Disaster Readiness and Risk

Reduction

Mr. Pepito P. Saliba

Master Teacher I

BS Biology ● BS Pharmacy ● MAT-Biology (CAR)

● MS Pharmacy ● PhD Science Education (CAR)
● RPh ● LPT ● CSP
MELC:
•Explain the meaning of disaster
•Differentiate the risk factors
underlying disasters
•Describe the effects of disasters on
one’s life
•Analyze disaster from the different
perspectives (physical, psychological,
socio-cultural, economic, political, and
biological).
Activity 1: Understanding
Disaster

Direction: Analyze the given images

and answer the questions below:
1. Describe the given images.
2. List down the disasters that you
can identify from the images.
Definition of Disaster:
• Disaster is "a sudden, calamitous occurrence that
causes great harm, injury, destruction, and
devastation to life and property”.
• Disaster is “a serious disruption of the functioning of
a community or a society involving widespread
human, material, economic or environmental losses
and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own resources”
(Food and Agriculture Organization, 2008).
• Disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of
a community or a society involving widespread
human, material, economic or environmental losses
and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected
community or society to cope using its own resources
(United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction).
• Disaster disrupts the usual course of life,
causing both physical and emotional distress
such as an intense feeling of helplessness and
hopelessness.
• Disaster stresses that two elements are
affected – life (whether human or animal) and
property.
• Its impacts may include loss of life, injury,
disease and other negative effects on human
physical, mental, and social wellbeing, together
with damage to properties, destruction of assets,
loss of services, social and economic
disruptions, and environmental degradation.
What is the difference between hazard
and disaster?
• A hazard is a dangerous situation or
event that carries a threat to humans.
• A disaster is an event that harms
humans and disrupts the operations of
society.
• Hazards can only be considered
disasters once it affected humans. If a
disaster happened in an unpopulated
area, it is still a hazard.
Classification of Disasters:
A. Natural Disasters – It is caused by
natural forces, such as earthquakes,
typhoon, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes,
fires, tornados, and extreme temperatures.
They can be classified as rapid onset
disasters and those with progressive onset,
such as droughts that lead to famine.
B. Man-made Disasters – It is caused by
man in which major direct causes are
identifiable intentional or non-intentional
human actions.
3 Categories of Man-made
Disasters:
1. Technological/industrial disasters -
Unregulated industrialization and inadequate safety
standards increase the risk for industrial disasters.  
•EX: leaks of hazardous materials; accidental
explosions; bridge or road collapses, vehicle collisions,
Power cuts, etc.
2. Terrorism/Violence - The threat of terrorism
has also increased due to the spread of
technologies involving nuclear, biological, and
chemical agents used to develop weapons of mass
destruction.
•EX: release of: chemical materials, biological agents,
radioactive agents; massive shootings, bombs or
explosions, etc.
3. Complex humanitarian emergencies - Usually
resulting from an international or civil war. Thus, many
people are displaced from their homes, lack of
personal safety, disruption of basic infrastructure (food,
water, electricity, and sanitation), etc.  
•EX: conflicts or wars, genocide (the deliberate killing
of a large group of people especially an ethnic group or
nation), etc.
The damage caused by disaster cannot be measured.
It also differs with the kind of geographical location,
climate, earth’s specific characteristics, and level of
vulnerability. These determining factors affect generally
the psychological, socio – economic, political, and
ethnical state of the affected area.
Definition of RISK and
DISASTER RISK
•Risk is “the combination of the
probability of an event and its negative
consequences” (UNISDR).
•Risk is therefore multidisciplinary and is
used in a variety of contexts.
•Risk is usually associated with the
degree to which humans cannot cope
(lack of capacity) with a situation (e.g.
natural hazard).
•Disaster risk is the potential (not actual
and realized) disaster losses, in lives,
health status, livelihoods, assets, and
services which could occur in a community
or society over some specified future time
period.
•Disaster risk is the product of the
possible damage caused by a hazard due
to the vulnerability within a community.
Take note that the effect of a hazard would
affect communities differently.
Activity 2: Classifying Disaster
1. Identify the given set of images if it is Natural or Man Made
Disaster.
2. How will you differentiate natural from man-made
disasters?
3. Give a Natural Disaster and a Man-made Disaster that you
experienced within your locality, or from what you had heard
from the news recently.
Activity 3: Understanding Disaster Risk
Direction: Identify the classification of disaster as
well as elaborately explain the disaster risks
(effects) of a given disaster situations. Accomplish
the table below.
Activity 4: Gina’s Identified Risks
Read the scenario below. Based on your
understanding of disaster, enumerate or list
down the risks that are reflected from the
text.
Activity 5: “6.4-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Southern
Philippines”
Direction: Read the news article below about an earthquake. After
you have read the article, answer the guide questions.
Guide Questions:
1. What risk/s can you identify from the news
article?  
2. Elaborately explain the factors that affect the
disaster risks from the preceding article.
3 ELEMENTS OF
DISASTER RISK:
1. Exposure - the “elements at risk” from a
natural or man-made hazard event.
2. Hazard - a potentially dangerous physical
occurrence, phenomenon or human activity
that may result in loss of life or injury, property
damage, social and economic disruption, or
environmental degradation.
3. Vulnerability - the condition determined by
physical, social, economic and environmental
factors or processes, which increase the
susceptibility of a community to the impact of
hazard.
4 Factors to Consider in
Disaster Risk:
1. Severity of exposure - Those who
experience disaster first-hand which has the
highest risk of developing future mental
problems, followed by those in contact with the
victims such as rescue workers and health
care practitioners and the lowest risk are those
most distant like those who have awareness of
the disaster only through news.  
2. Gender and Family - the female gender
suffers more adverse effects. This worsens
when children are present at home. Marital
relationships are placed under strain.
3. Age - adults in the age range of 40-60
are stressed after disasters, but in general,
children exhibit more stress after disasters
than adults do.  
4. Economic status of country - Severe
mental problems from disasters are more
prevalent in developing countries (ex.
Philippines). Natural disasters tend to
have more adverse effects in developing
countries than do man-caused disasters in
developed countries.
6 Factors which underlie
disasters:
1. Climate Change - the expression
“climate change” means the alteration of
the world’s climate that we humans are
causing such as burning of fossil fuels,
deforestation and other practices that
increase the carbon footprint and
concentration of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere.
•It alters the composition of the global
atmosphere which results to climate
variability
2. Environmental Degradation -
changes to the environment that can
influence the frequency and intensity of
hazards, as well as our exposure and
vulnerability to these hazards.
•Ex. deforestation leads to landslide
hazard; removal of mangroves can
increase the damage caused by storm
surges.
3. Globalized Economic Development
•Increasing exposure of assets in hazard
prone areas, globalized economic
development provides an opportunity to build
resilience if effectively managed.
•Risk can be reduced by investing in
protective infrastructure, environmental
management, and upgrading informal
settlements
•Increase of wealth in certain regions are
expected to have increased hazard exposure.
4. Poverty and Inequality - Impoverished
people are more likely to live in hazard-
exposed areas and are less able to invest in
risk-reducing measures, which drives them into
further poverty.
•This could result to loss of life, injury and
damage, loss of livelihoods, displacement,
poor health, food insecurity, etc.  
5. Poorly planned and Managed Urban
Development - The growing rate of
urbanization and the increase in population
density (in cities) can lead to creation of risk.
6. Weak Governance
• Disaster risk governance refers to the
specific arrangements that societies put
in place to manage their disaster risk
within a broader context of risk
governance.
• Unfortunately, disaster risk is
disproportionately concentrated in lower-
income countries with weak governance.
Disaster Preparedness Cycle:
• Great damage caused by a disaster can be
reduced if everyone will take responsibility in
anticipating its effects. Here are some ways on
how to plan ahead of a disaster:
1. Check for hazards at home.
2. Identify safe place indoors and outdoors
3. Educate yourself and family members
4. Have Disaster kits/supplies on hand.
5. Develop an emergency communication plan.
6. Help your community get ready.
7. Practice the Disaster Preparedness Cycle
“Disasters from Different
Perspectives”

MELC:
•Analyze disaster from the different
perspectives (physical, psychological,
socio-cultural, economic, political, and
biological).
6 Different Perspectives
of Disaster
1. Physical perspective  
•Calamities are phenomena that cause great physical damage
in a community infrastructure, its people and their properties,
e.g. houses and environmental sources of living. These cited
effects of a disaster can be easily measured and the most
common.  
•Natural disasters generally affect the physical infrastructural
facilities, agricultural productivity and even lead to loss of life
and cause damage to property. Various factors influence the
effects of a disaster on a country among them are the
magnitude of the disaster, the geography of the area affected,
and the recovery efforts directed towards reducing the
immediate effects of a disaster.
Effects of Physical Disasters:
- Injuries, Physical disabilities or illness, Sanitation, Damage
in infrastructure
2. Psychological Perspective
•Sometimes, victims of disasters may suffer from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other serious mental health
conditions, which are not being given much attention by the
authorities or even by the victims themselves.
•Disasters are mostly unpredictable, which leave the victims in a
state of shock. They tend to deny the loss and try to escape
from reality. Being in a denial state makes the victims more
vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and other different maladaptive
reactions. Death of a closed one also leaves the victim in a state
of insecurity because the sense of love, attachment and
belongingness are deprived.
•Psychological effects of a Disaster: distress, hopelessness,
intrusion/avoidance emotional effects, hatred/revenge, cognitive
Effects, dependence/insecurities physical Effects,
grief/withdrawn/isolation interpersonal effect, guilt feeling
helplessness, lack of trust
3. Socio-cultural Perspective
•Filipinos are generally known as “matiisin”,
resourceful, helpful, optimistic, and prayerful. These
characteristics are manifested in the country’s
recent fight against COVID19. Due to ECQ, a lot of
people temporarily lost their jobs, some people
stranded in different regions, repatriated OFWs
were held in different quarantine facilities in Metro
Manila, and all people were restricted to go out of
their homes for months. As a result, most Filipino
families would rely on government’s help for them to
get by. However, limited resources and aids from
the government make people find possible ways to
survive amid the pandemic.
•These traits help a lot of Filipinos to survive the challenge
of COVID19 in the country. To people who are used to
natural calamities like typhoons, flash floods, and volcanic
eruptions most citizen would find contentment with what
they have at the moment. The culture of “malalampasan
din natin ‘to..” belief and “bahala na and Diyos” give
hope to most Filipino in the midst of a disaster. Such
perspective helps a lot especially those who belong to the
marginalized sector to be hopeful and continue fighting
against any challenge at hand. Their belief that a help from
someone or from God would arrive at a time they most
needed. It also helps most people survive a lot of oddities in
life.
Socio-Cultural Effect of Disasters
•change in individual roles, disruption of social relationships
and personal connections
4. Economic Perspective
•Disasters affect the economic condition of a
community because they reduce local and
international trade. It can also partially or totally
paralyze a country’s transportation system, just
like what happened in the COVID19 pandemic.
Implementation of a partial and total shut down of
local business operations result to a lot of people
losing means of living.  
Economic Effects of Disasters
•loss of life, unemployment, loss of property, loss
of household articles, loss of crops, loss of public
infrastructure
5. Political Perspective
•Natural disasters are commonly thought to be less
politically argumentative than armed conflicts, yet a
closer look shows that both the effects of a natural
disaster and the resulting distribution of humanitarian aid
are profoundly linked to politics.
•Just as vulnerability to disasters is mediated by the
political system of a country, disasters can have major
consequences for political stability and political
legitimacy. Since agencies of government have a
significant role to play in directing disaster
preparedness, prevention and recovery. Social systems
establish vulnerability to natural disasters and
governments are often considered to be responsible for
the disaster effects.
Political Effects of a Disaster
•People who have trust in political institution
will assess the government’s risk assessments
as credible and accept their hazard policies;
•Low level of trust in public institutions
therefore means that citizens may ignore the
recommendations and disregard the
information provided by these institutions;
•If individuals are confident that they will
receive sufficient aid from the government
when a disaster occurs, they might not be
motivated to take measures on their own.
6. Biological Perspective
•The disturbing effects caused by a prevalent kind of disease or
virus in an epidemic or pandemic level is known as biological
disaster.
(a) Epidemic Level: Biological disaster affects large numbers of
people within a given community or area. Ex: Dengue.
(b) Pandemic Level: Biological disaster affects a much large
region, sometime spanning entire continents or the globe. ex.
Swine Flue
•Biological disasters could wipe out an entire population at a
short span of time.
•Ex. COVID19 pandemic (infected millions in less than a month
and left thousands of deaths in the same duration).
Effects of Biological Disasters
•loss of lives, public demobilization, negative economic effect,
unemployment, hunger.
Activity 6: Watch or Read!
•Direction: Watch a video from the
Youtube, entitled Philippines’
President Threatens to shoot dead
corona virus lockdown troublemaker
using the following link/URL:
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q
ERZgLv3MKg
OR read the article below if you do
not have internet access at home.
Guide Questions: Now, you had watched the video or
read the article above. Let us answer the following
questions.
1. Based on the video/article, what perspective/s of
disaster does it imply?
2. What do you think are the significant needs of the
people in the video/article?
3. Do you agree with the perspective of the President in
mitigating the effect/s of the disaster?  
4. Suppose you have the authority to give suggestion/s to
the President in reducing the impacts of the disaster in the
video, what advice will you give him? Justify your answer.
5. What do you think is the role of the government in
qualifying the effects of a disaster?
Thank you!