Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are changes which are so great they may cause damage to the shape of the land or to the lives of people and other living things.

Great changes happen deep inside the Earth and on its surface. The changes on the outer part of the Earth happen because of different kinds of weather.

TYPES OF Natural Disasters

EarthquakeFLOODTSUNAMIWildfireCYCLONE

EARTHQUAKE An earthquake is a violent shaking of the ground.

Sometimes it is so strong that the ground splits apart.

When parts of the earth, called plates, move against each other giant shock waves move upwards towards the surface causing the earthquake.

FloodA flood is caused by an overflow of water which covers the land that is usually dry.

Floods are caused by heavy rain or by snow melting and the rivers burst their banks and overflow.

Costal floods are caused by high tides, a rise in sea level, storm waves or tsunami (earthquakes under the sea).

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of waves, made in an ocean or other body of water by an earthquake, landslide, volcanic eruption, or meteorite impact. Tsunamis can cause huge destruction when they hit coastlines.

Cyclones

"Cyclone" is an intense whirl in the atmosphere with very strong winds circulating around it in anti-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere.

WildfireThe term “wildfire” is used for uncontrolled fire that destroys forests and many other types of vegetation, as well as animal species. In some regions of the world wildfires are caused by lightning however, nowadays many fires are caused by people, either accidentally, as a consequence of carelessness, or arson. These fires often get out of control and spread very easily overvast areas. Depending on the type of vegetation or material being burnt, they are also called: forest fires, bush fires, grass fires, or peat fires

The Sichuan Earthquake,China.

Effects.The Sichuan Earthquake caused land slides, roads were torn apart and most buildings collapsed. Submerged under the mud slides were hundreds of vehicles, with mostly workers trapped inside. Most of them died, as the mudslides made the Chinese army unable to get to them. Schools were destroyed, with kids still inside with the poor quality of buildings being to blame for the child death toll.

About 800000 people were death due to earthquake

Mudslide near the epicentre of the earthquake.

Case Study: Gujarat 2001 Earthquake

A Powerful Earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on Richter-Scale rocked the Western Indian State of Gujarat on the 26th of January, 2001

It caused extensive damage to life & property. The epicenter of the quake was located at 23.6 north Latitude and 69.8 east Longitude, about 20 km Northeast of Bhuj Town of the Kutch district in Western Gujarat. 25 districts of the state was affected in this quake. Around 18 towns, 182 talukas and 7904 villages in the affected districts have seen large-scale devastation.

The affected areas even spread up to 300 km from the epicentre. In the Kutch District, four major urban areas – Bhuj, Anjar, Bachau and Rapar suffered near total destruction.

The rural areas in the region are also very badly affected with over 450 villages almost totally destroyed.

In addition, wide spread damages also occurred in Rajkot, Jamnagar, Surendranagar, Patan and Ahmedabad districts.

Other Urban areas such as Ganhidham, Morvi, Rajkot and Jamnagar have also suffered damage to major structures, infrastructure and industrial facilities. Ahmedabad the capital was also severely affected.

CASE STUDY:3

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The earthquake was caused by subduction and a devastating tsunami along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 230,000 people in eleven countries, and the avrage height of tsunami was recorded 5-10meters max. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand were the hardest hit.

373 villages of Kanyakumari were effected.About 7000 people lost their lives in South region of India

CASE STUDY 4TSUNAMI IN JAPAN

Friday afternoon, on 11 March A tsunami was sent crashing into the country’s

north-eastern coast. A tsunami measured at anywhere at 7.3 meters

hit at various places along the coast, while a 10-meter tsunami was seen at the port in Sendai.

Two nuclear plants on the Pacific coast in Fukushima were automatically shut down.

Radiation releases caused large evacuations, concern over food and water supplies, and treatment of nuclear workers.

The situation has been further compounded by numerous aftershocks.

20,000 people confirmed dead 10,000 more people expected to dead 20,000 people injured 530,000 people displaced, staying in 2,500 evacuation centres,

such as schools and public halls 24,000 people still completely isolated and cannot be reached 1.2 million homes without power 1.4 million homes without water 4,700 destroyed houses 50,000 damaged houses 582 roads cut off 32 bridges destroyed

Case study 5On 26 July 2005Mumbai Metropolitan Region was struck with a heavy rains.The

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) station in Santacruz had recorded 94.4 cm of rain.

Local train movement came to a halt by 2:30 p.m. due to the water logging on the tracks, due to which, vehicles traffic intensity on roads increased. Water logging and submergence of certain low lying pockets of the region such as Dharavi, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Chunabhatti, Chembur, Ghatkopar, Milan Subway and Sion either slowed down traffic, or in some areas, brought it to a grinding halt.

BEST buses services were stopped in the evening.The Powai Lake had started overflowing at 4 p.m. and discharged

5.95 million cubic meters of water into the Mithi River.Thousands of school children were stranded due to flooding and

could not reach home for up to 24 hours. The following two days were declared as school and college holidays by the state government.

Thousands of animal carcasses floated in the flood waters, raising

concerns about the possibility of disease.52 local trains damaged37,000 autorickshaws spoiled4,000 taxis damaged900 BEST buses damaged10,000 trucks and tempos were damaged.

The Effects of the Bangladesh Floods July 2004.

About 60% of the capital city Dhaka has gone under dirty floodwaters polluted with sewage, exposing 5 million people to serious health hazards.

At least 100 more people are being reported killed in Bangladesh floods, taking the death toll from three weeks of devastation to almost 400 in the country, and over 1,100 in South Asia.Bangladeshi officials say new deaths were reported from across the country as a result of drowning, disease, snakebites and house collapses.

Early reports

Effects

Total affected districts:39 Reported death:628 Houses destroyed:858,202 Houses damaged:3159235 School destroyed:1225 School damaged:23439

More than 2,000,000 acres of agricultural land have been submerged and countless crops ruined.

Case study 7A CYCLONE IN CALCUTTA.The oldest and the worst cyclone was record in the month October 1737 that had hit Calcutta and took a toll of 30,000 lives in the region. It was accompanied by a 12 meter high cyclone.

Case study 8

• Bangladesh Cyclone in the month of November 1970 which crossed Bangladesh coast in the night was one of the worst in recent times, with storm surges of 4 to 5 meters height at the time of high tides, and with 25 cm of rain in the some area. It was found that about 20,000 people lost their lives.