G – To create an evacuation plan that will guide the people in the school about what to do when
there is an earthquake.
R – NDRRMC research and dissemination team
A – the administration , faculty and staff, and students
S – Disasters and accidents today seemed like to occur frequently with properties being destroyed
and lives are lost. Unfortunately, no one can stop these natural phenomena to occur, and predict
when an accident happens. The only thing a community can do is to lessen its after effects. The
risk will be minimized if the people in the community are properly informed about where to
evacuate and what to do before, during, and after the disaster and accidents. As the Disaster
Management team of Holy Cross College of Calinan, your team is asked by the school
president to create an evacuation plan of the different locations of the school and present it
including the necessary information like what to do, before, and after an earthquake.
P- School’s evacuation plan
S- Content, Organization, Mechanics and Visual Appeal, Evacuation Route Map, Emergency
Response Steps
1
2
Describe a disaster both man-made
and natural.
3
Differentiate the risk factors underlying
disasters (DRR11/12-Ia-b-2);
4
Identify what is disaster risk.
Learning Objectives :
Explain the meaning of disaster
(DRR11/12-Ia-b-1).
Disaster and Disaster Risk
The word “disaster” originated from the French word, ‘desastre’ ,
a combination of two words, ‘des’ meaning bad and ‘astre’
meaning star. Thus, disasters signify bad star or evil star.
Fig. 1 . Percentage of disaster frequency in the Philippines as of
Philippines as of 2015.
CONCEPT OF DISASTER …
o Disaster is a dangerous situation or threat from natural
or man-made events that disrupt the functions of
individuals in a community
o This could mean death, damage to resources, and loss of
property.
CONCEPT OF DISASTER …
o Disaster is a dangerous situation or threat from natural
or man-made events that disrupt the functions of
individuals in a community
o This could mean death, damage to resources, and loss of
property.
A disaster risk occurs when a hazard is exposed to a vulnerable community.
A hazard is a threat to life, environment, or property. A
hazard can be considered a disaster if it poses an actual harm
to life and environment. It can be classified based on its
origins: natural and man-made.
Natural hazards are caused by an
abrupt or slow onset of naturally
occurring phenomena which can be
biological, geological, hydrological,
meteorological, and climatological in
origin.
Man-made hazards are caused by human activities and occur near human
settlements. Pollution, industrial, and transport accidents, conflicts
(war and terrorism), and technological structures are some examples of
man-made hazards. pollution
pollution accident arson war
The failure to withstand the
impacts of hazards is called
vulnerability . For example,
a town located near an active
volcano is more vulnerable to
a volcanic eruption compared
to a town located far from the
volcano.
People who are preparing to
live or put up a business in
Marikina City are considering
the possible effects of the
earthquake hazards in that
location. What factors should
one consider in order to weigh
the probability of a disaster
occurrence?
Concept of Disaster Risk
Disaster risk is defined by United
Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) as
“the combination of the probability
of an event and its negative
consequences.” This includes severity
of hazard, number of damage to
people and resources, and their
vulnerability to damage.
Te any phenomenon that can potentially cause
damage to life, property, or environment
feature of a community that
makes them prone and exposed
to the negative impacts of
hazard.
any element (people, property, or
system) that is present in a
hazard and is prone to potential
loss
To understand disaster risks,
one must also consider the
community’s capacity to
protect itself against disasters.
The ability of a community to
withstand, accommodate, and
recover from a disaster is
called resilience .
There are several factors that affect the degree of disaster risk in a community.
Physical
Psychological
Socio-cultural
Economic
Biological
PHYSICAL
This includes the concrete
objects in a community that can
help or harm an individual
during a disaster. Examples are
availability of fire exits during a
fire, sturdiness of infrastructure
or the ability of a building to
withstand earthquakes.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
It includes the mental
state of an individual,
like the ability of an
individual to respond to
a disaster and fear.
Socio- Cultural
This includes traditions,
religion, and social
statuses in society.
Examples include community
folklore, presence of
bayanihan system, etc.
Suppose the community you live in is a city filled with skyscrapers and
located in a lowland area. List the possible risks in your community and
ways to reduce them on the opposite column.
Devastations caused by disasters do not just cause death and damage to
property. There are other several physical, medical, and psychological
aspects in a community affected by calamities. The severity of effects in
these aspects are due to several factors.
Population
Health
Food
Psychological
Population
Increased population in evacuation centers is the
most immediate effect during a disaster. Natural
disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons force
people to vacate their homes and seek shelter to a
nearby safe area.
Food
Food becomes limited after an occurrence of disaster. Source of food from farms,
poultry, and aquaculture become damaged after a disaster, thus the supply of
food becomes limited. Typhoons and drought cause damage in crops of farms
and gardens. As a result, the price of food becomes higher and people’s ability to
buy supplies is reduced. This can lead to malnutrition and hunger, brought upon
by these disasters. This can hamper the development of children in the long run.
21
Psychological
The devastating impacts of disaster can be traumatic for any person who
has experienced it. Exposure to deaths and catastrophe can be
unforgettable to anyone especially to children. Many children could
develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after experiencing such
disastrous events. PTSD is a serious psychological condition from extreme
trauma. Inability to notice and address it early, can lead to a lifetime of
emotional distress and psychological damage.
Severity of Exposure
A person exposed to a more severe disaster has higher
risk for mental distress. For example, a family who
experienced a first-hand fire incident has a higher
risk than their friends and other people who have
watched the news about the fire. Psychological
problems after disasters are usually triggered by
exposure to the death of an immediate family member.
Age
Research shows that individuals ranging from
40-60 years old are more prone to disaster
distress than children. Adults have more
pressures like their jobs and families, and
these adds up to their emotional distress
after a disaster. The higher stress of
parents is related to their children’s slow
recovery.
Human Resilience
Humans are naturally resilient. Resilience is the ability of individuals to
recover from the impacts of a disaster. There are several factors that
increase the resilience of an individual:
Social support includes emotional
support by sharing traumatic
experiences, coping mechanisms, and
finding a sense of comfort from others.
Coping confidence is the self-
efficiency to believe that one can
survive any disaster and reduce
mental distress in the future. This
method of coping includes values like
optimism, hope, and confidence.
Children playing in evacuation center to reduce trauma brought by
disasters.
The Philippines is geographically located at the “Pacific Ring of
Fire”.
These are countries that are usually hit by disasters like
earthquake. According to the Center for Research on the
Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), the worst combination of
disasters experienced by the Philippines was from 1901 to
2000.
The occurrence and effects of disasters are inevitable but
reducing the severity can be done by proper mitigation
procedures.
One way to reduce disaster
impact is to identify the areas
exposed or prone to hazards.
Prediction and Warning
Prediction is a statement of probability of hazards to occur based on a number of
evidences or observations. These observations can come from precursor events or
unusual physical changes.
A warning is a signal that tells of a high probability of
occurrence of a hazard. When a warning is issued, the
community should be alert on the dangers of the potential
event and proper measures should be made.
Geophysical Related Hazards
Earthquakes are more prominent in areas near fault
fault lines. We can recall the tectonic plates in the
earth’s crust and identify which are the fault lines.
Areas that are deep-focused, are prone to earthquakes
because of its trench and nearby active faults.
Man-made Related Hazards
Fire hazards can be caused by faulty electrical
wiring, children playing with matches, candles left
unattended, burning garbage, leaking LPG tanks, and
using firewood in cooking. War is considered the worst
man-made disaster. In the Philippines, the war in
Marawi last May of 2017 caused a huge disaster not
only to the city’s infrastructure but to the lives of
the people living there.
Analyze the pictures of two towns below. Which town has a higher chance of surviving a tsunami? A landslide? Why?
Based from your answers, what is disaster risk?