Natural and human-caused disasters affect thousands of people each year. Major adverse events such as these have the potential to cause catastrophic loss of life and physical destruction. They are often unexpected and can leave whole communities in shock. People who live through a disaster can experience emotional distress.
Feelings of anxiety, constant worrying, trouble sleeping, and other depression-like symptoms are common responses to disasters before, during, and after the event. Anyone can be at risk, including survivors living in the impacted areas and first responders and recovery workers.
Natural disasters are large-scale geological or meteorological events that have the potential to cause loss of life or property. These types of disasters include:. Severe storms and floods are the most common types of natural disasters reported in the United States.
Disaster Distress Helpline staff are available to speak to those who call or text before, during, and after a natural disaster. Examples include industrial accidents, shootings, acts of terrorism, and incidents of mass violence. As with natural disasters, these types of traumatic events may also cause loss of life and property.
Put bluntly, those that are poor will be the hardest hit and least able to cope. All disaster-related research shows that countries where social and economic capital is limited are the most vulnerable. Work by our team following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in Thailand explored how poverty and lack of resources was a major contributor to what made many in coastal communities so vulnerable.
Poor and disadvantaged people living in richer countries are also vulnerable. Given the rapid development and increasing population of the Asian region, future disaster losses can only be expected to climb.
Major social, political and institutional change needs to happen rapidly to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience. Without question, anthropogenic climate change will result in changes in the frequency and severity of hydro-meteorological disasters.
However, the changes will not be uniform globally, with some areas experiencing more frequent events, other places less frequent events. There is significant complexity and uncertainty about these future trends but much research is underway to investigate this issue. For example, in Australia, research suggests tropical cyclones will become less frequent but the severity will increase.
By contrast, in the Mediterranean region recent research has suggested significant future variations of rainfall extreme events with some locations likely to experience more rainfall events and others less. So, yes, the number of natural disasters occurring is on the rise but this is because of a complex set of interactions between the physical Earth system, human interference with the natural world and increasing vulnerability of human communities.
Post your questions about natural and non-natural disasters in the comments section below. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Natural hazards are naturally occurring physical phenomena.
While hazards may be natural and inevitable, disasters are not. Learn about different hazards. Volcanic eruptions. Cold waves. Epidemics and pandemics. Technological and biological hazards. Related links.
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