1.

Disaster
A disaster is a serious disruption, occurring over a relatively short time, of the functioning of a
community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss
and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own
resources. In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of
inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of a combination of both hazards and
vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability will never become disasters, as in
the case of uninhabited regions.

2. Natural disaster (Different between nature and man-made)

A natural disaster is a disaster caused by nature, and men have no control over them. Earthquakes,
tsunamis, floods, landslides, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, volcanic eruptions are some examples
of natural disasters. Such disasters cause massive loss of life, property, and many other miseries.
Let’s look at some of these examples in more details to have a better idea about the damages caused
by natural disasters. Floods are one of the most common natural disasters that occur in many
regions of the world every year. Flood can be defined as a rising and overflowing of a body of
water onto normally dry land. Heavy rainfall in a short duration of time can result in a flood.
Although the loss of lives in a flood may be not as high as a tsunami or earthquake, floods result
in many long term problems. Damage to human properties (houses, roads, bridges, power lines,
etc.), shortage of food and drinking water, destruction of forests and animals, the spread of
diseases, soil erosion are some effects of floods.

Natural disasters are caused by natural phenomena: There are weather related natural disasters,
such as tropical cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons, monsoons, with their storm surge flooding
accompanying them; atmospheric rivers and flooding; earthquakes and tsunamis; tornadoes,
volcanoes and lahars are all examples of natural events that are usually not man-made. Avalanches
can be either natural, or man-made. Wildfires can be either natural, caused by lightning, or man-
made, caused by arsonists or campers.

Man-made disasters are those that are caused by human activities, such as most air transportation
disasters, material events and silo collapses, chemical events, war, pollution, deforestation,
radiation events, combustive fires, and acts of terrorism.

3. Man-made Disaster (2 types of Disaster)

Hurricanes and tropical storms are among the most powerful natural disasters because of their size
and destructive potential. Tornadoes are relatively brief but violent, potentially causing winds in
excess of 200 mph. Both earthquakes and tornadoes strike suddenly without warning.

Flooding is the most common of natural hazards, and requires an understanding of the natural
systems of our environment, including floodplains and the frequency of flooding events. Wildfires
are more prevalent in the event of a drought. Disasters impacting food supply can be extremely
costly; American officials say that a food contamination scare similar to the one that hit the Belgian
poultry industry in the 1990’s could jeopardize U.S. agricultural exports in excess of $140 billion.

4. Winter Storm

A winter storm can range from a moderate snow over a few hours to blizzard conditions with
blinding wind-driven snow that lasts several days. Some winter storms may be large enough to
affect several states, while others may affect only a single community. Many winter storms are
accompanied by low temperatures and heavy and/or blowing snow, which can severely reduce
visibility.

Winter storms can be defined differently in various parts of the country. Heavy snow in the south
can be a dusting in the mountains. Check with your local emergency management office, National
Weather Service (NWS) office, or local American Red Cross for terms and definitions specific to
your area. Sleet is raindrops that freeze into ice pellets before reaching the ground. Sleet usually
bounces when hitting a surface and does not stick to objects; however, it can accumulate like snow
and cause a hazard to motorists. Freezing rain is rain that falls onto a surface with a temperature
below freezing; this causes it to freeze to surfaces, such as trees, cars, and roads, forming a glaze
of ice. Even small accumulations of ice can cause a significant hazard. An ice storm occurs when
freezing rain falls and freezes immediately on impact; communications and power can be disrupted
for days, and even small accumulations of ice may cause extreme hazards to motorists and
pedestrians.

5. Blizzards

A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds of at least 35 mph

(56 km/h) and lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically three hours or more. A ground
blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling but loose snow on the ground is lifted
and blown by strong winds. Blizzards can have an immense size, which can usually be larger than
a few states in the United States.

6. Rainstorm

A storm is any disturbed state of an environment or in an astronomical

body's atmosphere especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. It may
be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as
strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm),
heavy precipitation (snowstorm, rainstorm), heavy freezing rain (ice storm), strong winds (tropical
cyclone, windstorm), or wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere as in a dust
storm, blizzard, sandstorm, etc.

7. Fog

Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of minute water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at
or near the Earth's surface.[1]Although it has no Latin name, fog can be considered a type of low-
lying cloud, usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influenced by nearby bodies of
water, topography, and wind conditions. In turn, fog has affected many human activities, such as
shipping, travel, and warfare.

Fog begins to form when water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets suspended in the
air. Six examples of ways that water vapor is added to the air are by wind convergence into areas
of upward motion; precipitation or virga falling from above; daytime heating evaporating water
from the surface of oceans, water bodies, or wet land; transpiration from plants; cool or dry air
moving over warmer water; and lifting air over mountains. Water vapor normally begins to
condense on condensation nuclei such as dust, ice, and salt in order to form clouds. Fog, like its
elevated cousin stratus, is a stable cloud deck which tends to form when a cool, stable air mass is
trapped underneath a warm air mass.

8. Drizzle

Drizzle tends to be the most frequent form of precipitation over large areas of the world's oceans,
particularly in the colder regions of the subtropics. These regions are dominated by shallow
marine stratocumulus and trade wind cumulus clouds, which exist entirely within the
marine boundary layer. Despite the low rates of surface accumulation, it has become apparent that
drizzle actually exerts a major influence over the cloud structure, coverage, and radiative properties
in these regions. This has motivated scientists to design more sophisticated, sensitive instruments
such as high frequency radars that can detect drizzle. These studies have shown that the quantity
of drizzle is strongly linked to cloud morphology and tends to be associated with updrafts within
the marine boundary layer. Increased amounts of drizzle tend to be found in marine clouds that
form in clean airmasses that have low concentrations of cloud droplets. This interconnection
between clouds and drizzle can be explored using high resolution numerical modelling such
as large eddy simulation.

9. Cyclone

A cyclone is a large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure.
Cyclones are characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure. The
largest low-pressure systems are polar vortices and extratropical cyclones of the largest scale
(the synoptic scale). Warm-core cyclones such as tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones also
lie within the synoptic scale. Mesocyclones, tornadoes and dust devils lie within the
smaller mesoscale. Upper level cyclones can exist without the presence of a surface low, and can
pinch off from the base of the tropical upper tropospheric trough during the summer months in the
Northern Hemisphere. Cyclones have also been seen on extraterrestrial planets, such
as Mars and Neptune. Cyclogenesis is the process of cyclone formation and intensification.
Extratropical cyclones begin as waves in large regions of enhanced mid-latitude temperature
contrasts called baroclinic zones. These zones contract and form weather fronts as the cyclonic
circulation closes and intensifies. Later in their life cycle, extratropical cyclones occlude as cold
air masses undercut the warmer air and become cold core systems. A cyclone's track is guided over
the course of its 2 to 6 day life cycle by the steering flow of the subtropical jet stream.
 10. Earthquake

An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the
Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic
waves. Earthquakes can range in size from those that are so weak that they cannot be felt to those
violent enough to toss people around and destroy whole cities. The seismicity, or seismic
activity, of an area is the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of
time. The word tremoris also used for non-earthquake seismic rumbling.At the Earth's surface,
earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and displacing or disrupting the ground. When
the epicenter of a large earthquake is located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to
cause a tsunami. Earthquakes can also trigger landslides, and occasionally volcanic activity.
In its most general sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event — whether
natural or caused by humans — that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by
rupture of geological faults, but also by other events such as volcanic activity, landslides, mine
blasts, and nuclear tests. An earthquake's point of initial rupture is called its focus or hypocenter.
The epicenter is the point at ground level directly above the hypocenter.

11. Wildlife (forest fire)

Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include
all plants, fungi, and other organisms that grow or live wild in an area without
being introduced by humans. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Deserts, forests, rain
forests, plains, grasslands and other areas including the most developed urban areas, all have
distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are
untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that much wildlife is affected by human
activities. Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of
ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. Some animals, however, have adapted to
suburban environments. This includes such animals as domesticated cats, dogs, mice, and gerbils.
Some religions declare certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times concern for the natural
environment has provoked activists to protest against the exploitation of wildlife for human
benefit or entertainment.

12. Tornado

A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of
the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. The windstorm
is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in
meteorology to name a weather system with a low-pressure area in the center around which winds
blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. Tornadoes
come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often visible in the form of a condensation
funnel originating from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, with a cloud of
rotating debrisand dust beneath it. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour
(180 km/h), are about 250 feet (80 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before
dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour
(480 km/h), are more than two miles (3 km) in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of
miles (more than 100 km).

13. Hurricane

A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a

closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement
of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical
cyclone is referred to by different names, including hurricane (/ˈhʌrɪkən, -keɪn/),
typhoon (/taɪˈfuːn/), tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone.
A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean,
and a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean; while in the south Pacific or Indian
Ocean, comparable storms are referred to simply as "tropical cyclones" or "severe cyclonic
storms". Tropical" refers to the geographical origin of these systems, which form almost
exclusively over tropical seas. "Cyclone" refers to their winds moving in a circle, whirling round
their central clear eye, with their winds blowing counterclockwise in the Northern
Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The opposite direction of circulation is
due to the Coriolis effect. Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm
water. They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface, which
ultimately recondenses into clouds and rain when moist air rises and cools to saturation.
This energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms, such
as nor'easters and European windstorms, which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature
contrasts. Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and 2,000 km (62 and 1,243 mi) in
diameter.

14. Tsunami

A tsunami (from Japanese: 津波, "harbour wave"; English pronunciation: /suːˈnɑːmi/ soo-NAH-
mee[2]) or tidal wave, also known as a seismic sea wave, is a series of waves in a water body caused
by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large
lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions (including detonations of
underwater nuclear devices), landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other
disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.[3] Unlike
normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are generated by the
gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water.

sunami waves do not resemble normal undersea currents or sea waves because their wavelength is
far longer.[4] Rather than appearing as a breaking wave, a tsunami may instead initially resemble a
rapidly rising tide. For this reason, it is often referred to as a "tidal wave", although this usage is
not favoured by the scientific community because it might give the false impression of a causal
relationship between tides and tsunamis. Tsunamis generally consist of a series of waves,
with periods ranging from minutes to hours, arriving in a so-called "internal wave train". Wave
heights of tens of metres can be generated by large events. Although the impact of tsunamis is
limited to coastal areas, their destructive power can be enormous, and they can affect entire ocean
basins. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among the deadliest natural disasters in human
history, with at least 230,000 people killed or missing in 14 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.

15. Lightning

Lightning is a sudden electrostatic discharge that occurs typically during a thunderstorm. This
discharge occurs between electrically chargedregions of a cloud (called intra-cloud lightning or
IC), between two clouds (CC lightning), or between a cloud and the ground (CG lightning). The
details of the charging process are still being studied by scientists, but there is general agreement
on some of the basic concepts of thunderstorm electrification. The main charging area in a
thunderstorm occurs in the central part of the storm where air is moving upward rapidly (updraft)
and temperatures range from −15 to −25 °C (5 to −13 °F), see figure to the right. At that place, the
combination of temperature and rapid upward air movement produces a mixture of super-cooled
cloud droplets (small water droplets below freezing), small ice crystals, and graupel (soft hail).
The updraft carries the super-cooled cloud droplets and very small ice crystals upward. At the
same time, the graupel, which is considerably larger and denser, tends to fall or be suspended in
the rising air.

16. Thunderstorm

A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, lightning storm, or thundershower, is

a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's
atmosphere, known as thunder.[1] Thunderstorms occur in a type of cloud known as
a cumulonimbus. They are usually accompanied by strong winds, heavy rain, and
sometimes snow, sleet, hail, or, in contrast, no precipitation at all. Thunderstorms may line up in
a series or become a rainband, known as a squall line. Strong or severe thunderstorms include
some of the most dangerous weather phenomena, including large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes.
Some of the most persistent severe thunderstorms, known as supercells, rotate as do cyclones.
While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow through the layer of the troposphere that
they occupy, vertical wind shear sometimes causes a deviation in their course at a right angle to
the wind shear direction.

17. Volcanic Eruption

Volcanic eruptions vary widely in strength. On the one extreme there are effusive Hawaiian
eruptions, which are characterized by lava fountains and fluid lava flows, which are typically not
very dangerous. On the other extreme, Plinian eruptions are large, violent, and highly dangerous
explosive events. Volcanoes are not bound to one eruptive style, and frequently display many
different types, both passive and explosive, even in the span of a single eruptive cycle. Volcanoes
do not always erupt vertically from a single crater near their peak, either. Some volcanoes
exhibit lateral and fissure eruptions. Notably, many Hawaiian eruptions start from rift zones, and
some of the strongest Surtseyan eruptions develop along fracture zones. Scientists believed that
pulses of magma mixed together in the chamber before climbing upward—a process estimated to
take several thousands of years. But Columbia University volcanologists found that the eruption
of Costa Rica’s Irazú Volcano in 1963 was likely triggered by magma that took a nonstop route
from the mantle over just a few months.
 18. Floods

A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land that is usually dry. The European
Union (EU) Floods Directive defines a flood as a covering by water of land not normally covered
by water. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide.
Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrology and are of significant concern
in agriculture, civil engineering and public health.Flooding may occur as an overflow of water
from water bodies, such as a river, lake, or ocean, in which the water overtops or breaks levees,
resulting in some of that water escaping its usual boundaries, or it may occur due to an
accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground in an areal flood. While the size of a lake or other
body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, these changes in
size are unlikely to be considered significant unless they flood property or drown domestic
animals.

19. Avalanche

An avalanche (also called a snowslide) is a cohesive slab of snow lying upon a weaker layer of
snow in the snowpack that fractures and slides down a steep slope when triggered. Avalanches are
typically triggered in a starting zone from a mechanical failure in the snowpack (slab avalanche)
when the forces of the snow exceed its strength but sometimes only with gradual widening (loose
snow avalanche). After initiation, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow in mass and
volume as they entrain more snow. If the avalanche moves fast enough, some of the snow may
mix with the air forming a powder snow avalanche, which is a type of gravity current. Slides of
rocks or debris, behaving in a similar way to snow, are also referred to as avalanches
(see rockslide). The remainder of this article refers to snow avalanches.

20. Landslide

The term landslide or, less frequently, landslip,[1] refers to several forms of mass wasting that
include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-
seated slope failures, mudflows and debris flows. Landslides can occur underwater, in which case
they are called submarine landslides, and in coastal and onshore environments. Although the
action of gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there are other contributing
factors affecting slope stability. Typically, pre-conditional factors build up specific surface or sub-
surface conditions that make a slope prone to failure, whereas the actual landslide often requires a
trigger before being released.

21. Act of God

In legal usage throughout the English-speaking world, an act of God[1] is a natural hazard outside
human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, for which no person can be held responsible. An
act of God may amount to an exception to liability in contracts (as under the Hague–Visby Rules);
or it may be an "insured peril" in an insurance policy. In the law of contracts, an act of God may
be interpreted as an implied defense under the rule of impossibility or impracticability. If so, the
promise is discharged because of unforeseen occurrences, which were unavoidable and would
result in insurmountable delay, expense, or other material breach. Under the English common law,
contractual obligations were deemed sacrosanct, so failure to honour a contract could lead to an
order for specific performance or internment in a debtor's prison. In 1863, this harsh rule was
softened by the case of Taylor v Caldwell which introduced the doctrine of frustration of contract,
which provided that "where a contract becomes impossible to perform and neither party is at fault,
both parties may be excused their obligations". In this case, a music hall was burned down by act
of God before a contract of hire could be fulfilled, and the court deemed the contract frustrated. In
other contracts, such as indemnification, an act of God may be no excuse, and in fact may be the
central risk assumed by the promisor—e.g., flood insurance or crop insurance—the only variables
being the timing and extent of the damage. In many cases, failure by way of ignoring obvious risks
due to "natural phenomena" will not be sufficient to excuse performance of the obligation, even if
the events are relatively rare: e.g., the year 2000 problem in computers. Under the Uniform
Commercial Code, 2-615, failure to deliver goods sold may be excused by an "act of God" if the
absence of such act was a "basic assumption" of the contract, and the act has made the delivery
"commercially impracticable".
 RESEARCH
PAPER

JULIE C. ARGUELLES
SPE43

DOC. DOCTOLERO
PROFESSOR