A natural disaster is a hazard that overwhelms the capacity of highly vulnerable communities to adapt or cope, resulting in death and injury. While hazards are unavoidable, they can be mitigated by building adaptive capacity in a community before a disaster occurs through preemptive or real-time efforts and during the recovery process afterward.
Disasters are a common occurrence worldwide and cause millions of deaths every year. They also cause economic losses that can take years to recover from. However, not all disasters are the same. A natural disaster can result from either a weather or climate event or from an Earth-driven occurrence such as an earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, tsunami, or forest fire.
Weather and climate-driven events include flooding caused by heavy rainfall, mudslides caused by shifting landforms, droughts and famines triggered by shifts in precipitation patterns, wildfires fueled by heat waves and dry conditions, and damage and destruction caused by tornadoes, derechos and other windstorms, including tropical storms and hurricanes.
Extreme events also pose significant threats to human health, especially when they occur simultaneously. They can inhibit access to clean water and adequate nutrition, increase infectious diseases, and lead to homelessness due to displacement. They can also have a negative impact on people’s mental and physical well-being, such as anxiety, trouble sleeping and depression-like symptoms that can be exacerbated by stress from coping with the aftermath of the disaster.
About the Author
