Definations. (Lets Explore)

            I hope you got a chance to look at the definitions in the last post. We get to it with Emergency as the first term we look at. An emergency is a situation produced by actual or imminent occurrence of the event that requires immediate and remedial action. As I pointed out specialists warn that if a situation or event is not given attention then it can escalate into an emergency meaning negative consequences have resulted from it. Remedial action plans are therefore important in disaster management.

        Disasters on the other hand are natural or human-caused events/situations with intense negative consequences to the environment, goods, services, and most importantly to the people affected by it. In a disaster the community affected cannot respond and this means the   situation is above their capacity to actually respond. 

Together with ICRC and IFRC, staff and volunteers from SARC provides medical relief and food aid to people in need. Photo: Ibrahim Malla / SARC

         In the case of risk it is all about the probability of or chance that loss will occur as a result of an adverse situation/event, given the hazard and the vulnerability which we will look at next. A simple equation shows the relationship. R (risk) = H (Hazard) X V (vulnerability). 

     Finally vulnerability! Well, every community has structure, services and an environment. How weak or strong will determine to what extent an event can disrupt or damage due to the impact of the hazard. I like the definition also given by the IFRC (International Federation of the Red Cross) “Vulnerability in this context can be defined as the diminished capacity of an individual or group to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural or man-made hazard”.

Thanks for reading. Next we look more about Vulnerability.

Benson Mutahi

Disaster Management Enthusiast