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CHAPTER 1: DISASTER AND DISASTER RISK

DISASTER is defined as “a sudden”, calamitous event bringing great damage loss, destruction and devastation to life and property( Asian Disaster Preparedness Center –ADPC, 2012). Its origin can be natural, such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes, or of human origin, such as explosions, nuclear accidents and terrorist acts.

Disaster – UNISDR (2009) (Adapted by Philippines DRR Law, 2010):

A serious disruption of the functioning of community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

Disaster Risk is defined as “the probability that a community’s structure or geographic area is to be damaged or disrupted by the impact of a particular hazard, on account of its nature, construction and proximity to a hazardous area” (ADPC, 2012).

NATURE OF DISASTERS

Disasters are of two types – ‘Natural’ and ‘Human-made’. Based on the devastation, these are further classified into major or minor natural disasters and major or minor man-made disasters.

NATURAL DISASTERS - originate from different “forces” of nature (geological, meteorological, hydro meteorological and biological).

HUMAN-MADE DISASTERS - These disasters occur due to people’s actions against human, material and environment.

RISK FACTORS UNDERLYING DISASTERS

1. SEVERITY OF EXPOSURE - The amount of exposure to the disaster is highly related to risk of future mental problems. At highest risk are those that go through the disaster themselves. Next those in close contact with victims. At lower risk of lasting impacts are those who only had indirect exposure, such as news of the severe damage.

2. GENDER AND FAMILY - Women or girls suffer more negative effects than do men. Disaster recovery is more stressful when children are present in the home.

Women with spouses also experience more distress during recovery.

3. AGE - Adults who are in the age range of 40-60 are likely to be more distressed after disasters. The thinking is that one is in that age range, he/she has more demands from job and family.

OTHER FACTOR SPECIFIC TO THE SURVIVOR

Recovery is worse if survivors:

Were not functioning well before the disaster.

Have had no experience dealing with disasters.

Must deal with other stressors after the disaster.

Have poor self-esteem

Think they are uncared for by others

Think they have little control over what happens to them

Lack the capacity to manage stress

Bereavement (Death of someone close)

Injury to self or another family member

Life threat

Being separated from family ( especially among youth)

Great loss of property

Displacement (Being forced to leave home)

4. DEVELOPING COUNTRIES - Disasters in developing countries, like the Philippines, have more severe mental health impact than do disasters in developed countries.

5. LOW OR NEGATIVE SOCIAL SUPPORT - The support of others can be both a risk and a resilience factor. Social support can weaken after disasters. This may be due to stress and the need for members of the support network to get on with their own lives.

Effects of Natural Disasters on Human life

The following are the common effects of disaster identified by some studies on disaster risk and management:

DISPLACED POPULATIONS

HEALTH RISKS

FOOD SCARCITY

EMOTIONAL AFTERSHOCKS

How and when an event becomes a disaster?

An event either human-made or natural, becomes a disaster when it is sudden or progressive, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses.

DISASTER FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

PHYSICAL PERSPECTIVE - It is defined as a phenomenon that can cause damage to physical elements such as buildings, infrastructures, including people and their properties, e.g. houses and environmental sources of living.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE - Psychological research has shown that disasters can cause serious mental health consequences for victims. These consequences take the form of POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) and a variety of other disorders and symptoms which have been less investigated.

Other psychological effects of a disaster are the following:

Emotional Effects: Shock, terror, irritability, blame, anger, guilt, grief or sadness, numbing, helplessness, loss of pleasure derived familiar activities, Difficulty feeling happy, difficulty feeling loved.

Cognitive Effects: Impaired concentration, impaired decision-making ability, memory impairments, disbelief, confusion, nightmares, decreased self-esteem, decreased self-efficacy, self-blame, intrusive thoughts, memories, dissociation (e.g., tunnel vision, dreamlike or ‘spacey’ feeling).

Physical Effects: fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, cardiovascular strain, startle response, hyper arousal, increased physical pain, reduced immune response, headaches, gastrointestinal upset, decreased appetite, decreased libido, vulnerability to illness.

Interpersonal Effects: increased relational conflict, social withdrawal reduced relational intimacy, alienation, impaired work performance, decreased satisfaction, distrust, externalization of blame, externalization of vulnerability, feeling abandoned.

SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE - What the people living at risk know and do about natural hazards and disaster risks is mediated by a range of factors including social conditions ( Such as age, gender, wealth, ethnicity) and cultural settings (language, beliefs, traditions, customs).

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE - From an economic perspective, a natural disaster can be defined as a natural event that causes a perturbation to the functioning of the economic system, with a significant negative impacts on assets, production factors, output employment and consumption.

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE - politics are deeply wedded to both the impact of a natural disaster and the subsequent delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Governmentality or deliverance of government services to constituents can be plus or minus factor in disaster risk reduction and management. Government interventions should be present in the following phases of DRRM:

Prevention

Mitigation

Preparedness and,

Recovery

6. ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE - Disaster are not random and do not occur by accident. They are the convergence of hazards and vulnerable conditions. Disasters not only reveal underlying social, economic, political

and environmental problems, but unfortunately contribute to worsening them.

CHAPTER 2: EXPOSURE AND VULNERABILITY

EXPOSURE refers to the ‘elements at risk’ from a natural or man-made hazard event.

Elements at risk include the following:

1. Human Beings;

2. Dwellings or households and communities;

3. Buildings and structures;

4. Public facilities and infrastructure assets;

5. Public and transport system;

6. Agricultural commodities ; and

7. Environmental assets

Elements at risk can also refer to tangible such as economic activities and infrastructure networks.

VULNERABILITY is defined as “the characteristics and circumstances of community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard”. As indicated by United Nations International Strategy For Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), “there are many aspects of vulnerability arising from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors.

Examples:

1. Poor design and construction of buildings

2. Inadequate protection of assets

3. Lack of public information awareness

4. Limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures

5. Disregard for wise environmental management

Reasons why certain sectors of society are more vulnerable to disaster than others:

Vulnerability can be seen as the result of a process in which various different things cause a population to be more vulnerable. These can be split into demographic and socio-economic. These can also be discussed through the level of community preparedness and the ability of a community to manage the after effect of a hazard event.

1. DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

POPULATION DENSITY – The more dense the population, the more efficient a response should be, considering the number of people that might be affected by a disaster. Densely populated cities like manila and quezon city require some amount of education on disaster preparedness, government support and relief operations in the event of a disaster.

AGE OF POPULATION – Very old and very young populations are less mobile and are not able to respond to hazard events well. This makes them more vulnerable compared to others, this requires more attention from the government and other support agencies especially during emergency evacuation relocation.

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION - Regardless of density, populations may be distributed differently within the hazard area, e.g., elderly people on lower floors of apartment buildings, or concentrations of highly vulnerable people in poorer areas of a city. This must be seriously considered in human settlement planning and relocation activities of the government.

2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

WEALTH – Low income populations are less likely to be well prepared. Part of preparations is having a Survival Kit that includes tools to be used, emergency food stock and water that could last for at least 3 to five days. Poor families will find a hard time to do such preparation due to lack of money to spend.

EDUCATION – Education programs such as the Metro Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) shake drill can instruct populations on how to deal with hazard events, like the “Big One” – anticipated 7.8 magnitude earthquakes that may strike Metro Manila anytime.

NATURE OF SOCIETY – In highly centralized government structures, efficient emergency response may be the result of careful planning and training of personnel. However, it can also lead bureaucracy and a lack of autonomous decision making, which slow down distribution of relief goods and emergency response efforts in case of extreme emergency.

3. COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS

BUILDING CODES - Rigorous and applied building codes protect most buildings from collapse during earthquakes. This should be seriously considered by the government in the issuance of building permits and licenses for land development.

SCIENTIFIC MONITORING AND EARLY WARNING SYSTEM –. Established monitoring system can prepare people for the onslaught of any kind of disaster. The coming of super Typhoon Yolanda was forecasted by PAGASA.

COMMUNICATION NETWORK - Countries with good quality and widespread communication networks allow messages to be quickly shared. Communication plays a very important and crucial role in times of disaster. Communication Plan is a very salient component of Emergency Planning that should not be left out.

EMERGENCY PLANNING - Preparation is the key element of prevention. Preparation for a disaster is embodied in an Emergency Plan. Where monitoring and communication are in place, the emergency planning is likely to prepare a person or a group (Family) for such events and take action based on data, rather than prediction.

4. DEALING WITH THE AFTER-EFFECTS

INSURANCE COVER – Another important aspect of preparation is how to deal with the after effects of a disaster. Disasters, like earthquakes and typhoons, normally inflict damages to life, property and even to environmental sources of living. Part of their preparation, individuals purchase insurance policies to mitigate their losses, thus preparing them better for similar future events.

EMERGENCY PERSONNEL – These are trained for community preparedness. The availability of such personnel will vary depending on the time of day and location of the hazard event. The Philippines, being a developing country and prone to different types of disaster should take into consideration the training of more emergency personnel as part of disaster risk mitigation, reduction and management.

AID REQUEST - Outside help in the form of humanitarian aid is necessary during a disaster. However, it should be fast and efficient. Inefficiency and mismanagement of aids, especially foreign aids, will possibly result to further deaths and loss of property. Foreign aids in the form of monetary and material aid poured in immediately after the onslaught of typhoon Yolanda.

According to the UNISDR, there are four types of vulnerability:

1. PHYSICAL VULNERABILITY – May be determined by aspects such as population density levels, remoteness of a settlement, the site, design and materials used for critical infrastructure and for housing United Nations International Strategy For Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

Wooden homes are less likely to collapse in an earthquake, but are more vulnerable to fire. Houses built with light materials may not be a problem during an earthquake, but maybe totally damaged by a super typhoon.

2. SOCIAL VULNERABILITY

Refers to the inability of people, organizations and societies to withstand adverse impacts to hazards due to characteristics inherent in social interaction, institutions and system of cultural values.

When flooding occurs some citizens, such as children, elderly and persons with disability (PWD) may be unable to protect themselves or evacuate if necessary. Educated and well informed are more likely to survive when disaster strikes. There would be lesser casualty in communities, with emergency plans backed up by emergency personnel as compared to those without.

3. ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY –

The level of vulnerability is highly dependent upon the economic status of individuals, communities and nations. The poor are usually more vulnerable to disaster because they lack the resources to build sturdy structures and put other engineering measures in place to protect themselves from being negatively impacted by disaster.

Poorer families may live in squatter settlements because they cannot afford to live in safer (more expensive) areas. In Metro Manila the so-called “urban poor” build their shanties or improvised houses along river banks and esteros, making them prone to flash floods. Light materials that build their homes make them exposed to fire hazards as well.

4. ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY

Natural resource depletion and resource degradation are key aspects of environmental vulnerability. This is one aspects that both communities and government must be sensitive about.

Wetlands, such as Agusan Marsh, are sensitive to increasing salinity from sea water, and pollution from storm water runoff containing agricultural chemicals, eroded soils, etc. Deforestation of mountains due to illegal logging is the main cause of landslides and mudflows like what happened in Ormoc, Leyte (1994) and in Infanta, Quezon (2011).

CHAPTER 3: BASIC CONCEPT OF HAZARD

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1.  Define and elucidate hazards

2. Give and picture examples of the types of hazards

3. Explain the impact of various hazards on different exposed elements

Introduction

One important key to safety is understanding a particular incident or phenomenon that may affect people’s life. An ordinary incident or natural phenomenon may turn into a hazard once it becomes active and poses harm or danger to life and property. This is the basic concept of hazard everyone should be aware of.

Definition of Hazards

Hazards are “those elements of the physical environment, harmful to man and caused by forces extraneous to him”. (Burton et al 1978).

Standards Australia (2000) define a hazard as:

“A source of potential harm or a situation with a potential to cause loss”.

Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) describe hazard as:

“A natural event that has the potential to cause harm or loss”.

USGS Hazard terminologies define hazard as “a phenomenon or situation, which has the potential to cause the disruption or damage to people. Their property, their services, and their environment”. Most hazards are dormant or potential with only a theoretical risk of harm. However, once a hazard becomes “active”, it can create an emergency. A hazardous situation that has come to pass is called an incident. Hazard and possibility interact together to create risk.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF HAZARDS

There are many different ways of classifying hazards. One is to consider the extent to which hazards are natural.

1. Natural Hazards such as earthquakes or floods arise from purely natural processes in the environment.

2. Quasi-natural Hazards such as smog or desertification that arise through the interaction of natural of natural processes and human activities.

3. Technological (or human-made) Hazards such as the toxicity of pesticides to agricultural lands, accidental leaks of chemicals from chemical laboratories or radiation from nuclear plant. These arise directly as a result of human activities.

Types of Hazards

Hewith and Burton (1971) provided a typology of hazards as follows.

1. ATMOSPHERIC

(Single Element)

Excess Rainfall

Freezing Rain (Glaze)

Hail

Heavy Snow falls

High wind speeds

Extreme temperature

ATMOSPHERIC

(Combined Elements/Events)

Hurricanes

‘Glaze’ storm

Thunderstorm

Blizzards

Tornadoes

Heat/Cold Stress

2. HYDROLOGIC

Floods- river and coastal area

Wave action

Drought

Rapid glacier advance

3. GEOLOGIC

Mass movement

Landslide

Mudslides

Avalanches

Earthquake

Volcanic Eruption

Rapid sediment movement

4. BIOLOGIC

Epidemic in Humans

Epidemic in Plans

Epidemic in Animals

Locusts

5. TECHNOLOGIC

Transportation accident

Industrial explosions and fire

Accidental release of toxic elements

Nuclear Accidents

Collapse of public buildings

Cyber terrorism

Impacts of Various Hazards on different Exposed Elements

According to the national Center for integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) the impact of the various hazards vary in severity and vary in regard to how long they last. In many ay wealth and development assist in the way people recover from hazards. A more economically developed country can prepare for and predict hazards more effectively and they have more resources to support a faster recovery. However there is also a need for resilience. In many developing countries people who experienced hardship can often recover more quickly from hazards.

It is further underscored that impacts of hazards are not so easy to classify as short term and long term as these tend to vary for each individual event. However, there are a number of common long term impacts, which need longer period of recovery.

The following are common long term impacts of natural hazards like earthquake, typhoon, flashflood, volcanic eruption, fire, etc.:

Physical Impacts:

Death of people

Destruction and loss of vital infrastructure like transport system, roads, bridges, power lines, and communication

Widespread loss of housing

Psychological Impacts:

Grief and psychological trauma- Post traumatic Severe Disorder (PTSD)

Marital Conflicts

Depression due to loss of loved ones and properties

Chronic anxiety among children severely affected

Socio-Cultural Impact:

Displacement of populations

Loss of cultural identity

Forced adoption of new sets of culture

Ethnic conflicts

Economic Impacts:

Loss of job due to displacement

Loss of harvest and livestock

Loss of farms, fish cages, and other sources of living

Loss of money and other valuables like jewelries, furniture and appliances

Environmental Impacts:

Loss of forests due to forest fires

Loss of fresh water due to salination – intrusion of salt water to fresh

Disturbance of Biodiversity

Loss of natural rivers and other tributaries

Biological Impacts:

Epidemic to people, flora and fauna

Chronic and permanent illnesses due to nuclear radiation

Mental disorder developed from consumption of contaminated foods

Proliferation of different viral and bacterial disease