Disaster is a sudden, calamitous and unfortunate event that brings with it great damage, loss, destruction, and devastation to human life as well as property and also hampers the ongoing developmental projects in a particular area being affected by the disaster. There are many different definitions of disaster. Most such definitions tend to reflect the following characteristics:

• Disruption to normal patterns of life. Such disruption is usually severe and may also be sudden, unexpected, and widespread.
• Human effects such as loss of life, injury, hardship, and adverse effect on health.
• Effects on social structure such as destruction of or damage to government systems, buildings, communications, and essential services.
• Community needs such as shelter, food, clothing, medical assistance, and social care

Disaster Management is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. It is a discipline that involves preparing, supporting, and rebuilding when natural or human-made disasters occur. The damage caused by disasters is immeasurable and varies with the geographical location, climate, and the type of the earth’s surface/ degree of vulnerability. At times there can be disasters where there is no loss of human life and at times these can also cause a huge loss of life and property. This influences the mental, socioeconomic, political, and cultural state of the affected area.

Types of Disasters

Disasters can be classified as:

• Natural disasters- These events are recognized as unpreventable and not anyone’s responsibility. Natural disasters are large-scale geological or meteorological events that have the potential to cause loss of life or property. These types of disasters include:

1. Tornadoes and Severe Storms
2. Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
3. Floods
4. Wildfires
5. Earthquakes
6. Drought

• Human-Made disaster- Examples include industrial accidents, shootings, acts of terrorism, and incidents of mass violence. As with natural disasters, these types of traumatic events may also cause loss of life and property. They may also prompt evacuations from certain areas and overwhelm behavioral health resources in the affected communities.

• Incidences of Mass Trauma- Infectious disease outbreaks, incidents of community unrest, and other types of traumatic events can also bring out strong emotions in people. I.e the outbreak of Ebola affecting several countries in West Africa

The General Effects of Disaster

Generally, typical effects of disasters may be:

• Loss of life,

• Injury,

• Damage to and destruction of property,

• Damage to and destruction of subsistence and cash crops,

• Disruption of production,

• Disruption of lifestyle,

• Loss of livelihood,

• Disruption to essential services,

• Damage to national infrastructure and disruption to governmental systems,

• National economic loss, and

• Sociological and psychological after effects.

The Disaster Management Cycle

The Disaster management cycle illustrates the ongoing process by which governments, businesses, and civil society plan for and reduce the impact of disasters, react during and immediately following a disaster, and take steps to recover after a disaster has occurred. Appropriate actions at all points in the cycle lead to greater preparedness, better warnings, reduced vulnerability, or the prevention of disasters during the next iteration of the cycle. The complete disaster management cycle includes the shaping of public policies and plans that either modify the causes of disasters or mitigate their effects on people, property, and infrastructure.

The disaster life cycle includes several phases:

1. Mitigation: Disaster mitigation work involves directly preventing future emergencies and/or minimizing their negative effects. It requires hazard risk analysis and the application of strategies to reduce the likelihood that hazards will become disasters, such as flood-proofing homes or buying insurance. Disaster mitigation measures may be structural or non-structural. Mitigation activities should incorporate the measurement and assessment of the evolving risk environment. Activities may include the creation of comprehensive, proactive tools that help decide where to focus funding and efforts in risk reduction.

Other examples of mitigation measures include:

• Hazard mapping
• Adoption and enforcement of land use and zoning practices
• Implementing and enforcing building codes
• Flood plain mapping
• Reinforced tornado safe rooms
• Burying of electrical cables to prevent ice build-up
• Raising of homes in flood-prone areas
• Disaster mitigation public awareness programs
• Insurance programs

2. Disaster preparedness: Disaster preparedness efforts include plans or preparations made in advance of an emergency that help individuals and communities get ready. Such preparations might include the stocking of food and water or the gathering and screening of willing volunteers, ready to mobilize post-disaster.

3. Disaster response: The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate assistance to maintain life, improve health and support the morale of the affected population. Such assistance may range from providing specific but limited aid, such as assisting refugees with transport, temporary shelter, and food, to establishing semi-permanent settlements in camps and other locations. It also may involve initial repairs to damaged or diversion to infrastructure.

Common Objectives of Disaster Responders

The following objectives form part of the disaster response responders’ purpose:

• saving and protecting human life;
• relieving suffering;
• containing the emergency – limiting its escalation or spread and mitigating its impacts;
• providing the public and businesses with warnings, advice, and information;
• protecting the health and safety of responding personnel;
• safeguarding the environment;
• as far as reasonably practicable, protecting property;
• maintaining or restoring critical activities;
• maintaining normal services at an appropriate level;
• promoting and facilitating self-help in affected communities;
• facilitating investigations and inquiries (e.g. by preserving the scene and effective records management);
• facilitating the recovery of the community (including humanitarian assistance, economic, infrastructure, and environmental impacts);
• evaluating the response and recovery effort; and
• identifying and taking action to implement lessons identified

4. Disaster recovery: Disaster Recovery involves a set of policies, tools, and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems supporting critical business functions, as opposed to business continuity, which involves keeping all essential aspects of a business functioning despite significant disruptive events. Disaster recovery can therefore be considered a subset of business continuity

Recovery strategies define an organization’s plans for responding to an incident, while disaster recovery plans describe how the organization should respond. Recovery plans are derived from recovery strategies.

In determining a recovery strategy, organizations should consider such issues as:

• Budget
• Insurance coverage
• Resources — people and physical facilities
• Management’s position on risks
• Technology
• Data
• Suppliers
• Compliance requirements

Disaster management is important because: it saves lives, promotes disease prevention, improves response management, embeds coordination of responders, in addition to ensuring effective liaison.