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Cyclone
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Drought
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Earth-
quake
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Flood
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Tsunami
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Volcanic
Eruption
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Injuries
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Loss of
housing
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Loss of crops
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Disease &
epidemics
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Looting
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Short-term
migration
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Damaged
facilities,
services,
equipment
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Disruption of
communication
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Disruption of
transport
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Loss of
business &
industry
production
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People’s lives can be greatly impacted by natural disasters. Some effects happen immediately such as injuries, damage and destruction. Other effects happen over days and weeks such as disease epidemics and loss of business. The extent of the damage depends on the scale of the disaster and on how well prepared the people are. The hardest hit in a disaster tend to be the poorest and most vulnerable – children, the elderly, pregnant women and the homeless.
Each type of disaster affects or kills differing numbers of people. Droughts and floods affect many people, but don’t usually kill large numbers. Cyclones and earthquakes affect fewer people over all, but kill a larger proportion of them. These impacts can vary according to the location or scale of each disaster.
Disease
After a disaster people may crowd into emergency shelters that have poor sanitation. Infectious diseases like dysentery or cholera spread quickly.
Hunger
If people lose their usual way of making a living or crops are destroyed then food becomes scarce. Emergency rations may not last till the next harvest or till businesses get underway again.
Loss of facilities, services and equipment
Disasters can destroy roads, schools, hospitals, communication and power systems that have taken years to develop. Rebuilding these things is vital, costly and usually under-funded.
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