Disaster

A disaster is a serious problem that happens over a period of time and causes so much harm to people, things, economies, or the environment that the affected community or society cannot handle it on its own. In theory, natural disasters are those caused by natural hazards, whereas human-made disasters are those caused by human hazards. However, in modern times, the divide between natural, human-made or human-accelerated disasters is more and more difficult to draw. In fact, all disasters can be seen as human-made, due to human failure to introduce appropriate emergency management measures.

Disasters caused by natural hazards are things like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires. Further examples are cold waves and heat waves, droughts, cyclones, landslides, lightning, tsunamis, volcanic activity. Disasters can also be caused by anthropogenic hazards such as criminality, civil disorder, terrorism, war, and power outages.

When disasters happen, developing countries often suffer the most. Over 95% of deaths from disasters occur in these countries, and they lose much more money compared to other countries. Losses due to natural hazards are 20 times greater (as a percentage of gross domestic product) in developing countries than in industrialized countries.