MODULE 3

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAZARD AND DISASTER

 A hazard is a dangerous situation or event that carries a threat
to humans.
 A disaster is an event that harms humans and disrupts the
operations of society.
 Hazards can only be considered disasters once it affected
humans.
 If a disaster happened in an unpopulated area, it is still a
hazard.

HUMAN EFFECT OF NATURAL AND MAN-MADE DISASTERS

1. Displaced Populations
 One of the most immediate effects of natural disasters is
population displacement. When countries are ravaged by
earthquakes or other powerful forces of nature, many
people need to abandon their homes and seek shelter in
other regions. A large influx of refugees can disrupt
accessibility of health care and education, as well as food
supplies and clean water.
 When Mt. Pinatubo erupted in 1991, thousands of families in
Zambales and Pampanga were displaced. Their communities
were ravaged by lahar (a mudflow or debris flow that
originates on the slopes of a volcano) that flow that turned
these communities into “wilderness”. Several resettlement
areas were established to accommodate those who were
displaced. These resettlement areas which started as tent
cities for those affected by the volcanic eruption became
permanent communities.

2. Health Risks
 The secondary effect can be just as damaging. Severe
flooding can result in stagnant water that allows breeding of
waterborne bacteria and malaria-carrying mosquitoes
 (Anopheles mosquito). Without emergency relief from
international aid organizations and others, death tolls can
rise even after the immediate danger has passed.
Examples:
 Silicosis - Lung fibrosis caused by the inhalation of dust
containing silica.
 Leptospirosis - Contact with urine (or other body fluids,
except saliva) from infected animals. Cause by bacteria
Leptospira.

3. Food Scarcity
 Thousands of people around the world go hungry as a result
of destroyed crops and loss of agricultural supplies,
whether it happens suddenly in a storm or gradually in a
drought. As a result, food prices rise, reducing families’
purchasing power and increasing the risk of severe
malnutrition.
 One of the serious “aftershocks” of Super Typhoon Yolanda
was there’s no food to eat immediately after the storm
surge. This resulted into looting some of the stores and
supermarkets in Tacloban City.

4. Emotional Aftershock
 Natural disasters can be particularly traumatic for young
children. Confronted with scenes of destruction and the
deaths of friends and loved ones, many children develop post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a serious psychological
condition resulting from extreme trauma. Left untreated,
children suffering from PTSD can be prone to lasting
psychological damage and emotional distress.
Great damage caused by a disaster can be reduced if everyone will
take responsibility in anticipating its effects. Here are some ways
on how to plan ahead of a disaster:
1) Check for hazards at home.
2) Identify safe place indoors and outdoor
3) Educate yourself and family members
4) Have Disaster kits/supplies on hand.
5) Develop an emergency communication plan.
6) Help your community get ready.
7) Practice the Disaster Preparedness Cycle

HOW AND WHEN AN EVENT BECOMES A DISASTER

An event, either human-made or natural, becomes a disaster
when it is sudden or progressive, causing widespread human,
material or environmental losses.
 A typhoon like Yolanda is a natural phenomenon. It became a
disaster due to several factors: its strength (290 km/hr); the
storm surge it brought was sudden and unexpected; and its
devastating effect to human, material, and environment. More
than 7,000 people perished. The entire City of Tacloban was
literally flattened to the ground.
 Typhoon Ondoy (2009). The Philippines is visited by typhoons
on the average of 20 every year. Hence, typhoons are
considered as natural events in this country. However, Typhoon
Ondoy turned into a disaster because of the amount of
precipitation brought by its torrential rains that lasted for
several days causing floods and flash floods in Metro Manila.
Thousands of houses were submerged in flood water. Hundreds
of shelters were washed out. Power and water supplies were
cut off. Hundreds of lives perished.
 A television program like Wow Wowie, hosted by Willie
Revillame. It became so popular that thousands of fans flock to
ULTRA (a huge event venue during that time) to watch the
noon time variety show. That event turned out to a disastrous
 tragedy when there was a human-induced disturbance among
the watching crowd that caused a stampede. Many spectators
were hurt and some even died which led to the dissolution of
said TV program.

AREA/LOCATION EXPOSED TO NATURAL HAZARD

AREAS/LOCATIONS EXPOSED TO
Storm surge, tsunami or tidal
Coastal Areas
waves
Reclaimed Areas Flooding, sinkhole
Near fault lines Earthquake
On foot of denuded mountains Mudslide/Landslide
Volcanic eruption-pyroclastic
Near volcanoes (danger zones) materials, lahar flow, lava flow
and ash flow
River banks and esteros Flooding, flash floods
Thunderstorm, hailstorm,
Open fields
hailstorm, blizzard, blizzard

AREA/LOCATION EXPOSED TO MAN-MADE HAZARD

AREAS/LOCATIONS EXPOSED TO
Near Oil Depots Oil spill, pollution
Toxic waste – heavy metal, lead,
Near Mining Projects
mercury, nitric acid, etc.
Near Chemical Plants Chemical fumes, chemical waste

Nuclear waste, possible technical

Nuclear Plants failure, leaks, or worse accidental
explosion

Near Factories Factory waste, pollution

Unsafe Building
Fire
structure
Public places in Mega
Terrorism
City
 MODULE 4

THE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF DISASTER

1. Physical perspective
 Calamities are phenomena that cause great physical damage
in a community infrastructure, its people and their
properties, e.g. houses and environmental sources of living.
These cited effects of a disaster can be easily measured and
the most common.
 affect the physical infrastructural facilities, agricultural
productivity and even lead to loss of life and cause damage to
property.
Various factors influence the effects of a disaster on a
country:
 magnitude of the disaster
 the geography of the area affected
 the recovery efforts directed towards reducing the
immediate effects of a disaster.
Effects of Physical Disasters:
 Injuries
 Physical disabilities or illness
 Sanitation
 Damage in infrastructure

2. Psychological Perspective
 Victims of disasters may suffer from Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other serious mental health
conditions, which are not being given much attention to by
the authorities or even by the victims, themselves. (This
may be sensitive statement)
 Disasters are mostly unpredictable, which leave the victims
in a state of shock. They tend to deny the loss and try to
escape from reality. Being in a denial state makes the
victims more vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and other
 different maladaptive reactions. Death of a closed one also
leaves the victim in a state of insecurity because the sense
of love, attachment and belongingness are deprived.
Psychological effects of a Disaster:
distress hopelessness
intrusion/avoidance emotional effects
hatred/revenge cognitive Effects
dependence/insecurities physical Effects
grief/withdrawn/isolation interpersonal effect
guilt feeling helplessness
lack of trust

3. Socio-cultural Perspective
 Filipinos are generally known as “matiisin”, resourceful,
helpful, optimistic, and prayerful. These characteristics are
manifested in the country’s recent fight against COVID19.
 These traits help a lot of Filipinos to survive the challenge
of COVID19 in the country. To people who are used to
natural calamities like typhoons, flash floods, and volcanic
eruptions most citizen would find contentment with what
they have at the moment. The culture of “malalampasan din
natin ‘to..” belief and “ bahala na and Diyos” syndrome give
hope to most Filipino in the midst of a disaster. Such
perspective helps a lot especially those who belong to the
marginalized sector to be hopeful and continue fighting
against any challenge at hand.
Socio-Cultural Effect of Disasters:
 change in individual roles
 disruption of social relationships and personal
connections

4. Economic Perspective
 Disasters affect the economic condition of a community
because they reduce local and international trade.
  It can also partially or totally paralyze a country’s
transportation system, just like what happened in the
COVID19 pandemic.
 Implementation of a partial and total shut down of local
business operations result to a lot of people losing means of
living.
Economic Effects of Disasters:
 loss of life
 unemployment
 loss of property
 loss of household articles
 loss of crops
 loss of public infrastructure

5. Political Perspective
 Both the effects of a natural disaster and the resulting
distribution of humanitarian aid are profoundly linked to
politics.
 Just as vulnerability to disasters is mediated by the
political system of a country, disasters can have major
consequences for political stability and political legitimacy
(Hörhager, July 2017). Agencies of government have a
significant role to play in directing disaster preparedness,
prevention and recovery. Social systems establish
vulnerability to natural disasters and governments are often
considered to be responsible for the disaster effects.
Political Effects of a Disaster:
 People who have trust in political institution will assess
the government’s risk assessments as credible and
accept their hazard policies (Johnson 1999)
 Low level of trust in public institutions therefore means
that citizens may ignore the recommendations and
disregard the information provided by these institutions
(McCaffey 2004).
  If individuals are confident that they will receive
sufficient aid from the government when a disaster
occurs, they might not be motivated to take measures
on their own (King and Kang 2000).

6. Biological Perspective
 The disturbing effects caused by a prevalent kind of
disease or virus in an epidemic or pandemic level is known as
biological disaster.
a. Epidemic Level: affects large numbers of people within
a given community or area. Ex: Dengue.
b. Pandemic Level: affects a much large region, sometime
spanning entire continents or the globe. ex. Swine
Flue
 Biological disasters can wipe out an entire population at a
short span of time.
 Example of it is the COVID19 pandemic which infected
millions in less than a month and left thousands of deaths in
the same duration. Viral respiratory infections can lead to
anything from a mild cough that lasts a few weeks or
months to full-blown persistent wheezing or asthma (Martin,
2020). He added that when there is a severe respiratory
infection, recovery can be prolonged with a general increase
in shortness of breath. Public is advised by health
authorities to do health precaution to prevent social
contamination. Examples are: observing physical distancing,
appropriate washing of the hands, wearing of mask at all
times once outside of one’s home, and boosting one’s immune
system.
Effects of Biological Disasters
 loss of lives
 public demobilization
 negative economic effect
 unemployment
  hunger

ADVANCE STUDY
 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – it is a Psychological
condition that develops due to traumatic & shocking experience.
 Emotional aftershock - term used for the condition of people
who develop stress reaction that negatively affect their
physical and mental behavior after suffering from a disaster.
 Displaced population - effect of a disaster that causes a group
of people forced to leave their homes.
 Food scarcity - refers to the shortage of sustenance among
people
 Disaster - damaging incident that happened unexpectedly in a
certain society and caused harm to people and their
properties.
- an incident or natural disaster that causes the
general public to suffer significant damage
 Hazard - dangerous condition that carries human threat
 Pandemic - spread of disease across a country or around the
world
 Epidemic - incidence of communicable disease in a community
at a given time
 Psychological Perspective - perspectives of disaster is
normally left untreated
TYPES OF PYROCLASTIC MATERIAL
 Volcanic bombs
 Are large blobs of magma that harden in the air.
 The shape of this bomb was caused by the magma spinning
through the air as it cooled.
 Lapili
 Which means “little stones” in Italian, are pebble-like bits
of magma that hardened before they hit the ground.
 Volcanic ash
 Forms when the gases in stiff magma expand rapidly and the
walls of the gas bubbles explode into tiny, glass-like silvers.
 Ash makes up most of the pyroclastic material in an
eruption.
 Volcanic blocks
 The large pieces of pyroclastic material, are pieces of solid
rock erupted from a volcano.

3 TYPES OF ROCKS
1) Igneous rocks – formed from melted rock seep inside the earth
2) Sedimentary rocks – formed from layers of sand silt, dead
plants and animal skeletons.
3) Metamorphic rocks – formed from other rocks that are
changed by heat and underground pressure.

 Fossils – preserved remains or traces of once living thing.

 Lava – molten rock that breaks through the earths’ surface.
 Magma – molten rock stored under the earth’s surface.
- rock that has been melted.

2 TYPES OF IGNEOUS ROCKS

1) Intrusive Igneous Rocks (MAGMA) Example: Granite, Diorite,
Pegmatite
2) Extrusive Igneous Rocks (LAVA) rocks that are formed from
the lava cooling and hardening. Examples: Obsidian, Basalt, Pumice