A disaster is a natural or man-made (or technological) hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment. A disaster can be ostensively defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods, catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions. It is a phenomenon that can cause damage to life and property and destroy the economic, social and cultural life of people.
In contemporary academia, disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of a combination of both hazard/s and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability will never become disasters, as is the case in uninhabited regions.
Developing countries suffer the greatest costs when a disaster hits – more than 95 percent of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries, and losses due to natural disasters are 20 times greater (as a percentage of GDP) in developing countries than in industrialized countries.
Read more about Disaster: Etymology, Classifications
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... Safety Board (NTSB) was assigned the role managing the Federal response to aviation disaster victims and their families ... for this response was the Office of Family Affairs, later renamed the Office of Transportation Disaster Assistance ... The NTSB made use of DMORTs to handle large scale transportation disasters ...
... Man-made disasters are the consequence of technological or human hazards ... Man-made disasters are examples of specific cases where man-made hazards have become reality in an event ...
... The Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 (H.R.5013, S.2599) was a bill introduced March 28, 2006 by Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal in the House and on April 7, 2006 by ... of a firearm during an emergency or major disaster if the possession of such firearm is not prohibited under Federal or State law ... modified to contain the provisions of the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 ...
... An accident on the Singapore Cable Car system occurred at about 6 p.m ... on 29 January 1983, when the derrick of the Eniwetok, a Panamanian-registered oil rig, passed under the aerial ropeway and struck the cable that stretched over the waterway between the Jardine Steps Station and the Sentosa Station ...
... The Nyamiha disaster was a deadly human crush that took place at Nyamiha metro station in Minsk, Belarus ... Human stampedes Pre–2000 1876 Brooklyn Theater Fire 1883 Victoria Hall disaster 1896 Khodynka Tragedy 1903 Iroquois Theatre fire 1908 Barnsley Public Hall disaster 1913 ...
Famous quotes containing the word disaster:
“From disaster good fortune comes, and in good fortune lurks disaster.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Therefore it was surprising that, as we kept the newspapers from
Mother,
She died feeling responsible for a disaster unverified,
Murmuring, in her sleep as it seemed, the ancient slogan
Noblesse oblige.”
—Josephine Miles (1911–1985)
“When wine is spilled with accident, death and disaster hasten.”
—Joseph O’Donnell. Clifford Sanforth. Ah Ling, Murder by Television, after he accidentally spills wine on Mrs. Houghland (1935)