Disasters Become More Catastrophic

A research suggested that the number of natural disasters stemming from geological reasons such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis increased from an annual average of one incident in the 1950s to two in the 2000s. The number of natural calamities arising from weather-related reasons including floods, storms and draughts jumped from an annual average of two to seven over the same period. A recent report released by international aid agency Oxfam suggested a similar trend. The agency said that natural disasters have quadrupled in the past two decades. The number of occurrences in the early 1980s stood at 120 a year, while it skyrocketed to about 500 these days. There is no denying that the victims of natural disasters have been on the rise. According to the Oxfam report, the number of casualties including those killed by natural calamities amounted to about 174 million from 1985 to 1994, but it soared to 254 million between 1995 and 2004. Unfortunately, Asia has been the hardest-hit area. France’s Le Figaro Magazine reported in its latest edition that about 800 cases of natural disasters have occurred in the Asian region since 2001. In particular, the most populous countries, such as Indonesia, China and India, suffered the biggest damage. All three countries are sitting on fault lines. A number of mountains and rivers in Asian countries are prone to landslides and floods. Moreover, the coastal areas are directly exposed to tropical storms. The United States has suffered 222 cases of natural disasters since 2001, following Asia. The country has been frequently battered by capricious and unpredictable natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Although the number of Hurricane Katrina victims is pale in comparison to that of Asian cyclones, it was shocking that Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of more than 1,300 people given that the number of hurricane victims has rarely exceeded 100. Earthquakes have remained the trickiest part to deal with. No specific countermeasures have been developed. The numbers of people killed by an earthquake occurred in Tangshan, China, in 1976 and of those killed by the 2004 tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Ache, Indonesia, were estimated 255,000 and 250,000, respectively. Some experts say that the tsunami victims are as many as 285,000.