A disaster is a serious problem that happens over a period of time and causes so much harm to people, things, economies, or the environment that the affected community or society cannot handle it on its own. In theory, natural disasters are those caused by natural hazards, whereas human-made disasters are those caused by human hazards. However, in modern times, the divide between natural, human-made or human-accelerated disasters is more and more difficult to draw. In fact, all disasters can be seen as human-made, due to human failure to introduce appropriate emergency management measures.
Ruins from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, remembered as one of the worst disasters in the history of the United States
Painting of the Cathedral and the Academy building after the Great Fire of Turku, by Gustaf Wilhelm Finnberg, 1827
Global multihazard proportional economic loss by natural disasters as cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, floods, landslides, and volcanoes
Airplane crashes and terrorist attacks are examples of man-made disasters: they kill people, cause pollution, and damage property. One example of this is of the September 11 attacks in 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York City.
A natural disaster is the highly harmful impact on a society or community following a natural hazard event. Some examples of natural hazard events include floods, droughts, earthquakes, tropical cyclones, lightning strikes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, wildfires. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves economic damage in its wake. The severity of the damage depends on the affected population's resilience and on the infrastructure available. Scholars have been saying that the term natural disaster is unsuitable and should be abandoned. Instead, the simpler term disaster could be used, while also specifying the category of hazard. A disaster is a result of a natural or human-made hazard impacting a vulnerable community. It is the combination of the hazard along with exposure of a vulnerable society that results in a disaster.
Global multihazard proportional economic loss by natural disasters as cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, floods, landslides, and volcanoes
A landslide near Cusco, Peru, in 2018
A landslide in San Clemente, California in 1966
A powder snow avalanche in the Himalayas near Mount Everest.