NATURAL DISASTER

NATURAL DISASTER

Natural Disaster when mentioned creates fear and panic to the ages of the young and old.  It is an unfortunate incident that happens naturally and causes lots of harm to the environment at large. Natural disaster therefore is the major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the earth; that is it is a crisis situation which causes wide spread damage with far exceeds our ability to recover. Thus, form the definition; one can notice that there cannot be a perfect ideal system that prevents damage, because that cannot be termed as a disaster. Even though disasters are unpredicted in occurrence, time, place, it can be also known that it can be predicted scientifically and technologically. Examples of natural disasters are floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other geologic processes.

Explaining briefly the examples of natural disasters, earthquakes are the result of a sudden release of energy in the earth’s crust that involves vibration, shaking and sometimes displacing the ground.

Sinkholes which is an example of natural disaster occurs when natural erosions or human mining makes the ground too weak to support the structures built on and this causes the land to sink and create sinkhole.

Floods are the overflow of water that submerges a land .That is flood simply means a piece of land temporary covered by water. Other disasters such as volcanoes or volcanic eruptions are also part of natural disasters as said above.

EFFECTS OF NATURAL DISASTER            

The effects of natural disasters are main theme that comes out in the studying of it.  Some effects of natural disasters are as follows;

Firstly, the major effect of natural disasters is loss of lives. That is lives of people are being affected and basically it means people dying. For example the 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole which killed fifteen people was caused during a heavy rain from tropical Storm Agatha. This also led to the depopulation of the country.

Secondly, the economic activity of an environment or a specific place collapses. During natural disasters, there no form of economic activities such as banking, buying, selling and other professions or work being done. People stay indoors after such incidents and can even starve themselves. Also, since there are no economic activities being done, the economy of such places becomes very low and paves way for poverty.

Loss of properties can also be seen as an effect of natural disaster. Properties made by people and governments such as schools, houses, cars, hospitals and all other infrastructure can be destroyed. This as well has to be replaced and can cause huge amounts of money to do them. For example, the overall cost of the 905 disasters in 2012 amounted to   $170 billion and insured losses was $70 billion.

Natural disasters can also cause the displacement of human and animals. The sense of human, natural disasters can make some of people refuges in other countries since there are no places to stay and be much comfortable in their countries.

MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL DISTATERS;

However, even though we cannot predict natural disaster, we can as well manage and prevent it one way or the other. Thus;

One has to be careful the kind of land he or she wants to build his or her house or even companies on. 

Also, there should also be the readiness or response to commence and rescue people affected by being equipped by various techniques needed.

Lastly, mining companies or ‘galamsey’ should be checked and should not be allowed in certain areas prone to disasters.

From the above, one can be seen to be educated on what natural disasters are, its effects and how to manage or prevent it. However, there is a man-made disaster such as bomb explosions and wars which can be predicted and managed at all times.

BY: GRACE AMANKWAH-AMPOMAH

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