Diaster

1

Nature, Disaster,

and Recovery

Disasters reflect the ways societies structure themselves and allocate their resources.1

O

n December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake measuring 9.0 on the

Richter scale hit off the coast of Sumatra. The fast-moving tsunamis

it generated devastated the shores of countries from Indonesia to

Somalia, killing an estimated 220,000 people and leaving 1.5 million people

homeless.

Three months later, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake

with roughly the same epicenter generated

widespread panic at the prospect of another

tsunami and killed almost 2,000 people in

Indonesia. Then, in the fall of 2005, a record

number of hurricanes battered the Caribbean,

Mexico, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. At the same time,

Central America experienced a series of natural

disasters including a hurricane, flooding, and an

earthquake.

Most recently, world attention focused on the

powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck

the region bordering Pakistan and northern

India on October 8, 2005. A humanitarian

disaster of enormous proportions, the

earthquake devastated towns and villages

throughout the region, leaving tens of

thousands of dead and injured, and millions

homeless. In Pakistan, the official government

estimate of the death toll was 86,000. India did

not escape the devastating effects of the quake,

with estimates of over 1,000 deaths.

The reported number of disasters has been

increasing, growing from fewer than 100 in 1975 to

more than 400 in 2005. This increase has many

possible

explanations Natural disasters are

(box 1.1). Without doubt, becoming increasingly

though, the cost of

disaster damages has destructive.

been exploding: the

economic costs of major disasters in constant

dollars are now estimated to be 15 times higher

than they were in the 1950s—$652 billion in

material losses in the 1990s (IMF 2003) (figure 1.1).

The human cost is also high: over the

1984–2003 period, more than 4.1 billion people

were...