Event Types

Natural Disaster

National Disasters are major adverse events that include catastrophic situations in which day-to-day patterns of life that are suddenly disrupted, leading people to plunge into helplessness and suffering. They have an immediate impact on human lives and often result in the destruction of the physical, biological and social environment of the affected people, thereby having a longer-term impact on their health, well-being and survival. Natural disasters can also affect political relations with countries and vice versa. Every year natural disasters kill around 90 000 people and affect close to 160 million people worldwide, with disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, heat waves and droughts.