flood occurred in 1931 and resulted in approximately 800,000 to 4,000,000 deaths. A limnic eruption is very rare, and it occurs when a gas erupts unexpectedly from deep lake waters, resulting in a threat to suffocative humans, life, and the placental mammal. Such an eruption could also result in tsunamis within the lake because of the rising gas results in water displacement. Scientists believe that volcanic activity, explosions, and landslides usually trigger the occurrence of a limnic eruption. To date, there has only been a record of two limnic eruptions that were ascertained. The first was the eruption in the Cameroonian Lake Monoun in 1984, which resulted in the death of thirty-seven people. The second limnic eruption was recorded in 1986 at Lake Nyos, and it resulted in the death of 1,700 to 1,800 individuals. Tsunamis result from subsurface earthquakes, for example, the one that resulted from the Indian Ocean Earthquake in 2004, or landslides, for example, the one that happened at Lituya Bay in Alaska.
Hydro-Meteorological disasters
Hydro-Meteorological hazards usually result from extreme climatic and meteorological events such as hurricanes, droughts, floods, mudslides, and landslides. They are the main causes of most of the natural hazards reported in most parts of the world. Strong winds, severe storms, droughts, and floods could also occur at varying spatial-temporal scales, but they could eventually become disasters that cause infrastructure damage, fatalities, and multiple deaths across the world. Multiple hazards usually coincide with a single extreme weather event. Not only do these result in material damage, injuries, and deaths, but a tropical storm could also result in mudslides and flooding, which could disrupt the sewerage and water purification systems. The latter could result in the increased spread of mosquito-borne diseases and an overflow of toxic wastes. The rise in the occurrence of such extreme events resulting from an accelerated global water cycle could induce an increased risk to human beings and livestock, especially for those living in floodplains and other areas that are susceptible to landslides with the increasing growth in the human population. For all the discussed natural disasters, the government works very hard to keep up with the situation and to cope with it. Some countries already have a functional disaster management cell, while in others, there is a well-planned outlaw and order system that promptly responds to any reported case of a natural disaster. The problem with most countries is that their disaster recovery plans are usually outdated, and a single occurrence of the same meets the government unprepared. There are also few numbers of properly trained people as far as natural disasters are concerned, and implementing a recovery program is hard. It is very crucial that government and humanitarian agencies learn how to effectively monitor and forecast the evolution, occurrence, and intensity of a natural disaster. Such preparedness will help the agencies when it comes to their efforts in preparing, mitigating, and managing their responses to disasters to help limit damage and save lives. Through science, new technologies such as remote modeling and sensing have been developed, which have proven to be very key when it comes to providing timely information regarding any hazardous occurrence. While natural disasters are wholly caused by nature, and we have no such power over their occurrence, several natural causes result in natural disasters. It is important that countries are aware of these natural causes will enable us to be better prepared in case such disasters occur.
References
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National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Assessing the Costs of Natural Disasters. (1999). The impacts of natural disasters: A framework for loss estimation
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Rattray, M., & National Research Council (U.S.). Committee to Review the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Studies Program. Physical Oceanography Panel. (1990). Assessment of the u.S. outer continental shelf environmental studies program (Vol. I, physical oceanography /). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
