DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Dr. Rajan Bikram Rayamajhi
Junior Resident
School of Public Health and Community Medicine
B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
Dharan, Nepal
2012

Contents
• Introduction
• Disaster Types
• Victims and Survivors
• Second Disaster
• Disaster Management Cycle
• Disaster syndrome
• Nuclear Disaster
• Floods
• Earthquake
• Law/Acts in Nepal
• Data on disasters in Nepal
• Activities in Nepal
• Few recent advances

International Day for Disaster Reduction is celebrated
every year on October 13
Making Children and Young People partners for Disaster Risk
Reduction
( 2011Theme)

The word disaster is derived from Middle French désastre and
that from Old Italiano disastro, which in turn comes from
the Greek Pejorative prefix δυσ-, (dus-) "bad" + ἀστήρ (aster),
"star".
The root of the word disaster ("bad star" in Greek) comes from
an astrological theme in which the ancients used to refer to the
destruction or deconstruction of a star as a disaster

INTRODUCTION:
 A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society
causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental
losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society
to cope using its own resources .
 Disasters are not totally discrete events. Their possibility of
occurrence, time, place and severity of the strike can be reasonably
and in some cases accurately predicted by technological and
scientific advances.
 It has been established there is a definite pattern in their occurrences
and hence we can to some extent reduce the impact of damage
though we cannot reduce the extent of damage itself.

 Disaster management usually refers to the management of natural
catastrophes such as fire, flooding, or earthquakes.
 Related techniques include crisis management, contingency
management and risk management.
 Disaster/emergency management is the discipline of dealing with and
avoiding risks.
 It also involves preparing for a disaster before it happens, disaster
response (e.g. emergency evacuation, quarantine, mass
decontamination, etc.)as well as supporting, and rebuilding society
after natural or human-made disasters have occurred.

 Effective emergency management relies on thorough
integration of emergency plans at all levels of government and
non-government involvement.
 Activities at each level (individual, group, community) affect
the other levels.
 It is common to place the responsibility for governmental
emergency management with the institutions for civil defense
or within the conventional structure of the emergency services

 Emergency Management which has replaced Civil defense, can
be seen as a more general intent to protect the civilian
population in times of peace as well as in times of war.
 Civil Protection is widely used within the European Union and
refers to government approved systems and resources whose
task is to protect the civilian population, primarily in the event
of natural and human-made disasters.

 Crisis Management is the term widely used in EU countries
and it emphasizes the political and security dimension rather
than measures to satisfy the immediate needs of the civilian
population.
 Disaster risk reduction An academic trend is towards using the
term is growing, particularly for emergency management in a
development management context. This focuses on the
mitigation and preparedness aspects of the emergency cycle

TYPES OF DISASTERS:
 Natural Disasters.
 Man-made Disasters.
 Natural Disasters
A. Natural Phenomena beneath Earth‟s Surface:
 Earth Quake
 Tsunamis
 Volcanic Eruptions
B. Natural Phenomena at Earth‟s Surface:
 Land Slides
 Avalanches

C. Natural Phenomena above Earth‟s Surface:
 Metrological (Hydrological) Phenomena:
 Windstorms ( Cyclone, Typhoon, Hurricane)
 Tornadoes
 Hailstorms or Snow Storms
 Sea surges
 Floods
 Droughts
 Biological Phenomena
 Epidemics of disease
 Locust swarms ( group of insects/bees)

 Man Made Disasters
 Caused by Warfare
 Conventional
 Nuclear
 Biological
 Chemical
 Caused by accidents
 Vehicular-air crafts, train, ship, four/two wheelers
 Drowning
 Collapse of building
 Explosions
 Fires
 Biological
 Chemicals including Poisoning

HURRICANE
 The primary health hazard from hurricanes or cyclones
lies in the risk of drowning from the storm surge
associated with the landfall of the storm. Most deaths
associated with hurricanes are drowning deaths.
 Secondarily, a hazard exists for injuries from flying
debris due to the high speed of winds.
 Health prof. can be instrumental in providing direct
emergency care to drowning and head injuries.

TORNADOES
 The primary hazard from a health perspective in a tornado
is the risk for injuries from flying debris. The high winds
and circular nature of a tornado leads to the elevation and
transport of anything that is not fastened down.
 Most victims of tornadoes are affected by head and chest
trauma due to being struck by debris or from a structural
collapse.
 Some individuals are injured while on the ground. Others
are lifted into the air by the tornado and dropped at another
location.

FLOOD
 Floods may originate very quickly following a quick rain
storm, or they may develop over a short period following an
extended period of rain or quick snow melt.
 The primary hazard from flooding is drowning.
 Longer term health concerns from flooding is the damage of
infrastructure followed by development of disease from
contaminated water and lack of hygiene.

EARTHQUAKE
 A significant global concern.
 The primary health concern:
Injuries arising from structural collapse
Most injuries occur amongst individuals trapped at the
time of the earthquake
 Well known prevention strategy is to prevent buildings from
collapsing.
 There is a recognized need to develop better rescue strategies
for retrieving individuals from collapsed buildings

EXAMPLES
 MAY-JULY, 1999 INDO PAKISTAN WAR.
 SEP 11, 2001: WORLD TRADE CENTER
DESTROYED, USA.
 DEC 26, 2004: INDIAN OCEAN EARTHQUAKE AND
TSUNAMI, MAG. 9.3,KILLED-2,80,000.
 AUG 29,2005: HURRICANE KATRINA IN NEW
ORLEANS.
 JAN 12, 2010: EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI-KILLED
3,10,000, MAG. 7.0

VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS
Almost everyone in the population is affected by a disaster. No one is
untouched by it.
Those who suffer damage are called victims. The victims may die or live.
Those who manage to live are called survivors. These survivors can be
classified as:
 Primary survivor – One who is exposed to the disaster first-hand and
then survives. They are called ‘survivor victims’.
 Secondary survivor – One who grieves the loss of primary victims.
Example, a mother who lost her child, or a man who lost his friend.

 Third level survivor – The rescue and relief personnel. These
people are also affected due to the disaster as they are at the
site of disaster and undergo almost the same mental trauma as
the other victims.
 Fourth level survivor – Reporters, Government
personnel, traders, etc.
 Fifth level survivor – People who read about or see the event
in media reports.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT CYCLE
1.Disaster phase
2. Response phase
3. Recovery/ Rehabilitation phase
4. Risk Reduction/ Mitigation phase
5. Preparedness phase

 Disaster phase – The phase during which the event of the disaster
takes place. This phase is characterized by profound damage to the
human society. This damage / loss may be that of human life, loss of
property, loss of environment, loss of health or anything else.
In this phase, the population is taken by profound shock.

 Response phase – This is the period that immediately follows
the occurrence of the disaster. In a way, all individuals respond
to the disaster, but in their own ways.
 The ambulances and medical personnel arrive, remove the
injured for transportation to medical camps or hospitals and
provide first aid and life support. The public also take part in
relief work.
 One can even find injured victims help other injured ones.
Almost everyone is willing to help.
The needs of the population during this phase are immediate
medical help, food, clothing and shelter

 Recovery phase
When the immediate needs of the population are met, when all medical
help has arrived and people have settled from the hustle – bustle of the
event, they begin to enter the next phase, the recovery phase which is the
most significant, in terms of long term outcome.
It is during this time that the victims actually realize the impact of
disaster. It is now that they perceive the meaning of the loss that they
have suffered.

 During this phase, they need resources and facilities so as to
enable them to return back to their own homes, pursue their
occupation, so that they can sustain their life on their own, as
the help from the government and other non governmental
organizations is bound to taper in due course.
Thus, they are provided with a whole new
environment, adequate enough to pursue a normal or at least
near normal life. This is called Rehabilitation.

 Risk reduction phase
During this phase, the population has returned to pre disaster standards
of living. But, they recognize the need for certain measures which may
be needed to reduce the extent or impact of damage during the next
similar disaster.
This process of making the impact less severe is called Mitigation.

 Preparedness phase – This phase involves the development
of awareness among the population on the general aspects of
disaster and on how to behave in the face of a future disaster.
This includes education on warning signs of disasters, methods
of safe and successful evacuation and first aid measures.

THE SECOND DISASTER
The actual disaster results in a lot of damage to the population in terms of
loss of life and property-„first disaster’.
The impact of the first disaster sends another wave of damage triggered
by chain of events relating to the first disaster by means of cause-and-
effect, resulting in indirect damage to people remote from the original
disaster.
This can be called the ‘second disaster’.

Tsunami had caused loss in terms of life, damage to houses, etc.
This is the first disaster.
The losses suffered by these industries results in lower wages and
salaries to those involved in the fishing business.
These people cannot repay their loans, resulting in losses to
money lenders, and so on.
Such events can also result in higher incidences of heart
attacks, strokes, suicides and homicides.
This is called „second disaster‟ and can be in greater magnitude
than the ‘first disaster’. Proper rehabilitation and care of the
victims of first disaster can break the chain of events leading to
the second disaster.

PATTERNS OF MORTALITYAND INJURY
 Disaster events that involve water are the most
significant in terms of mortality.
 Floods, storm surges, and tsunamis all have a higher
proportion of deaths relative to injuries.
 Earthquakes and events associated with high winds tend
to exhibit more injuries than deaths.
 The risk of injury and death is much higher in
developing countries – at least 10 times higher because
of little preparedness, poorer infrastructure.

DISPLACEMENT OF VICTIMS
 Mass Shelters
 Shelter management:
• Organized team (chain)
• Sleeping area and necessities
• Water and food handling
• Sanitation (toilets, showers)
• Special care to children and elderly
• Health services (physical, mental)

DISASTER AND HEALTH
 In a major disaster water treatment plant, storage & pumping
facilities, & distribution lines could be damaged, interrupted or
contaminated.
 Communicable diseases outbreak due to:
– Changes affecting vector populations (increase vector).
– Flooded sewer systems .
– The destruction of the health care infrastructure and
– The interruption of normal health services geared towards
communicable diseases.

 Injuries from the event
 Environmental exposure after the event (no shelter)
 Malnutrition after the event (feeding the population
affected)
 Excess Communicable Disease mortality following a
disaster
 Mental health (disaster syndrome)

INCUBATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Incubation periods of illnesses in returned travelers
(Adapted from CDC Health Information for International Travel 2010)
Incubation Period Etiologies
< 2 weeks Malaria, dengue, typhoid, acute HIV, hepatitis C, hepatitis E,
acute diarrheal syndromes (E.coli, Campylobacter sp.,
salmonellosis, shigellosis), influenza enteroviruses, bacterial
and viral pneumonias, sinusitis, measles, mumps, rubella,
varicella, bacterial or viral meningitis, leptospirosis, anthrax,
arbovirus encephalitis
2 – 6 weeks Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B,
hepatitis C, hepatitis E, acute HIV, amebic liver abscess,
leptospirosis, arbovirus, encephalitis
> 6 weeks Malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis E,
HIV, filariasis, amebic liver abscess, rabies

DISASTER SYNDROME
This is an observed disorder that can be identified in disaster victims. As
a matter of fact, about 75% of the population of the population is
affected, immediately following the disaster (Duffy, 1998).
By the 10th week, there is a significant drop, and by the end of the first
year, it drops to about 30 – 40% of the disaster affected population. It is
also observed, that there is a 17% higher occurrence of long-term
sequelae in the disaster affected population, as compared to other control
populations (Roubonis, 1991).

The observation by Duffy of the widespread occurrence of
symptoms following a disaster (75%) implicates that they are a
normal reaction to an abnormal event .
The ensuing drop in the prevalence of symptoms in the following
year shows that they are resolving „on the own‟.
The rest who suffer continual symptoms may be the victims of a
failure of resolution of the normal reaction.
The logical deduction from the observations of Duffy and
Roubonis implicates that facilitation of the resolution can bring
about lower psychiatric morbidity in the disaster affected
population.

MENTAL WELLNESS
 In any major disaster, people want to know where their
loved ones are, nurses can assist in making links.
 In case of loss, people need to mourn:
 Give them space
 Find family friends or local healers to encourage
and support them
 Most are back to normal within 2 weeks
 About1% to 3%, may need additional help

 Little attention is paid to the children.
 Listen attentively to children without denying their
feelings.
 Give easy-to-understand answers to their questions.
 In the shelter, create an environment in which children
can feel safe and secure (e.g. play area).

NUCLEAR DISASTER
The problem with accidents/leaks with nuclear installation is that
radioactive material might get discharged into the environment. This
radioactive material could then enter human bodies.
The primary ways for these radioactive materials to enter human-bodies
are:
 through breathing of contaminated air
 through eating of contaminated food (including livestock animals –
which might have inhaled/eaten contaminated air/food) – including
milk from a cow which has grazed on contaminated grass!!
 through drinking of contaminated water
 through pores of skin etc. – which might be in contact with
contaminated air or water. This is very small enough to be considered as
negligible.

 First of all, stay indoors (unless, specifically asked to
evacuate). By staying indoors, you are trying to reduce the
level of your exposure to radio-active material.
Similarly, bring your pets and livestock indoors/their stalls.
 Prepare for possible evacuation.
 Arrange for iodine tablets.
 Do Not consume freshly harvested food products – because, it
might have been contaminated.
 Do not use water which was outside, as it might have been
contaminated.

 Unless you are competent and authorized to be working on the disaster
relief/mitigation, do not drive/venture into the zone having risks. First of
all, by entering into this area, you could be endangering
yourself, and, secondly, you could be hampering other efforts which
could include: movement of rescue vehicles, disaster response
teams, and, maybe possible evacuation. Remember, a nuclear accident is
not a show-item, that you have to watch. Stay away.
 Care should be taken that you should be able to continue to receive
further information that might be provided by the disaster management
team.

 While staying indoors, try to stay in closed rooms – away from
doors and windows, in basements etc. All mechanisms of air-
circulation should be turned off. Once again, the idea is to
avoid contamination from radioactive material, which is there
in the atmosphere and air. For this purpose, when you build
your house, it should be so constructed, such that all openings
should be totally coverable – to prevent the entry of
contaminated air into your house. The material chosen for
building should also be such that it can effectively screen
contaminated material, e.g. timber is very poor in its ability to
screen radiation. So, timber houses would be very risky – in
terms of contamination.

 One of the most active action that one can take is: take Iodine
tables. Iodine tables actually saturate the thyroid glands, and
thus, they prevent radio-active iodine (released due to the
accident) from getting accumulated into the thyroid gland.
Considering that, you might not want to get outdoors – during
a disaster, to collect iodine tablets – it might be prudent to
have a supply of such tablets, if you are staying in an
area, which has a risk of seeing nuclear accident. It should be
understood that ability to have uncontaminated proper food is
more effective than having iodine. So, if uncontaminated food
can be consumed, that should be given the first preference.

 Iodine tablets also have severe side-effects. Hence, an
overdose of iodine tables is not advisable. In general, older
people should avoid iodine tables. The side-effects on them
could be more harmful than the advantages that it might
provide. Similarly, children and pregnant women should take a
lower dosage.

 If evacuation is to be involved, it should be done before the formation
of the radioactive clouds. However, there is only so much that one
can do in his/her individual capacity – in the sense that we would
need to depend on the disaster management authority to advise as to
when should we start evacuating.
However, when evacuating, try to do so in an orderly manner, without
clogging the roads etc. Once again, try to stay tuned to sources of
traffic information, so that you can use the least congested routes to
evacuate.
 If you are not contaminated, you should NOT crowd the emergency
centers and/or hospitals. As it is, dealing with nuclear radiation needs
specialized knowledge, and, you don‟t want to overburden the
system, which would be already too stretched in case of a nuclear
incident.

 As soon as you are out of the effected area, or, are entering a non-
contaminated area, you should:
– Discard your contaminated clothing (so that the virgin area does
not get further contaminated)
– Wash those areas of your body, which were exposed, e.g. hands,
face etc. If needed, take a bath. Needless to say, this step needs
to be done using uncontaminated water. Imagine, you are just
entering your house – from outside. Since the water stored in
overhead tanks could also be contaminated, there is only a
limited supply of decontaminated water.
Hence, you should use your judgment, as to whether to take a
whole-body wash, or, just washing the uncovered areas of your
body.

Dosage of Iodine (WHO recommendation)
Check your local centers for exact recommendation suitable for your locality
 Adults - older than 12 years: 1 tablet per day.
 Children aged 3 to 12 years: ½ tablet per day.
 Infants aged 1 month to 3 years: ¼ tablet per day.
 Neonates up to one month: one dose 1/8 tablet.
 Pregnant and breast-feeding women: two doses of 1 tablet each.
 Older people should not be given iodine tablets. They risk much more severe
side-effects, mostly due to hyperthyroidism – specially, if they have been staying
in thyroid deficient regions.
 For pregnant women, this dosage offers protection to her as well as her unborn
child. However, after the birth of this child, the intake of iodine tables should be
informed to the doctor, so that the doctor can pay special attention to the child‟s
thyroid. For breast-feeding women, their breast-milk contains some amount of
iodine. However, this amount might not be sufficient for the breast-fed child.
Hence, the child should be given his/her own dosage.
Tablet means: 100 mg iodine tablet, or, 130 mg potassium iodide

EARTHQUAKE
 DUCK and COVER during the event.
Instructions for evacuating buildings after the shaking has
ceased
 a list of safe sites where people living in areas threatened
by landslides during secondary tremors could be relocated
 means of caring for young, elderly, sick, or infirm people
procedures for the safe shutdown of any machinery or
processes
procedures for extinguishing any potential fire sources and
making hazardous situations safer

 a protocol for checking personnel and accounting for any
missing persons
a plan for dispensing first aid and dealing with distressed
people
procedures for checking and reporting damage
 damage limitation measures
 procedures for informing the workforce of whether and
when it is safe to return to work or go home
There never are enough rescuers or medical providers in major
disasters, communities vulnerable to earthquakes should establish ongoing
programs to teach the public what to do when an earthquake occurs, such
as first aid education, basic rescue training, fire drills. Simulation
exercises can be carried out jointly by volunteer groups, local fire
brigades, and hospitals. This training also might help to improve
bystanders' responses during everyday emergencies.

FLOOD
 Coastal floods: Caused by severe sea storms, or as a result
of another hazard (e.g. tsunami or hurricane)
 Catastrophic floods: Caused by a significant and unexpected
event e.g. dam breakage, or as a result of another hazard(e.g
earthquake or volcanic eruption)
Muddy floods: it is generated by run off on crop land.

The damage due to flood may vary with respect to the magnitude of the
flood.
Thus we can classify the effects as:
Primary effects:
 Physical damage can range anywhere from
bridges, cars, buildings, sewer systems, roadways, canals and any
other type of structure.
 Casualties: People and livestock die due to drowning. It can also lead
to epidemics and diseases.

Secondary effects:
 Water supplies, contamination of water,Clean drinking water
becomes scarce.
 Diseases: Unhygienic conditions & spread of water borne
diseases.
 Crops and food supplies: Shortage of food crops can be caused
due to loss of entire harvest.
Tertiary/long-term effects:
 Economic: rebuilding costs, food shortage leading to price
increase , temporary decline in tourism etc.

NEPAL
 Nepal is a landlocked country lying between India and China-
147,181 km2. Divided into 3 ecological regions: „Terai‟ in the
south, the „Hills‟ in the middle and „Mountains‟ in the north.
 The Terai region is low-lying and highly prone to hydrological
disasters and similarly the hills and mountain areas are highly
vulnerable to landslides and earthquakes.
 From geographic perspective Nepal is located in the middle portion
of the Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region. Nepal displays extreme
variations in natural environment ranging from tropical plain to
alpine heights with decreasing elevations from north to south.
 It has a unique altitudinal variation from 60 meters from mean sea
level at Jhapa in the south to 8,848 meters at Mt. Everest in the north
– big variation within a short horizontal distance of only 90 to 120
km

 The Himalaya is the most active and fragile mountain range in
the world as is still rising and its rocks are under constant
stress as the northward –moving Indian Plate pushes against
the more stable Tibetan block. This pressure forces the
Himalaya to rise and move horizontally southward along
major thrusts. The active nature of the range is also manifested
by frequent earthquakes.
 Triggering factors such as rainfall and earthquakes make the
mountains highly vulnerable to landslides.

 There are more than 6,000 rivers and streams in Nepal. Each
year, flood causes immense damage to agricultural land, crops,
human settlements and other physical properties.
 According to a report from (ICIMOD), glacier lakes in the
mountains are becoming very large due to melting of glaciers.
 There are more than 20 potentially dangerous lakes in Nepal
that can affect tens of thousands of people severely in the
mountains and down-stream areas.

 Not only socio-economic factors but also the
geological, topographical and climatic conditions
expose Nepal to multiple hazards, most prominently
earthquakes, floods, landslides, fires, thunderbolts, windstorms
, hailstorm and avalanches.
 According to official disaster statistics, out of the total number
of affected families floods & landslides and windstorms &
hailstorms have affected most followed by fires and
epidemics.

LAW/ACTS IN NEPAL
 The legal framework for disaster management has a long
history in Nepal with the Natural Calamity (Relief) Act 2039
promulgated in 1982. This Act allocated the responsibility for
preparing and responding to disasters in Nepal to the
Government.
 The Act, for the first time in history of Nepal, provided for a
disaster management administrative structure in the country.
 National Action Plan on Disaster Management 2005 was
presented at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held
in Kobe, Japan from 18-22 January, 2005

Nepal is fortunate to have started two very important initiatives
recently, namely a) formulation of the National Policy for
Disaster risk Management and, b) preparation of a new
legislation for Disaster risk Management to replace the existing
Natural Calamity (Relief) Act, 1982.
Both these initiatives are focused on internalizing the shift from a
response-based national system to emphasizing the disaster risk
reduction and effective preparedness approach.
It is hoped that this National Strategy on DRM will be able to
guide the review process for ensuring the required level of
consensus among the three policy documents.

At the central level, it constituted the Central Disaster Relief Committee
(CDRC) with the Minister of Home Affairs as the Chair.
The apex body for disaster management comprises the Secretaries of the
ministries of
Finance Defense
Local Development Physical Planning and Works
Health and Population Agriculture and Cooperatives
Education and Sports Environment, Science and Technology
Land Reform and Management Industry Commerce and Supplies
Foreign Affairs Water Resources
Information and Communication Forest and Soil Conservation
Women, Children and Social Welfare
and
Representatives from
Nepal Army Nepal Police
Nepal armed Police Nepal Red Cross Society
Nepal Scout Social Welfare Council
Department of Mines and Geology Department of Water-Induced Disasters
Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

Following a disaster, the CDRC meets and when necessary to
address the needs of the affected population and on matters
related to all sectors (e.g. food, health, shelter, water &
Sanitation, etc.). Because of the devastating effects of the
annually recurrent floods, CDRC has been meeting regularly at
least twice a year - before the floods to take stock of the flood
preparedness status and to augment it, and immediately after to
evaluate the response.

The Natural Calamity (Relief) Act, 1982 provides for the
establishment of regional committee as and when required.
During the 1988 earthquake affecting eastern Nepal and the 1993
floods in south-central Nepal.
Regional Service Centre was established respectively at
Biratnagar and Simara that provided relief coordination
demonstrating the usefulness of setting up regional committees to
coordinate relief activities related to more than one district.
However, these centers were closed after the emergency
operations were over.
CDRC IN REGIONAL LEVEL

CDRC IN DISTRICT LEVEL
District Disaster Relief Committee (DDRC) is a permanent outfit at
the district level to coordinate relief and preparedness.
DDRC is chaired by the Chief District Officer who is the main
administrative functionary to maintain law and order at the district
level.
Other members to DDRC are the representatives of the district level
offices of the various public sector agencies such as district water
supply office, district education office and district health office.
The Local development Officer– the district level officer of the
Ministry of Local development, who coordinates development works
with the elected bodies at the district level, is the member-secretary of
DDRC.

NATURAL DISASTERS IN NEPAL
FROM 1980-2010
No. of events 78
No. of people killed 11,112
Average killed per year 358
No. of people affected 51,65,810
Average affected per year 1,66,639
Economic damage (US $ x 1000) 13,51,229
Economic damage (US $ x 1000) 43,588

TOP 10 NATURAL DISASTERS
DISASTER DATE AFFECTED ( NO. OF PEOPLE)
Flood 2004 8,00,015
Flood 2007 6,40,706
Flood 1993 5,53,268
Flood 1987 3,51,000
Drought 2009 3,03,000
Earthquake 1988 3,01,016
Flood 2002 2,65,865
Flood 2009 2,57,786
Earthquake 1980 2,40,600
Flood 1983 2,00,050

TOP 10 NATURAL DISASTERS
DISASTER DATE KILLED (NO. OF PEOPLE)
EPIDEMIC 1991 1,334
FLOOD 1993 1,048
FLOOD 1996 768
EARTHQUAKE 1988 709
FLOOD 1981 650
EPIDEMIC 1992 640
EPIEMIC 2002 472
EPIDEMIC 2009 314
FLOOD 1998 260
EPIDEMIC 2000 250

 DesInventar is a disaster inventory software produced by the National
Society for earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET) with financial support
from United.
 The UNDP and UN/OCHA jointly assisted the preparation of District
Disaster Management Action Plan for Chitwan district.
It is a pilot project and Chitwan district was especially chosen because of
its vulnerability to natural disasters such as earthquake and flood.
 UNDP Nepal to establish a systematic data inventory of natural disaster
events in Nepal. It is expected to serve as a tool for disaster risk mitigation
strategy for the country.
 It is designed to deploy at very short notice (12-24 hours) to the field
anywhere in the world. It also aims at strengthening national and regional
disaster response capacity.
ACTIVITIES IN NEPAL

RECENT ADVANCES

GIS and DMIS

 Recently Imaging instruments like ASTER, MODIS and MISR
are used by NASA's Terra space platform, each offer a unique
view of disaster zone.
Together, these views produce complementary multispectral and
multiangular sets of data valuable for evaluating damage and
planning for reconstruction.
Picture taken from ASTER which shows the flood in Honduras

ASTER: The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer (ASTER) is an imaging instrument onboard Terra, the
flagship satellite of NASA's Earth Observing System .
It is a cooperative effort between NASA, Japan's Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and Japan Space Systems .
ASTER data is used to create detailed maps of land surface
temperature, reflectance, and elevation.
The coordinated system of EOS satellites, including Terra, is a major
component of NASA's Science Mission Directorate and the .
The goal of NASA Earth Science is to develop a scientific
understanding of the Earth as an integrated system, its response to
change, and to better predict variability and trends in climate, weather,
and natural hazards.

 MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer is
a key instrument aboard the Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS
AM) satellites.
 These data will improve our understanding of global dynamics
and processes occurring on the land, in the oceans, and in the
lower atmosphere.
MODIS is playing a vital role in the development of validated,
global, interactive Earth system models able to predict global
change accurately enough to assist policy makers in making
sound decisions concerning the protection of our environment.

REFERENCES:
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Association on Mental Health Implications of Disasters (approved by
General Assembly on August 26, 2002)– Juan J, George C, Mario M,
Norman S, Ahmed O – World Psychiatric Association .
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www.icm.tn.gov.in/article/disaster.html
3. BNET Business Dictionary www.dictionary.bnet.com/definition/ Disaster+
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4. www. who.int
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6. Community medicine with recent advances-2nd edition-AH Suryakantha.
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8. UNDP www. undp.org.np
9. www.ncdm.org.np
10.www.dpnetnepal.tripod.com/id12.html
11.ICIMOD www.icimod.org

12.Global disaster and coordination system www.gdacs.org
13. United Nation. www.un-spider.org
14. Disaster Roundtable. www.dels.nas.edu/drww/
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hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters. Wiltshire: Routledge.
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Pesos May. 2010:54 Pesos 04 Oct 2008.
17. Quarantelli E.L. (1998). Where We Have Been and Where We Might Go. In:
Quarantelli E.L. (ed). What Is A Disaster? London: Routledge. pp146-159
18. World Bank: Disaster Risk Management.
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systematic review of literature”. Disasters. Vol. 33 (1): 1-22.

20.Scheper-Hughes, N. (2005). “Katrina: the disaster and its doubles”.
Anthropology Today. Vol. 21 (6).
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Management Education in the US”. International Journal of Mass-
Emergencies and Disasters. Vol. 23 (1): 111-140.
22.Mileti, D. and Fitzpatrick, C. (1992). “The causal sequence of Risk
communication in the Parkfield Earthquake Prediction experiment”.

Thank you