Natural Disasters: Life After the Event

A natural disaster is an event such as a flood, tsunami, or earthquake that causes extensive damage or loss of life. An annual average of 268 million people were victims of natural disasters between the years of 2002 and 2011. The Philippines, India, and Indonesia are three of the top five areas of the world most frequently subjected to natural disasters.

The critical period of a natural disaster is the first 72 hours however once this has passed the population is still subjected to the secondary affects of the disaster. Secondary effects occur when triggered by a primary effect, an example is an earthquake (primary) igniting a fire (secondary) or flooding (primary) allowing the passage of water born diseases (secondary).