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<br />
<br />CHAPTER 1
<br />
<br />An International Decade for
<br />Natural Hazard Reduction:
<br />A Summary
<br />
<br />THE NEED FOR AN IDNHR
<br />
<br />Throughout history, natural disasters have ex,
<br />acted a heavy toll of death and human suffering.
<br />Natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides,
<br />tsunamis (tidal waves), hurricanes, tornadoes,
<br />floods, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires have
<br />claimed more than 2.8 million lives worldwide in
<br />the past 20 years, adversely affecting 820 million
<br />people. Since 1949, at least 17 individual disasters
<br />have killed more than 10,000 people each; on two
<br />occasions - in Bangladesh and China - single
<br />disasters took more than a quarter-million lives.
<br />Accompanying the loss of life has been devastat-
<br />ing economic loss and the hardships it entails for
<br />survivors. A single hazardous event can destroy
<br />crops, buildings, highways, ports, and dams, It
<br />can severely disrupt community lifelines - the
<br />systems that provide food distribution, water
<br />supply, waste disposal, and communication lo-
<br />cally and with the rest of the world. In the last two
<br />decades, property damage estimated at $25,100
<br />billion resulted from natural disasters; total losses
<br />are much higher, reflecting shattered economies
<br />and disrupted social structures in the wake of a
<br />disaster. For exam pie, tropical cyclones have
<br />caused worldwide losses of an estimated $6-7
<br />billion annually, The comparable loss for land"
<br />slides exceeds $5 billion, These figures merely hint
<br />at the human impacts of a natural catastrophe,
<br />Mudflows from the eruption of Colombia's Ne'
<br />vado del Ruiz volcano in 1985, for example, killed
<br />22,000 people and left 10,000 more homeless.
<br />More than 600,000 people lost their homes in
<br />
<br />Dominica and the Dominican Republic because of
<br />Hurricane David in 1979. The Managua earth-
<br />quake in 1972 left more than 300,000 homeless in
<br />Nicaragua, with damages equal to a year's GNP
<br />for that country.
<br />Nearly all countries risk devastation by natural
<br />hazards. Truly, such hazards recognize no
<br />geopolitical boundaries, Yet losses from these
<br />events rise each year, despite progress in under-
<br />standing natural hazards and how to mitigate
<br />their effects, Though economic losses are highest
<br />- in monetary value - in industrialized nations,
<br />the greatest burden from natural catastrophes
<br />falls on developing nations, where high death tolls
<br />and greater relative economic loss deal a double
<br />blm\<
<br />The magnitude of the problem worldwide
<br />might seem to defy solution. Yet hazard reduction
<br />successes clearly show that heavy losses at the
<br />hands of nature are not inevitable. It may not be
<br />possible to prevent the occurrence of natural
<br />hazards, but the disasters they generate can often
<br />be avoided. In general, hazard reduction refers to
<br />the process of lessming the impacts of a potential
<br />event on the social and built environmmts. In
<br />essence, this means reducing deaths, injuries, and
<br />property damage, and minimizing the destruction
<br />of a community's social and economic fabric.
<br />Experience demonstrates that we have enough
<br />knowledge already, if properly applied, to reduce
<br />both human and property losses substantially. In
<br />fact, progress in scientific and techn ical under-
<br />standing of natural hazards, as well as in tech-
<br />niques to mitigate their effects, has led to the
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