Be prepared: disasters can happen
A disaster (from Latin meaning, "bad star") is the impact of a natural or man-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. Disasters occur when hazards strikes in vulnerable areas. The word's roots is from astrology and imply that when the stars are in a bad position, a bad event is about to happen.
Chances of survival after a disaster are greatly improved when people, local governments and emergency services, businesses and national governments prepare survival plans and assemble survival gear beforehand. What constitutes sufficient preparation is highly dependent on the location and the disasters that are likely to occur in the area.
Natural disasters
A natural hazard can cause a natural disaster. Appearing to arise without direct human involvement, natural disasters are sometimes called an act of God. A natural disaster requires inappropriate human actions in areas at risk prior to the strike of a hazard for it to develop into a disaster. A specific disaster may spawn secondary disaster that increases the impact. A classic example, is an earthquake that cause a tsunami which result in coastal flooding.
Avalanche
An avalanche is a slippage of built-up snow down an incline, possibly mixed with ice, rock, soil or plantlife in what is called a debris avalanche. Avalanches are categorized as either slab or powder avalanches. Avalanches are a major danger in mountainous areas during winter.
Cyclones
A cyclone is a low-pressure cyclonic storm system. It is caused by evaporated water which comes off of the ocean and becomes a storm. The Coriolis effect causes the storms to spin, and a cyclone is declared when this spinning mass of storms attains a wind speed greater than 74mph. Cyclones are known as hurricanes in the Americas and typhoons in eastern Asia. One of the most damaging hurricanes in the United States was Hurricane Katrina, which hit the United States Gulf Coast in 2005 and inundated a heavily populated New Orleans, Louisiana. Cyclones can lead to disasters when they make landfall. Once above land they are reduced in intensity and die out.
Drought
A drought is a long-lasting weather pattern consisting of dry conditions with very little or no precipitation. During this period, food and water supplies can run low, and other conditions, such as famine, can result. Droughts can last for several years and are particularly damaging in areas in which the residents depend on agriculture for survival. The Dust Bowl of the 1930's is a famous example of a severe drought.
Earthquake
An earthquake is a sudden shift or movement in the tectonic plate in the Earth's crust. On the surface, this is manifested by shaking of the ground, and can be massively damaging to poorly built structures. Earthquakes occur along fault lines, and are unpredictable. Single earthquakes have killed hundreds of thousands of people, such as in 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake that hit Anchorage, Alaska, and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
Epidemics
A disease becomes a disaster when it spreads in a pandemic or epidemic as a massive outbreak of an infectious agent. Disease is historically the most lethal natural disaster with examples like the Spanish flu, Black Death, smallpox, and AIDS.
Famine
Famine, or food insecurity, is characterized by a widespread lack of food in a region, and can be characterized as a lack of agriculture foodstuffs, a lack of livestock, or a general lack of all foodstuffs required for basic nutrition. Famine is almost always caused by pre-existing conditions, such as drought, but its effects may be exacerbated by social factors, such as conflicts. Particularly devastating examples include the Ethiopian famine, which lasted for many years, and the Irish Potato Famine, which was human-induced.
Fire
Bush fires, forest fires and mine fires are generally started by lightning, but also by human negligence or arson. They can burn thousands of square kilometers. If a fire intensifies enough to produce its own winds and "weather", it will form into a firestorm. One example of a past severe forest fire is the mine fire near Centralia, Pennsylvania in 1962 that decimated the town and continued to burn down the surrounding region. Some of the biggest city-related fires are The Great Chicago Fire and The Great Fire of London in 1666.
Flood
A flood is caused by excess water in a location, usually due to rain from a storm or thunderstorm, or the rapid melting of snow. Other causes can include flooding from water displacement, such as in a landslide, the failure of a dam, an earthquake-induced tsunami, a hurricane's storm surge, or meltwater from volcanic activity. The 1991 Bangladesh cyclone casued massive floods that covered almost three quarters of the nation and left behind a situation of disease and famine. An example of a man-made flood is the one caused by the building of the Vaiont Dam in northern Italy in the 1960's; a landslide into the reservoir sent a wave over the dam's crest and into the densely populated valley below.A flood is caused by excess water in a location, usually due to rain from a storm or thunderstorm, or the rapid melting of snow. Other causes can include flooding from water displacement, such as in a landslide, the failure of a dam, an earthquake-induced tsunami, a hurricane's storm surge, or meltwater from volcanic activity. The 1991 Bangladesh cyclone casued massive floods that covered almost three quarters of the nation and left behind a situation of disease and famine. An example of a man-made flood is the one caused by the building of the Vaiont Dam in northern Italy in the 1960's; a landslide into the reservoir sent a wave over the dam's crest and into the densely populated valley below.
Hail
A hailstorm occur when a thunderstorm produces a large amount of hailstones. Hailstorms can be especially devastating to farm fields, ruining crops and damaging farming equipment. The largest recorded hailstones were the size of grapefruits.
Impact event
Impact events are caused by the collision of large meteoroids, asteroids or comets (generically: bolides) with Earth and may sometimes be followed by mass extinctions of life. The Tunguska event of the early 20th century is one example of what scientists believe was a close-call major impact event. There are also theories that the great dinosaurs as well as around 97.9% of Earth's life was extinguished 65 million years ago by a large impact in Mexico.
Landslide
A landslide is caused when soil, rocks, trees, structures and other items on slope comes into motion. Landslides can be initiated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or by general instability in the surrounding land caused by deforestation or lack of porous soil. Mudslide, rockslides, and lahars are particular types of landslides. Mudslides, or mud flows is the result of heavy rainfall causing loose soil on steep terrain to collapse and slide. Rockslides is the result of loose rocks and boulders coming into motion. The deadliest recorded landslide occurred in 1985 in Armero, Colombia, when a volcanic eruption caused snow melt to pile up and destroy the town below, killing over 25,000 people.
Limnic eruption
A limnic eruption is a sudden release of asphyxiating or inflammable gas from a lake. Three lakes that are examples of limnic eruptions include Lake Nyos, Lake Monoun, and Lake Kivu. A 1986 limnic eruption of 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 from Lake Nyos suffocated 1,800 people in a 20 mile radius.
Sinkhole
A sinkhole is a localized depression in the surface topography, usually caused by the collapse of a subterranean structure, such as a cave. Although rare, large sinkholes that develop suddenly in populated areas can lead to the collapse of buildings and other structures. Florida experiences the majority of America's severe sinkholes.
Storm surge
A storm surge is an onshore rush of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically a tropical cyclone. A storm surge is caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea level. Storm surges are particularly damaging when they occur at the time of a high tide, combining the effects of the surge and the tide. The highest storm surge ever recorded was produced by the 1899 Bathurst Bay Hurricane, which caused a 13 m (43 feet) storm surge to pummel the small Australian town. In the US, the greatest recorded storm surge was generated by Hurricane Katrina, which produced a storm surge of 9 m (30 feet) that slammed against the Gulf Coast.
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm is a form of severe weather characterized by the presence of lightning and thunder, often accompanied by copious rainfall, hail and on occasion snowfall and tornadoes. Thunderstorms can happen anywhere.
Tornado
A tornado is a natural disaster resulting from a thunderstorm of severe conditions, and is a large funnel of extremely high pressure winds cycling and twisting at random. Tornadoes are measured in power according to the Fujita scale: an F1 being the least powerful and an F5 being the most powerful. Though normally within the American Midwest in a region known as "Tornado Alley", tornadoes can occur almost anywhere. Tornadoes can occur one at a time, or can occur in large tornado outbreaks along a squall line. The most powerful tornado ever recorded in terms of wind speed was the monster which swept through Moore, Oklahoma in 1999 and reached windspeeds of up to 318 mph..one mile below the maximum F5 speed ever considered. Tornadoes do not just stay within rural regions of the world: major cities have had small yet terrifying tornadoes touch down in their downtown sectors before, such as the 1997 waterspout in Miami, Florida, the small twister which touched down in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1999, and a 2001 tornado hitting Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
Tsunami
A tsunami is a giant wave of water which rolls into the shore of an area with heights that can be anywhere from 15 feet to even 50 feet in height. It comes from Japanese words meaning "harbor wave". Tsunamis are caused by undersea earthquakes or landslides, and are not noticed until reaching the shore, where the wave lifts form the rising sea floor. In the 1950's an earthquake in Lituya Bay, Alaska caused a massive landslide to fall into the bay's rear, forming the highest recorded wave in history when the wave past through the bay's head: over 1720 feet in height. Only two people were killed. The tsunami generated by the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake currently ranks as the deadliest tsunami in recorded history. The tsunami was caused by a 9.2 Richter earthquake caused by a massive shift in pressure between two plates near Sumatra. Currently, the Cascadia Fault along the Northwest coast of the Americas is experiencing the same amount of extreme pressure and may have the same outcome in the near future: a tsunami threatening coastal cities such as Vancouver and Seattle.
Volcanic eruption
A volcanic eruption is the point in which a volcano is active and releases its power, and the eruptions come in many forms. They range from daily small eruptions which occur in places like Kilauea in Hawaii, or extremely infrequent supervolcano eruptions in places like Lake Toba in Indonesia or Yellowstone in Wyoming. Some eruptions form pyroclastic flows, which are high-temperature clouds of ash and steam that can trial down mountainsides at speed exceeding an airliner. The eruption of Mount Pelee of the Caribbean in the 19th century incinerated the entire town of Martinique below. The more famous example is of Mount Vesuvius, which buried the city of Pompeii, Italy in 79 A.D. and its resident in heaps of ash, and the remains were later recovered preserved and intact. Recent large volcanic eruptions include that of Mount St. Helens in Washington and Krakatoa in Indonesia, occurring in 1980 and 1883, respectively. The latter was one of the loudest eruptions in the world. Mount St. Helens spewed ash all across the Western states, and even caused the sun to appear green in areas. Some volcanoes are dormant, or "sleeping", but may erupt soon, such as Mount Rainier in Washington and Mount Fujiyama in Japan.
Waterspout
A waterspout is a tornadic weather phenomenon normally occurring over tropical waters in light rain conditions. They form at the base of cumulus-type clouds and extend to the water surface where winds pick up water spray. Waterspouts are dangerous to boats, planes and land structures. Most of the time waterspouts are produced in semitropical regions of the world, but the majority of them occur in the Bermuda Triangle and are suspected of being the cause of the many missing ships and planes in that region. One unruly waterspout made its way into downtown Miami, Florida in 1997 and caused quite a scare with the locals.
Taken from Wikipedia
