Meaning of disaster and its influence on living organisms

Disaster: Disasters are serious disruptions to the functioning of a

community that exceed its capacity to cope using its own
resources. Disasters can be caused by natural, man-made and
technological hazards, as well as various factors that influence the
exposure and vulnerability of a community.

Disasters happen when a community is “not appropriately resourced or

organized to withstand the impact, and whose population is vulnerable
because of poverty, exclusion or socially disadvantaged in some way”

Influence on living organisms: At the individual level, the impact can often be
felt physically, mentally and emotionally. Natural disasters cause destruction
of property, loss of financial resources, and personal injury or illness. The loss
of resources, security and access to shelter can lead to massive population
migrations in lesser-developed countries.
Communities that experience a natural disaster must also absorb the impacts
of these destructive events. Many local communities lose so much in
economic resources that recovery becomes difficult, if not almost impossible.
Health issues are one of the most pressing problems after any natural disaster.
It is often the case that facilities for water and toilet hygiene are damaged or
inoperable: meaning that the safe disposal of human waste quickly becomes a
public health hazard. Further, without running water, hand washing and food
hygiene rapidly deteriorate

Natural Disaster

Volcano: A volcano is a landform, a mountain, where molten rocks erupt through the surface of the
planet. The volcano mountain opens downwards to a pool of molten rocks underneath the surface of the
earth. Pressure builds up in the earth’s crust and this is the reason why eruptions occur. Gases and igneous
rocks shoot up and splash over or fill the air with lava fragments. The volcano eruption can cause hot ash,
lateral blasts and lava flow, mudslides, and more.

Different Stages of Volcanoes:

They tend to be conical although there are a variety of forms, depending upon:

 The nature of the material erupted

 The type of eruption
 The amount of change since the eruption
Volcanoes are categorized into three main categories:

 Active Volcanoes: A volcano will be classified as an active volcano if at the present time it is
expected to erupt or is erupting already.
 Dormant Volcanoes: The classification of volcanoes which is called dormant would be a volcano
that is not erupting or predicted to erupt in the near future.
 Extinct Volcanoes: An extinct volcano is a volcano that no one expects will ever have another
eruptio
Earthquake : An earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the earth due to the sudden release of
energy in the earth’s crust. As a result, seismic waves (also known as S waves) are created. The seismic
activities in an area determine the type and intensity of the earthquake. Earthquakes are caused due to
sudden tectonic movements in the earth’s crust.

When the tectonic plates slide over one another, there is a cause of orogeny which results in earthquakes
and volcanoes. These disturbances cause vibrations that spread in all directions. As there is a relative
motion of these plates, there is stress built up, which breaks by releasing the stored energy known as shock
waves

Dos and Dont’s:

 One must stay indoors until the shaking stops and it’s officially announced that it is safe to exit.
 One must stay away from bookcases, furniture, and heavy appliances that may fall.
 The shelter must be under a table or bed, and hold on to a post or any other fixture.
 If one is outdoors, the shelter must be taken in a clear stop away from buildings, trees, and power
lines.
Flood : A flood happens when water overflows or soaks land that is
normally dry. There are few places on Earth where people don’t need to
be concerned about flooding. Generally, floods take hours or even days to
develop, giving residents time to prepare or evacuate. Sometimes, floods
develop quickly and with little warning.

A flood can develop in a many ways. The most common is when rivers
or streams overflow their banks. These floods are called riverine floods.
Heavy rain, a broken dam or levee, rapid icemelt in the mountains, or even a
beaver dam in a vulnerable spot can overwhelm a river and send it spreading
over nearby land. The land surrounding a river is called a flood plain.
Coastal flooding, also called estuarine flooding, happens when a
large storm or tsunami causes the sea to rush inland.

Floods are the second-most widespread natural disaster on Earth.

Drought: he term ‘Drought’ in simple words is the absence of water for a long period of time, at a place
where it is considered abnormal as compared to its usual conditions. The distribution of water on the
earth’s surface is not even. Some places have lots of freshwater e.g. rivers, lakes, lagoons, ponds etc. and
they are continuously replenished by rainfall and water from underground.
If a region that has had lots of rainfall, goes for a couple of weeks without rains, and people, animals and
plants begin to experience a bit of dryness, it can be called a drought. Drought can be defined as a
relatively long time where there is not enough water than there usually is, as a result of dry weather, to
support human, animal and plant life. Droughts become an issue only when it begins to affect water supply
for irrigation, municipal, industrial, energy, and ecosystem function. Severe droughts can have serious
consequences.
here are three types of droughts known to the scientific community:

1. Meteorological drought occurs when there is a prolonged time with less than average precipitation
2. Agricultural droughts affect crop production or the ecology of the range.
3. Hydrological drought is brought about when the water reserves available in sources such as
aquifers, lakes and reservoirs fall below a locally significant threshold.

There is severe consequences of drought in environmental, economic and social spheres.

Cyclone: a cyclone is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric
pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern
Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anticyclone). Cyclones are characterized by
inward-spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure. The largest low-pressure
systems are polar vortices and extratropical cyclones of the largest scale (the synoptic scale).
Warm-core cyclones such as tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones also lie within the
synoptic scale

There are a number of structural characteristics common to all cyclones. A cyclone is a low-
pressure area. A cyclone's center (often known in a mature tropical cyclone as the eye), is the
area of lowest atmospheric pressure in the region. Near the center, the pressure gradient
force (from the pressure in the center of the cyclone compared to the pressure outside the
cyclone) and the force from the Coriolis effect must be in an approximate balance, or the cyclone
would collapse on itself as a result of the difference in pressure.

Cyclogenesis is the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the

atmosphere. Cyclogenesis is an umbrella term for several different processes that all result in the
development of some sort of cyclone. It can occur at various scales, from the microscale to the
synoptic scale. There are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis:

1. sufficiently warm sea surface temperatures,

2. atmospheric instability,
3. high humidity in the lower to middle levels of the troposphere
4. enough Coriolis force to develop a low-pressure center
5. a pre-existing low-level focus or disturbance
6. low vertical wind shear.

Cyclone Amphan
Nomenclature: Amphan is a super tropical cyclone that originated from the Bay of Bengal in
May 2020. It is considered the first super cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal since the 1999
Odisha cyclone. It is a part of the North Indian Ocean Cyclone Season. The Indian states of
West Bengal and Odisha, and the country of Bangladesh were hit by Amphan as a ‘very
severe cyclonic storm.
One of the worst storms over the Bay of Bengal in years, Amphan has slammed into West
Bengal and Odisha, lashing heavy rain, winds, and waves wreaking havoc on the coastal
sides of the states.

Thailand has given the name of the cyclone – Amphan, which is pronounced as ‘UM-PUN’.

Amphan formed over the Bay of Bengal as a tropical cyclone and later intensified into a
‘Very Severe Cyclonic Storm’ (VSCS) to ‘Extreme Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS)’.

Amphan is said to be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the coast.

With strong winds circulating in an anti-clockwise direction, the cyclone is shaped like a ring
around the eye of the storm

The effects of Cyclone Amphan in India were extensive and historic. Cyclone Amphan was
the costliest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, and the strongest
cyclone ever since the 1999 Odisha Cyclone. It was the first storm, and strongest of the
historic 2020 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, the costliest recorded cyclone season. It
made landfall in West Bengal with 100 mph winds. Within India, the storm killed 98 people,
and caused $13.8 billion (2020 USD). Amphan produced extremely high winds that ripped
roofs off houses and uprooted trees, and storm surges of 15 ft (4.6 m) in areas like Digha,
West Bengal.

Direction and speed: The direction of the cyclone was from east to west with a wind
speed touching 240 KMPH at its peak and most of the time it was was averaging a speed of
155 to 185 KMPH.

Areas affected:

Odisha West Bengal Bangladesh

 Paradip Coast  East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas and North 24-  Hatiya
 Bhadrak Parganas Island
 Jagatsinghpur  Digha Island
 Kendrapada  Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (SPMPT)
 Howrah
  Balasore  Hooghly
 Kolkata of Gangetic West Bengal

Steps taken by the government:

The government of Odisha directed the magistrates of four districts on 15 May to establish
shelter homes for possible evacuees. Odisha Chief Secretary initially identified 403 possible
cyclone shelters in areas potentially impacted by Amphan, though 105 served as temporary
medical centres for quarantines associated with the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic. Shelters
could only be filled to one-third capacity to maintain social distancing guidelines due to the
pandemic.

Social distancing restrictions in West Bengal reduced evacuation capacity in shelters from
500,000 people to 200,000 people. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation located schools and
community centres for possible use as temporary shelters to augment evacuation capacity. At
least 1,704 shelters were ultimately established in Odisha and more than 2,000 were used in
West Bengal, including schools and public buildings. The government of West Bengal
planned to evacuate 200,000 people from their homes by 18 May; nearly 300,000 people
evacuated in total from the state, including 200,000 from North 24 Parganas district and more
than 40,000 from Sagar Island.

Both the odisha and westbengal government with the help of Central government have helped
the affected people with food ,shelter and helped them with monetary assistance for bringing
their life back to somewhat normal .

Both the state government have gone on a war footing to restore electricity,water supply to
normal along with delivery of essential items to the most affected peoples who were also
affected due to pandemic.

CONCLUSION:

Natural disasters as we all know are the consequences of events triggered by natural
hazards that overwhelm local response capacity and seriously affect the social and
economic development of a region. There is basically no human control over the natural
disaster. We cannot stop these natural disasters but what is in our hands is to be prepared
for these. Also, there are a lot of ways through which we can minimize the damage caused
due to these natural disasters. Traditionally, natural disasters have been seen as situations
that create challenges and problems mainly of a humanitarian nature. There is no way to
prevent or avert these natural disasters, though scientists do claim to have found the ways to
predict these natural disasters at most of the times they have failed to predict natural
disasters causing some serious destruction.
It has been estimated that rapidly growing modernization is leading to ignorance towards
the environment. Today we are growing at a rapid rate neglecting the harm that we are
causing to our environment. Environmental bylaws are being neglected for personal
gains. The dual forces of global warming, as well as poor human management in the
field of land and water resources, combine to the cause of natural disasters. Humans
have created a situation where ordinary events like earthquakes and hurricanes become
increasingly elevated to the level of natural disasters which results in heavy losses in the
terms of human life as well as property.

In one way or the other we are hampering our environment, the rapidly growing
industrialization has led to a lot of air as well as water pollution. Rapid construction has
led to large land areas being covered with cement, which means that the flow of water
becomes very strong, and the runoff from the water can't get absorbed by the soil
anymore, so it keeps collecting and rushing down, getting heavier and faster, which may
ultimately lead to much bigger floods.

Natural disasters are inevitable, even if we have the technology to predict disasters we
cannot stop it from occurring. The best that we can do is to stop the practices that are
harmful to our environment and leading to environmental degradation and at the same
time, we should also be prepared for a disaster with our disaster management plan.

After a disaster strikes there is a great risk of epidemic hence it is very important to
control the causalities as well as it is also required to dispose of the dead animals as
well human bodies properly before an epidemic outbreak.

Bibliography

ifrc.org,sciencing.com, byjus.com, nationalgeographic.org, wikipedia.org, thefederal.com,

targetstudy.com