BANGALORE UNIVERSITY

M.E.S TEACHERS COLLEGE, C.T.E

Bangalore Rural, Rajajinagar, Bangalore-10

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT

Topic: Natural Disaster and their rehabilitation programme

Submitted as per the requirement for II semester B.Ed of Bangalore University 2014-15

Presented By

Name: Latha.L

Reg No: 14EDD13028

NATURAL DISASTER

INTRODUCTION

A natural disaster is any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth. The severity of a disaster is measured in lives lost, economic loss, and the ability of the population to rebuild. Events that occur in unpopulated areas are not considered disasters. So a flood on an uninhabited island would not count as a disaster, but a flood in a populated area is called a natural disaster.All natural disasters cause loss in some way. Depending on the severity, lives can be lost in any number of disasters. Falling buildings or trees, freezing to death, being washed away, or heat stroke are just some of the deadly effects. Some disasters cause more loss of life than others, and population density affects the death count as well.

Then there is loss of property, which affects people’s living quarters, transportation, livelihood, and means to live. Fields saturated in salt water after tsunamis take years to grow crops again. Homes destroyed by floods, hurricanes, cyclones, landslides and avalanches, a volcanic eruption, or an earthquake are often beyond repair or take a lot of time to become livable again. Personal effects, memorabilia, vehicles, and documents also take a hit after many natural disasters.

The natural disasters that really affect people worldwide tend to become more intense as the years go on. Frequency of earthquakes, mega storms, and heat waves has gone up considerably in the last few decades. Heavy population in areas that get hit by floods, cyclones, and hurricanes has meant that more lives are lost. In some areas, the population has gotten somewhat prepared for the eventuality of disasters and shelters are built for hurricanes and tornadoes. However, loss of property is still a problem, and predicting many natural disasters isn’t easy.

Scientists, geologists, and storm watchers work hard to predict major disasters and avert as much damage as possible. With all the technology available, it’s become easier to predict major storms, blizzards, cyclones, and other weather related natural disasters. But there are still natural disasters that come up rather unexpectedly, such as earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, or even volcanic eruptions. Sometimes, a time of warning is there, but it’s often very short with catastrophic results. Areas that are not used to disasters affected by flash floods or sudden hail storms can be affected in an extreme way.

NATURAL DISASTER

Any event or force of nature that has catastrophic consequences, such as earthquake, flood, forest fire, hurricane, lightning, tornado, tsunami, and volcanic eruption.

TYPES OF NATURAL DISASTER

Natural disasters are often extreme, sudden events that are usually caused by abrupt climatic changes and certain environmental factors. A natural disaster can cause property damage, economic damage or loss of life. Man has spent years trying to find ways to predict weather patterns, but it seems that there's still a long way to go because windstorms, earthquakes, floods, diseases, and other types of natural disasters are still striking the earth with death tolls in the millions. Here's a list of the top 10 natural disasters that changed the face of the world

Floods

When an expanse of water overflows, it submerges land and destroys everything that gets in its way. This is a flood. Floods are usually caused when the volume of water within a lake, river, or other body of water exceeds the total capacity of the body. Sometimes, the water level rises and causes it to overflow its channel.

Tornadoes

Tornadoes are violent, rotating, funnel-shaped clouds that usually extend from thunderstorms to the ground and have wind speeds of between 50 and 300 mph. A tornado’s path of damage can exceed 50 miles in some cases. Some tornadoes are clearly visible, while others are not. Similarly, there can be only one tornado at a time or there can be a large number of tornado outbreaks along, what are called squall lines.

Extreme Temperatures

Extreme temperatures caused by a heat wave or cold wave are one of many climatological hazards. A heat wave increases the temperature in a certain region and pushes the human body beyond its limit. The same is the case with a cold wave that is accompanied with heavy snowfall and extreme cold, which may lead to hypothermia.

Avalanches

An avalanche is a geophysical hazard caused by a large amount of snow sliding down a mountainside. It is a common sight in some mountains in winter. When an avalanche moves towards ground level, it gains mass by amassing snow from the snowpack and is usually at its highest speed when it gets nearer to the bottom of the slope. An avalanche occurs when the snow packed down on the surface fails to carry its weight. Rapid wind speed, major temperature changes, and manmade influences are other common factors causing avalanches.

Droughts

A drought occurs when a region doesn't receive enough rainfall which leads to a severe deficiency in the water supply. When the situation persists over an extended period, it changes the ecosystem and destroys the agriculture of the region.

Wildfire

In the United States, over 90% of wildfires are caused when people leave campfires unattended, discard cigarettes carelessly, etc., but long-lasting lightning bolts can also start a fire in wild lands.

Tsunami

Usually caused by a powerful earthquake, underwater explosions, landslides, or volcanic eruptions under the ocean floor, a tsunami is one of the deadliest types of natural disasters and can affect millions of people. Tsunami waves get bigger as they approach the coast and cause tremendous damage.

Volcanic Eruption

A volcano is formed when magma from the earth's upper mantle moves to the surface. It takes the form of a pool filled with molten rock. A volcano erupts when pressure builds. This can cause hot ash flows, lava flows, lateral blasts, falling ash, and avalanches. An erupting volcano can often trigger flash floods, tsunamis, mudflows, earthquakes, and rock falls.

Hurricanes

Cyclones, tropical storms, typhoons, and hurricanes describe the same disaster type. Basically, these types of natural disasters refer to a closed circulation system in the atmosphere that consists of strong winds and low pressure. The winds rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere. A tropical cyclone is usually characterized by a low-pressure center with strong winds and spiral rain bands.

Earthquakes

Earthquakes are one of those types of natural disasters that strike without an early warning. An earthquake is the result of the sudden break within the upper crust of the earth, which may also break the surface and lead to the vibration of the ground.

COLORADO FLOODS

The 2013 Colorado floods was a natural disaster occurring in the U.S. state of Colorado. Starting on September 9, 2013, a slow-moving cold front stalled over Colorado, clashing with warm humid monsoonal air from the south. This resulted in heavy rain and catastrophic flooding along Colorado's Front Range from Colorado Springs north to Fort Collins. The situation intensified on September 11 and 12. Boulder County was worst hit, with 9.08 inches (231 mm) recorded September 12 and up to 17 inches (430 mm) of rain recorded by September 15, which is comparable to Boulder County's average annual precipitation (20.7 inches, 525 mm). This event has also been referred to as the 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood, reflecting a more precise geographic extent in and along the Colorado Front Range mountains.

The National Weather Service's Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center stated in a document that the annual exceedance probability (AEP) for the entire rainfall event was as low as 1/1000 (0.1%) in places. The flood waters spread across a range of almost 200 miles (320 km) from north to south, affecting 17 counties. Governor John Hickenlooper declared a disaster emergency on September 12, 2013, counrties: Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder,Denver, ElPaso, Fremont, Jefferson, Larimer, Logan, Morgan, Pueblo, Washington and Weld By September 15, federal emergency declarations covered those 14 counties as well as Clear Creek County.

On October 15, 2013, the State of Colorado launched a website to assist flood survivors and victims with resources and information at coloradounited.com.

The state of Colorado had been experiencing varying levels of drought prior to the week of storms starting on September 9. The U.S. Drought Monitor stated that "The combination of ample Gulf and Pacific tropical moisture (in part from Tropical Storms Manuel (Pacific) and Ingrid (Gulf) which inundated Mexico), stalled frontal systems, and upsloping conditions produced the widespread rainfall [along Colorado's Front Range]." This resulted in rainfall totals exceeding 20 inches in parts of Boulder County, along with numerous flash floods, property destruction and loss of life.

Historical floodingThe earliest recorded flood in Boulder was the great flood of 1894 which came down Boulder Canyon. It wiped out Canyon Street, then known as Water Street, and flooded most of the downtown area. In 1965 another flood hit Colorado which was similar to the 2013 flood. Colorado is a semi arid dry gulch state and has had a history of flash floods since the beginning of time. The Big Thompson River begins around Estes Park in northern Colorado and flows east through the state into Big Thompson Canyon .On July 31, 1976, meteorological conditions similar to what happened in September 2013 caused what is now called the Big Thompson Flood of 1976 ]  In the first hour alone, 8 inches of rainfall was recorded for a total of 12 inches during the first three hours.

The flash flooding killed 144 people and caused $35 million worth of damage in 1977 US dollar values, or roughly $140 million in 2013. Comparatively, the 2013 Flooding was caused by approximately 15 inches of rainfall over the span of a week which killed 8 people and caused $2 billion in damage. The rainfall in 2013 was clearly more than that in 1976. However, the flooding was more intensive in 1976 because the rainfall that fell occurred in a much shorter time frame and caught many people off guard. In 2013, The Big Thompson River experienced peak flow rates near Loveland, CO of 4,500 CFS (127.43 cubic meters per second) before the measuring gauge was destroyed by floodwaters. In 1976, the same area of the river saw peak flow rates of 31,200 cubic feet per second (883.49 cubic meters per second). As a result, this is not the worst flooding Colorado has seen, but it is the heaviest rainfall Colorado has seen.

Impact

Colorado National Guardsmen respond to floods in Boulder County.

At least eight deaths have been reported by the Colorado Office of Emergency Management, with two more missing and presumed dead and hundreds remaining unaccounted for More than 11,000 have been evacuated. The town of Lyons in Boulder County was isolated by the flooding of St. Vrain Creek and several earth dams along the Front Range burst or were over-topped. On September 12, Boulder Creek was reported to have exceeded 5,000 cubic feet (140 m3) of water per second. Boulder Creek regularly flows around 150–200 cubic feet (4.2–5.7 m3) per second. This caused serious damage to buildings along the creek and the creek path such as Boulder High School. As of late September 13, according to the Office of Emergency Management, there were 172 people unaccounted for and at least three dead in flood areas of Boulder County.] By September 14, the death toll had reached five and more than 500 were unaccounted for, but not necessarily considered missing.

Boulder residents survey the damage on Friday, September 13.

At least 1,750 people and 300 pets have been rescued by air and groundRescue efforts were hampered by continuing rain and a low cloud ceiling, which grounded National Guard helicopters September 15.

Nearly 19,000 homes have been damaged, and over 1,500 have been destroyed The Colorado Department of Transportationestimates that at least 30 state highway bridges have been destroyed and an additional 20 are seriously damaged, with repairs for damaged bridges and roads expected to cost many millions of dollars . Miles of freight and passenger rail lines were washed out or submerged, including a section servicing Amtrak's iconic California Zephyr.] Rainfall totals recorded by the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) from September 9–15, 2013 show significant totals in the Aurora, Boulder and Estes Park areas with several locations in the city of Boulder recording 15 to 20 inches (380 to 510 mm) of rain

Impact by country

Rainfall over five days in Boulder County exceeded the county's annual average .Three deaths have been confirmed in Boulder County. Over 1,600 have been evacuated, with 262 homes destroyed and nearly 300 more damaged. Nearly 900 square miles (2,300 km2) were damaged by flooding. Roads suffered extensive damage in Big Thompson Canyon and Buckhorn Canyon, with some sections completely washed away. Maps of the flooding are available on the Boulder County Government website. Jamestown experienced losses of 20% of homes and 50% of roads, with one fatality report.

The Denver metro area experienced more flooding in the eastern part of the county, and the city itself received 3.72 inches of rain during the flood

Fountain Creek  in El Paso County flooded, with the municipalities of Fort Carson reporting close to 19 inches of precipitation Aurora in Arapahoe County experienced flash flooding with up to 2.27 inches of rain in a six-and Colorado Springs reporting one fatality.

In Jefferson County, Colorado, flooding in Coal Creek Canyon damaged Highway 72 to the point of closure, and it re-opened in November 2013 The town of Evergreenhad a Level 1 evacuation notice when Bear Creek (Colorado) reached a flood stage of 9 feet.

In Logan County the South Platte River flooded, cresting at 11.2 feet. A No Flush Limited Larimer was also hit hard, with 1,120 square miles (2,900 km2) affected by flooding, and 1,500 homes and 200 businesses destroyed. An additional 4,500 homes and 500 businesses are estimated to be damaged. Extensive road damage in Big Thompson Canyon cut off road access to the communities of Drake, Glen Haven, and Cedar. Three dams also failed in the county.  Both U.S. Highway 36 and U.S. Highway 34, the major routes into the tourist town of Estes Park, were severely damaged.

Hundreds of Estes Park residents were also isolated by the destruction of sections of Fish Creek Road and all nine crossings across Fish Creek. Damaged sewer lines dumped raw sewage down the creek and into the Big Thompson River.

Water Use Order was in effect during the flood, and 73 miles of asphalt and dirt roads were damaged. In Morgan County, the communities of Goodrich, Orchard, and Weldona were placed under an immediate evacuation order the morning of September 14.[47] Floodwaters reached 13 feet high.

Weld County , in northeast Colorado, was flooded by the overflow of the South Platte River. Flooding in Weld County affected 3,000 homes, over 350 commercial properties, and 2,377 agricultural parcels.

 122 bridges were damaged, and 654 lane-miles of road in Weld County were either damaged by flooding or under standing water.

Economic impactLower-lying agricultural land in northeast Colorado was affected as flood waters surged down rivers and creeks, inundating fields and pastures. Significant crop damage is expected from standing water that has no way to drain from fields.

Hundreds of oil and gas wells were shut down in the Denver Basin, many of which were under rushing water, and reports of broken lines and storage tanks swept away by the flood waters raised concerns of contamination. A spill from flood-damaged storage tanks in Milliken was reported September 18, which released 5,250 US gallons (19,900 l; 4,370 imp gal) of crude oil into the South Platte River.

The IRS has announced that it will extend filing and payment deadlines for flood victims.

Hazardous impactStructures located in high risk flood zones were soon inundated. Sewage treatment plants affected by the flood waters released 20 million gallons of raw sewage as well as 150-270 million gallons of partially treated sewage, as estimated by the State health department. What resulted is higher levels of E. coli, some as high as 472-911 colonies per millimeter of water (126 colonies per millimeter of water is considered unsafe). The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) reports that oil lines and containment facilities failed and leaked a total of 1,027 barrels (viz. 43,134 gallons) of oil. The COGCC is monitoring 13 substantial leaks as of October 8, 2013. The COGCC is also monitoring 17 substantial leaks of produced water, or water that is used in the refinement of oil products and is considered waste water. The COGCC reports that 26,385 gallons of such water has leaked into flood waters. Over 50,000 fracking wells - a mining process utilized in the extraction of oil from the Earth - operate in the state of Colorado and 1,900 fracking wells were flooded at the peak flood levels. This number has since been reduced to around 1,300 wells. Concerns have been raised about the safety of such wells in a flood situation. The produced water from these operations sit in open pits and easily mix with flood waters and deposit toxic substances like lead or other sediments across the state.

Ecological impactsScientific reports that show the ecological impacts of the flooding are not readily available because this is such a recent event. Past studies on the ecological impacts of flash flooding can give insight on what may happen. Temporal succession has been studied in areas that experience flash flooding regularly. In these instances, typical biological processes characteristic to the area pre-flood resume within 2–3 weeks. . 

The 2013 Colorado flooding is a more complex case because of the close contact with human society. Contamination from sewage, oil, and waste water containing toxic substances can delay natural succession processes if not alter them entirely. For example, waste water from flooded fracking wells could introduce levels of lead into a freshwater system, keeping a particular strain of algae from developing in usual successional form. The hierarchy of development is now delayed or shifted into an entirely different direction. Pollution from the floodwaters could also affect species in ways not related to succession. For example, animals relying on natural freshwater systems as a source for water can contract fatal illnesses as a result of the higher levels of E. Coli bacteria in the water due to sewage leaks caused by the flooding.

REHABILITATION PROGRAMME

Federal aidPresident Barack Obama first declared a state of emergency for Boulder, El Paso, and Larimer counties, with an additional 12 counties added September 16: Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Fremont, Jefferson, Morgan, Logan, Pueblo, Washington and Weld counties. This authorized federal search and rescue teams, as well as supplies such as food, water, cots, generators, and emergency flood control measures. Obama also declared a major disaster specifically for Boulder County, which provides for federal recovery assistance such as temporary housing, home repairs, and low-cost loans.[62]

On September 25, 2013, Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) introduced the bill To authorize the Secretary of Transportation to obligate funds for emergency relief projects arising from damage caused by severe weather events in 2013 (H.R. 3174; 113th Congress). If passed, the bill would "exempt Colorado from a cap on funding, contained in Division A of Public Law 113-2 (The Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013), from the Federal Aid Highways Emergency Relief program of $100 million per emergency incident." When arguing in favor of the bill, Rep. Cory Gardner cited the statistics that the flood effected "two hundred mile-lanes of highway."

The shutdown of the United States federal government from October 1–17, 2013 stopped federal relief aid funding going to recovery efforts in Colorado. The state of Colorado began paying the National Guard for continuing relief efforts until the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could reimburse the State government at the end of the shutdown. The state hopes to be reimbursed for at least 75% of the funds.[66]

The shutdown compromise signed on October 17, 2013 includes funding for Colorado relief efforts, specifically referencing Rep. Gardner's bill H.R. 3174; 113th Congress. The cap typically set at $100 million has been raised to $450 million in light of Colorado's current conditions. It is not uncommon for this cap to be raised for disaster struck areas such as those states hit by Hurricane Sandy or Hurricane Katrina.

Other aid

The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Save the Children, the United Way, the Air Land Emergency Resource Team, Boulder Flood Relief, and Helping Pets are among the organizations accepting donations on behalf of flood victims.

References

Matt Pearce (September 23, 2013). "Number of missing after Colorado flood dwindles to 6". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 23, 2013.

McGhee, Tom (September 12, 2013). "Colorado flood: No relief in sight as record rain falls". The Denver Post. Retrieved September 17, 2013.

Matt Smith; Dave Hennen (September 20, 2013). "Record rain, steep canyons fueled Colorado floods". CNN.

Amanda Paulson (September 13, 2013). "For Colorado's 'biblical' floods, numbers tell astonishing tale". The Christian Science Monitor.

Andrew Freedman (September 16, 2013). "Flood-Ravaged Boulder, Colo., Sets Annual Rainfall Record". Climate Central.

Average Yearly Precipitation for Colorado . Current Results. Retrieved September 19, 2013. "Colorado Front Range Flood of 2013: Peak Flow Estimates at Selected Mountain Stream

Locations". doi:10.13140/2.1.2593.0242. "Colorado Front Range Flood of 2013: Peak Flows and Flood

Frequencies".doi:10.13140/rg.2.1.3439.1520. Gochis, David; Schumacher, Russ; Friedrich, Katja; Doesken, Nolan; Kelsch, Matt; Sun,

Juanzhen; Ikeda, Kyoko; Lindsey, Daniel; Wood, Andy (2014-12-11). "The Great Colorado Flood of September 2013". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 96 (9): 1461–1487. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00241.1. ISSN 0003-0007.

9news.com . September 16, 2013. Retrieved September 16, 2013. Garrison, Robert (September 13, 2013). "Governor declares disaster emergency in 14

counties". 9news.com. Retrieved September 16, 2013. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hdsc/aep_storm_analysis/8_Colorado_2013.pdf

"Colorado flood: Rebuild likely to take more than a year"