isaster Management Though, all kinds of disaster require more or less similar skill-sets and rescue-efforts at least a few

days after the event, it is important to understand various kinds of disasters. Depending upon the actual nature of disaster, the immediate reaction needs to be different. Also, the first few moments of disasters are distinctly different for each kind of disasters. Thus, understanding of each kind of disaster might also help in identifying the onset of a disastrous event, so that a trained person can undertake some key actions, during the initial few moments. This could have a major impact on the final outcome in terms of amount of final loss.

Natural These are primarily natural events. It is possible that certain human activities could maybe aid in some of these events, but, by and large, these are mostly natural events. Earthquakes Volcanos Floods Tornadoes, Typhoons, Cyclones Man Made These are mostly caused due to certain human activities. The disasters themselves could be unintentional, but, are caused due to some intentional activity. Most of these (barring coordinated terrorist activities) are due to certain accidents which could have been prevented if sufficient precautionary measures were put in place. Nuclear Leaks Chemical Leaks/Spill over Terrorist Activities Structural Collapse

Floods

Floods refer to huge amount of water reaching land in a short span of time, causing land surface to be submerged under water at places, where, land surface is usually not covered with water. Floods could be caused due to natural causes, or, human activities, or, a combination of both. Floods are caused by discharge of huge volume of water in a short span of time, at a rate, such that the water can not be carried away from the scene of discharge.

Some of the possible reasons for such huge discharge of water could be:

very heavy rainfall (say: due to cyclones, typhoons etc.) in a short span of time. It should be noted that the amount of rainfall itself is not a sufficient cause, the duration within which the rainfall is receive is equally important contributor breach in levy, dams etc very high tidal waves (sometimes in the aftermath of a seismic activity, e.g. earthquakes) etc. also called tsunamis Usually, flooding impacts a large area, wherein entire district or states might be flooded. However, sometimes, flooding is very local, i.e. limited to just one city, or, parts of it. Most often, the localized flooding is caused due to human activities, rather than natural phenomenon. A natural phenomenon might seem like the immediate trigger, but, in reality, this is caused by human activity.

There are some places, which get flooded almost every year. One such example is Bangladesh. Some of the other places which had incidents of bad flooding in the recent past include:

Florida, in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina (2005) Myanmar (2008) Portions of Coastal India get flooded almost each year Among various kinds of disasters, flooding is unique in the sense that it has a very high degree of predictability, both in the short term, as well as long term. In most situations, flood prone areas are quite known in the sense that they have a history of flooding. Only in very rare situations, a place might be flooded without having any past history of flooding. Even in such cases, a careful study of the area could give an indication of possible flooding.

Flood Prone Areas The areas, which are prone to flood-risks are: places, which have a history of flooding (most important) area receiving heavy rainfall, with not much naturally sloping landscape areas at the lower levels of naturally sloping landscape where, the higher areas are receiving heavy rainfall areas around sea-coasts, or, river banks areas downstream of dams etc. As water level upstream of dams might rise, the dam authorities might be forced to release water (to safeguard the dam) which might cause flooding of downstream areas areas on the other side of levies (in case, the levy gets breached)

low-lying areas (say: foot of an overbridge etc.) Loss due to Flooding The most common kinds of loss that are caused during flooding include: Lack of water: Its an irony, that a disaster which mean water everywhere, results in lack of water to drink and sanitation. Lack of proper drinking water and sanitation causes widespread outbreak of diseases. Lack of food: Most of the food items get damaged, causing a severe shortage of food. This shortage could be for the food to be consumed in the near future, or, even standing crops could be damaged, causing long-term food shortage. Lack of utilities: Utility services might have to be turned of