SUBJECT: Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction GRADE:

Week: 2 TEACHER: Ms. Princes Jhoy G. Batanes

I. TOPIC: Earth Materials and Processes

 Impacts of Disasters
 Disaster from Different Perspectives

II. LEARNING COMPETENCY

The learner shall be able to:
1. Describe the effects of disasters on one’s life. (DRR11/12-Ia-b-3)
2. Analyze disaster from the different perspectives (physical, psychological, socio-cultural, economic, political,
and biological. (DRR11/12-Ia-b-6)

III. TARGET OUTCOMES:

At the end of the lesson, the student is expected to:
1. Enumerate and describe the effects of disasters.
2. Explain the impacts of disasters.
3. Enumerate the disaster from the different perspectives.

IV. MATERIALS NEEDED:

To accomplish exercises and activities, you need the following: black pen, pencil and/or other writing materials
and other available references.

V. GEAR UP YOUR MIND

1.1 Nature and Effects of Disasters

Being aware of the nature of hazards and their effects on people and other elements at risk is the first step in every
effort to minimize the effects of disasters. Before discussing the details about hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, we must
first consider the important aspects that make disasters what they are in the first place.

Characteristics of Disasters
Disasters are inherently unexpected or happen quickly with little or no warning. As a result, disasters (both man-
made and those resulting from natural events) cause widespread death, injury, and property damage. There is indeed truth
to the saying that things that can hurt you are things that you do not see coming. This underscores the need for timely
warnings and quality hazard-related information issued by competent monitoring and warning agencies.
Disasters cannot be managed through normal means. They require the immediate and effective intervention of both
national government agencies (NGAs) and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to help meet the needs of victims.
Disasters create demands beyond the capacity of a government. During a disaster, the situation is usually beyond the
capabilities of local government units (LGUs) or the national government to respond and handle. When the President
declares a state of emergency, response and recovery programs should be formulated and implemented by both the public
and NGOs.
 The following also characterize disasters:
 Knows no political boundaries
 Requires restricted and new responding organizations
 Creates new tasks and requires more people as disaster responders
 Render useless routine emergency response equipment and facilities
 Worsens the confusion over the roles of people and organizations
 Exposes the lack of disaster planning, response, and coordination
 Inexperienced disaster organizations often fail to see their proper roles

Impacts of Disasters
Disasters often result from the failure to anticipate the timing and enormity of natural hazards. Little lead time is left
to make preparations such as evacuation and strengthening of structures. Disasters do not only result in deaths and
destruction or damage to homes and buildings, but also in the destruction of crops and decreased quality or quantity of
water. Apart from these effects, let us take a look at the other impacts of disasters.

 Medical effects
The medical effects of disasters include traumatic injuries, emotional stress, epidemic diseases, and
indigenous diseases.

 Damage to critical facilities

Widespread disasters can destroy or damage facilities that may be critical not only in maintaining a safe
environment and public order, but also in responding to the disasters. Among these are communication installation,
electrical generating and transmission facilities, hospitals, water facilities (storage, purifications, and pumping), and
other public and private buildings.

 Disruption of transportation
During the initial staged of a disaster, almost all means of surface transportation within a community are
disrupted by broken bridges and roads and streets that are rendered impassable by landslides or floods. The
restricted mobility of vehicles makes rescue and other emergency operations doubly difficult.

 Economic impact
As a result of the destruction and damage to critical facilities, particularly transportation and communication
facilities, disasters disrupt normal business operations and other economic activities. People must also leave their
jobs and devote their time to disaster-related activities such as search and rescue or caring for survivors. Can
economic impact be quantifies? If so, what government agency (ies) is/are responsible for it? Can individual homes
also make an inventory of losses and damages? What benefits do these estimates bring to the government and its
people?

 Global environmental change

There is increasing evidence of global climate change caused by both human activity and disasters.
Although the long-term consequences are hard to predict, more severe cyclonic storms, increased flooding and
drought, and a trend toward desertification cannot be ruled out. These changes could result in the wide range
occurrence of more hazards such as wildfires and mudslide, reduced productivity in the oceans, and weakened
immune systems of people and animals

 Social and political impact

Whenever a disaster strikes, developing countries are the most affected as a large segment of their
population consists of the poor, who are the most affected. The poor suffer the most from disasters like earthquakes
and typhoons because the structures that they live in are unreinforced, poorly built, and often located on marginal
lands. When disaster strike, social and political inequities are usually exposed, which may lead to major political
and social changes. One example is the formation of the state of Bangladesh after it separated from Pakistan. The
breakaway was triggered by a disaster from a tropical cyclone and storm surge which exposed inequities in the
treatment of East Pakistan by the more affluent West Pakistan.
1.2 Disaster from Different Perspectives
A disaster is a result of a vast ecological breakdown in the relation between human; a serious or sudden event on
such a scale that the stricken community needs extraordinary efforts to cope with it, often with outside help or
international aid.
Disaster is analyzed from different perspective as follows:

PHYSICAL PERSPECTIVE
From this view disaster is defined as a phenomenon that can cause damage to the physical elements such as
buildings, infrastructures, including people and their properties, e.g. houses and environmental sources of living. Physical
effects are the most visible and quantifiable effects of a disaster. In considered in data recording. Assessment of disaster is
focused on the following questions:
 How many families are affected? (displacement, injury, death)
 How many houses are damaged or washed out? (in case of super typhoons)
 How many buildings collapsed or are damaged? (in case of an earthquake)
 How many roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructures are damaged? (in case of floods, lahar flows and
earthquakes)
 What is the extent of damage in agricultural industry? (crop, losses, damaged fish cages, wash out rice
fields, etc.)

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Psychological research has shown that disasters can cause serious mental health consequences for victims. These
consequences take the form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and a variety of other disorders and symptoms
which have been less investigated. The more stress, defined in a variety of ways, within the disaster, the more likely there
are to be emotional consequences.
In psychological context a disaster is regarded as an occurrence involving an unexpected or uncontrollable event
rather than a long-term experience. In other word, a disaster is something that could happen within a hazard rather than the
hazard itself. Hence, one very important component of the recovery phase, aside from relief services is debriefing of
psychological support system.
Other psychological effects of a disaster are the following:
 Emotional effects: Shock, terror, irritability, blame, anger, guilt, grief or sadness, numbing, helplessness,
loss of pleasure derived from familiar activities, difficulty feeling happy, difficulty feeling loved.
 Cognitive effects: impaired concentration, impaired decision-making ability, memory impairment, disbelief,
confusion, nightmares, decreased self-esteem, decreased self-efficacy, self-blame, intrusive thoughts,
memories, dissociation, (e.g.,tunnel vision, dreamlike or ‘spacey’ felling).
 Physical effects: fatigue, exhaustion, insomnia, cardiovascular strain, startle response, hyper arousal,
increased physical pain, reduced immune response, headaches, gastrointestinal upset, decreased
appetite, decreased libido, vulnerability to illness.
 Interpersonal effects: Increased relational conflict, social withdrawal, reduced relational intimacy, alienation,
impaired work performance, decreased satisfaction, distract, externalization of blame, externalization of
vulnerability, feeling abandoned.

SOCIO-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
What the people living at risk know and do about natural hazards and disaster risks is mediated by a range of
factors including social conditions (such as age, gender, wealth, ethnicity) and cultural settings (language, beliefs, traditions,
customs). In most places people are also more or less exposed by information and ideas coming from the “outside”—the
world outside their own cultural setting. At the same time, the field of natural hazards and disasters has developed its own
debates, framework, and notions such as vulnerability, resilience, and ‘risk’. But communities may have different priorities
and notions of natural hazards and disaster risk. People’s socio-cultural background may affect their response to disasters
at the different stages of disaster management.
Hence, from the socio-cultural point of view, a disaster is analyzed based on how people respond having as
parameter their social conditions and cultural settings. These two factors are important determinants of the degree of risk,
resilience and vulnerability of those affected. That is why some ethnic groups can easily cope with disasters compared to
other groups.
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE
From an economic perspective, a natural disaster can be defined as a natural event that causes a perturbation to
the functioning of the economic system, with a significant negative impact on assets, production factors, output,
employment, and consumption. One salient component of assessing the impact of disaster impact from this view is defining
direct economic cost and indirect losses.

POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE
From this view, natural disasters are commonly thought to be less politically contentious than armed conflicts. Yet, a
closer look reveals that politics are deeply wedded to both the impact of a natural disaster and the subsequent delivery f
humanitarian assistance. Political considerations before, during, and after a natural disaster can determine who is most at
risk, who can intervene, what actions will be taken, and who will benefit from those actions. Some case studies demonstrate
that economic, social, and political factors can significantly amplify the devastating impact of natural disaster.
Governmentality or deliverance of government services to constituents can be plus or minus factor in disaster risk
reduction and management. Government interventions should be present in the following phases of Disaster Risk Reduction
and Management: 1) Prevention, 2) Mitigation, 3) Preparedness, and 4) Recovery. Failure to do so adversely affects the
capacity and opportunities of those affected to cope with and recover from the impacts of disaster.

ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
Disasters are not random and do not occur by accident. They are the convergence of hazards and vulnerable
conditions. Disasters not only reveal underlying social, economic, political, and environment problems, but unfortunately
contribute to worsening them. Such events pose serious challenges to development, as they erode hard-earned gains in
terms of political, social and educational progress, as well as infrastructure and technological development. The Millennium
Declaration recognizes the risk to development stemming from disasters and calls on the global community to “intensify our
collective efforts to reduce the number and effects of natural hazards and man-made disasters”. Several studies have
recently highlighted the fact that investments in development are in jeopardy unless precautionary action is taken toward
reducing disaster risk. Yet few development organizations adopt a precautionary approach in the design and management
of projects and fewer still recognize the role of environmental management in reducing disaster risk.