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Types of Disasters
Chapter 2. Systems Issues
Disasters are sudden calamitous events that can result in great damage, loss, injury, and death.
They can occur naturally, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, or
wildfires, or they can be caused by human error or intervention. The widespread injury and
disruption associated with disasters can pose difficult problems for health care providers
including triage of mass casualties, disruption of infrastructure (e.g., loss of power and fresh
water), and the need to deal with the mental anguish associated with uncertainty and the loss of
loved ones.
The degree of injury, death, and damage caused by disasters is influenced by many factors,
including population location and density, timing of the event, and community preparedness
(e.g., emergency response infrastructure, local building codes, etc). Similarly, recovery after a
disaster is influenced by resources (e.g., savings, insurance, and relief aid), preexisting
conditions (e.g., season, local infrastructure, etc), experience, and access to information. In
almost all cases, disasters are associated with mental and physical stress (both during and after
the event) that can increase morbidity and mortality over and above that caused directly by the
event itself.
Natural Disasters
Natural disasters usually occur suddenly and are often uncontrollable. However, they frequently
cluster temporally or geographically, and therefore are somewhat predictable. In the United
States and other developed countries, most natural disasters tend to cause extensive damage and
social disruption with comparatively little loss of life. The most frequent types of natural
disasters experienced in the United States are floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and fires.
Floods. The most common natural disaster is flood, which accounts for roughly 30% of disasters
worldwide. Approximately 25–50 million Americans live or work in floodplains, and another
110 million live in coastal areas. The frequency of flooding is increasing, due in part to
increasing habitation in flood-prone areas and in part to deforestation and changing land-use
patterns, which can increase the degree of flooding.
Flash floods are especially hazardous and occur during sudden heavy rains, tidal surges, or when
dams or levees give way. Most of the deaths during flash floods are caused by drowning, usually
from people wading or driving through moving water. The hazards posed by rapidly moving
water are often unrecognized. A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds; hundreds of gallons of rushing
water represent thousands of pounds of force. As little as 2 feet of rushing water can carry a
vehicle away, trapping the passengers.
Except for flash flooding, floods generally are not directly associated with significant loss of life.
However, flooding results in considerable destruction and disruption, and has the potential for
widespread disease. Floodwaters frequently contain human or animal waste from sewage or
agricultural systems that can lead to epidemics of infectious disease. Drinking water must be
disinfected through boiling and/or chlorination, or an alternative clean water supply (e.g., bottled
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