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A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. [1] [2] Natural disasters like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by natural hazards. [3] Human-made disasters like oil spills, terrorist attacks and power outages are ...
A natural disaster is the highly harmful impact on a society or community following a natural hazard event. The term "disaster" itself is defined as follows: "Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own resources.
Disaster response refers to the actions taken directly before, during, or immediately after a disaster. The objective is to save lives, ensure health and safety, and meet the subsistence needs of the people affected.
A mobile emergency operations center, in this case operated by the Air National Guard. Emergency management (also disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. [1]
An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity. [2] This point distinguishes environmental disasters from other disturbances such as natural disasters and intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings .
Federal disaster relief and recovery was brought under the umbrella of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in 1973 by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1973, [11] and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration was created as an organizational unit within the department. This agency would oversee disasters until ...
In some jurisdictions, emergency department personnel, such as doctors and nurses, are also required to respond to disasters and critical situations, designating them first responders; in other jurisdictions, military and security forces may also be authorized to act as first responders.
A disaster hazard is an extreme geophysical event that is capable of causing a disaster. 'Extreme' in this case means a substantial variation in either the positive or the negative direction from the normal trend; flood disasters can result from exceptionally high precipitation and river discharge, and drought is caused by exceptionally low ...