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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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October/November
2007
Volume 13 - Number
1/2 |
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Damage and Destruction: The Summary of International
Disaster-Related Losses in 2007
By Lauren Stienstra The year 2007 has already been a destructive one.
The international community continues to tally numbers of fatalities, displacements,
and damages as the year presses on, and the data regarding such sentinel
events as the Peruvian Earthquake, the Korean Floods, and Hurricane Dean.
The number of people affected by disasters totals over 150 million people,
with 105 million people being affected by floods in the Sichuan, Anhui, and
Hubei provinces in the People’s Republic of China. The affected areas are
largely agricultural, and therefore the affected people struggle with homelessness
and starvation.
These floods, although they did affect large numbers of people, did not prove to be the most deadly. The largest deaths tolls in single events have occurred from epidemics of cholera in Angola and meningitis in Burkina Faso (2354 and 1490, respectively). Unfortunately, these epidemics spread much further than the borders of these two countries alone, and the total deaths caused by the epidemics in the region are expected to be much higher. The international fatality count totals 17,380. The number of people injured by disaster internationally is 25,037; however, many countries report no injured people for disasters that killed many. It seems unlikely that a disaster that was destructive enough to cause fatalities yet but injuries. This suggests that data numerating injured persons may have never been collected, and that the current estimate may under represent the number of injuries incurred by disaster. Lastly, the material damage caused worldwide totals more than 33.1 billion USD. An offshore earthquake with a magnitude 6.6 occurred near the Niigata Prefecture of Japan, killing 9, injuring 1,000, affecting 24,000, and causing 10,843,232,000 USD of damage (the largest amount of damage sustained in a single event yet this year). The earthquake was especially destructive as it produced a fire in the nuclear power plant in the region and caused radioactive gases to leak. For the response and recovery to these disasters, The United Nation’s Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs cites that thus far, the international community has appealed for 4.7 billion USD in aid, and only 54% of the funds have been provided. Although many of the most deadly and destructive international disasters of 2007 did not capture the attention of the U.S. media, the United States leads the list of donors, providing 820 million dollars in international disasters aid (UN OCHA). All numbers are expected to rise as the year (and the hurricane season) is not yet over. All raw data from: "EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database - www.em-dat.net - Université Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium" unless otherwise noted. UN OCHA Data: “Consolidated and Flash Appeals 2007”- http://www.reliefweb.int/fts |