Disaster - answerA serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a
society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of
exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following:
- human
- material
- economic
- environmental losses and impacts
• Viewed as an ecological disruption or emergency
• Viewed of a severity and magnitude that results in deaths, injuries, illness
and property damage
Health Disaster - answer• Is a catastrophic event that results in casualties
that overwhelm the healthcare resources in the community
• May result in a sudden unanticipated surge of patients
• A change in standard of care
• Need to allocate scarce resources
- Natural
- Man-made or anthropogenic (human generated) - answerWhat are the
classifications of disaster
Natural Disaster - answer• (WHO) results of an ecological disruption or threat
that exceeds the adjustment capacity of the affected community
• Includes: earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions,
ice storms, tsunamis, and other geological or meteorological phenomena
• consequences of the intersection of a natural hazard and human activity
Complex human emergencies - answer• involves situations where
populations suffer significant casualties as a result of war, civil strife, or
other political conflict
• others are the result of combination of forces (drought, famine, disease,
and political unrest that displaces millions of people
, Anthropogenic Disaster (human generated) - answer• Those in which the
principal direct causes are identifiable human actions, deliberate or
otherwise.
• Include biological and biochemical terrorism, chemical spills, radiological
(nuclear) events, fire, explosions, transportation accidents, armed conflicts,
and acts of war
Technological disaster - answer• large number of people, infrastructures,
economic welfare are directly and adversely affected by major industrial
accidents (unplanned released of nuclear energy, fire or explosions from
hazardous substances such as fuels, chemicals or nuclear materials)
Synergistic disasters - answercombination of natural and technological
disasters
aka NA-TECH
• Onset
• Impact
• Duration - answerWhat are the measurements of disaster according to
predictability (3)
1. the nature of the event
2. time of day or year
3. health and age characteristics of the population affected
4. availability of resources - answerFactors that influence the impact of a
disaster on a community include (4)
Hazards - answer(cause) is a potential threat to humans and their welfare
present the possibility of the occurrence of a disaster caused by natural
phenomena (e.g., hurricane, earthquake), failure of man-made sources of
energy (e.g., nuclear power plant), or human activity (e.g., war).
Risk - answeris the actual exposure of something of human value and is
often measured as the product of probability and loss
External disasters - answerare those that do not affect the hospital
infrastructure but tax hospital resources due to numbers of patients or types
of injuries
Internal disasters - answercause disruption of normal hospital function due to
injuries or deaths of hospital personnel or damage to the facility itself, as
with a hospital fire, power failure, or chemical spill.