03 – Disasters and Hazards

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Disasters

Disasters are severe disruptions to the functioning of a community and exceed their capacity to cope when using internal resources. Disasters occur through natural, technological, and human-caused hazards and other factors that influence the exposure and vulnerability of a community, even your church community. Disasters can significantly impact you, your family, and your community by causing injury, death, economic loss, environmental loss, emotional and spiritual suffering, and other hardships. Disasters often require assistance from federal, state, and local governments and disaster relief organizations, like WELS Christian Aid and Relief.

Hazards

Hazards are those physical conditions that can cause fatalities, injuries, damage, and interruption to social order and are defined as sources of danger that may or may not lead to a disaster (NGA, 1982). Hazards are accompanied by an associated level of risk and the likely consequences should the disaster occur. When response capabilities exceed the capabilities of one or more response agencies, you have a disaster. Each hazard has distinct characteristics and is categorized into three groups.

Natural Hazards

Natural hazards result from hydrological, meteorological, seismic, geologic, volcanic, mass-movement, or other natural processes and threaten society. The following natural hazards are the most common, with the capability to cause significant damage:

  • Floods
  • Earthquakes
  • Hurricanes
  • Storm surges
  • Tornadoes
  • Wildfires
  • Mass movements (avalanches, landslides)
  • Tsunamis
  • Volcanic eruptions
  • Severe winter storms
  • Drought
  • Extreme temperatures
  • Thunderstorms
  • Hail

Technological Hazards

Technological hazards are a product of technological innovation and human development. These hazards tend to be much less understood than their natural counterparts. As technology advances, the number of associated disasters increases, and their scope expands. The most common technological hazards arise from systems and structures related to transportation, infrastructure, industry, and construction and include:

  • Structural fires
  • Transportation accidents
  • Infrastructure failures
  • Dam failures
  • Hazardous materials incidents
  • Nuclear accidents

Human-Caused Hazards

Human-caused hazards are incidents resulting from deliberate actions through which adversaries can carry out their activities and include the following:

  • Active shooter
  • Armed assault
  • Biological attack
  • Chemical attack
  • Cyber attack
  • Explosive attack
  • Improvised nuclear attack
  • Nuclear terrorism
  • Radiological attack

 

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