What is Disaster Management ?

Remember your pets. Find out in advance which hotels and shelters allow animals, and stock your pet's medication. Keep a crate and plenty of food ready for your furry friend.

If the water in your area becomes contaminated, purify it using iodine tablets. Make treated water more palatable by passing it back and forth several times between two separate containers.

Let family and friends know you are safe by sending a text message. It is more likely to go through than a phone call if cellular networks are overwhelmed. Put together a communication plan with your family in case you are separated during a disaster.

Photocopy important documents-passports, licences, wills and insurance forms-and store them in a resealable plastic bag along with recent photos of family members. Use the CamScanner app, or scan each document to create a PDF file, which you can then email to yourself or store using a cloud-based service like Dropbox, iCloud or Google Drive.

Don't believe everything you see in the movies. A doorway isn't the safest place to be in during an earthquake (you should seek shelter under a table instead). Research the safest way to protect yourself and your family in a disaster situation.

In a dangerous situation, like a terrorist attack, never over-estimate your capability, says Singh. Don't be a hero, and don't panic. Remain alert and look for a place to hide.

Train in useful skills. Singh says a course in medical first aid and basic fire management goes a long way in preparing for every eventuality-natural or man-made. Skills in management of children and the elderly in trauma are equally useful.

Once you and your family are safe, look for ways to help, perhaps by volunteering at that time, or after the disaster, with rebuilding the community. You can sign up to be a volunteer on the NDMA website.

Animal Anticipation.
Some Scientists believe that some animals are able to feel vibrations in the earth before an Earthquake. Dogs, birds and elephants have all been said to flee or retreat an area right before a disaster hits.

Disaster Management refers to how we can protect or preserve maximum number of lives and property during a natural disaster.

Once Every 200 Years
In 1861, a massive 43-day storm put Southern California underwater for six months. Geologic research shows that epic storms of “biblical proportions” have occurred in the region roughly every 200 years for the last 2000 years, and researchers say that California may be due for another big one soon.

Disaster management plans are multi-layered and are aimed to address such issues as floods, hurricanes, fires, and even mass failure of utilities or the rapid spread of disease.

When the Dam Breaks
The Banqiao dam was built on the Ru River in China in the 1950s as part of a program aimed at controlling the Huang He (Yellow River). It was constructed to withstand massive floods, expected to occur only once a millennium. Sadly, in 1975 Typhoon Nina hit with such intensity the dam collapsed causing unprecedented flooding and destruction downstream.

India has been traditionally vulnerable to the natural disasters on the account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides would have been a recurrent phenomena

Sinkhole Alley
The state of Florida sits on an unbroken bed of Limestone which makes sinkholes a common problem- especially in Central Florida. It’s called “sinkhole alley”, and 2/3 of sinkhole insurance claims come from this area.

About 59% of the landmass is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares is prone to floods; about 8% of the total area is prone to cyclones and 69% of the area is susceptible to drought.

The Great Blue Hole
The Great Blue Hole of Belize is a large underwater sinkhole near the center of Lighthouse Reef. It originally formed as a limestone cave during the last glacial period, but as the ocean began to rise, the cave system flooded and eventually collapsed. In 1971, Jacques Cousteau made the site famous by declaring it one of the top ten best diving site in the world.

In the decade 1990-2000, an average of about 4344 people lost their lives and about 30 million people were affected by disasters every year.

I Know a Big Sinkhole that Swallowed a House
The largest natural sinkhole ever witnessed occurred in May 1981 in Winter Park, Florida. The sinkhole grew to a width of 350 feet, and a depth of 75 feet, taking with it a 3-bedroom house, a car dealership, 5 Porsches, parts of two separate streets, and the town’s Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The loss in terms of private, community and public assets has been astronomical.At the global level, there has been considerable concern over natural disasters.

It’s Getting Windy Out Here
A storm is considered a topical depression when wind speeds are less than 39 mph. When the wind speed exceeds 39 mph, the tropical depression is upgraded to a tropical storm.  When wind speeds reach 74 mph (119kph), a tropical storm becomes a hurricane.

Even as substantial scientific and material progress is made, the loss of lives and property due to disasters has not decreased. In fact, the human toll and economic losses have mounted up.

Can’t Cross the Equator
No hurricane has ever crossed the equator because of a property of physics known as the Coriolis effect. The Coriolis effect is the force that creates the spin in the hurricane. Hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the South. The same effect also causes hurricanes to move away from the equator as they grow.

The Naming of a Hurricane
To make communication about storms easier, the World Meteorological Organization develops a list of names for tropical storms that are used in alphabetical order. If the storm becomes a hurricane, the name is retained. Names can be repeated after a period of 6 years, but names of especially severe storms like Katrina are retired.

It was in this background that the United Nations General Assembly, in 1989, declared the decade 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction with the objective to reduce loss of lives and property and restrict socio-economic damage through concerted international action, was specially certified in developing countries.