Emergency vs Disaster
Both emergency and disaster are words that can send shivers down one’s spine. While an emergency refers to a situation of significant risk to health, life, or the environment, a disaster is any phenomenon, whether natural or man-made, with the potential to cause considerable destruction of life and property. These two terms are closely related, but there are differences between them.
Emergency
An emergency is a threatening situation that requires a quick response. When a risk to self, property, health, or environment is detected, action must be taken promptly to prevent any worsening of the situation. However, there are situations in which no action can help mitigate the danger to life and property, and fleeing is the only option. Emergencies can vary in scale, from affecting a single individual to an entire population in an area.
For instance, a person who has suffered a stroke may need to be taken to a hospital in time to receive medical care. This is a small-scale emergency as it involves a single individual and perhaps their family. In contrast, an earthquake or a tsunami that strikes without prior warning requires planning and preparedness to save lives and properties.
Most authorities consider all situations posing danger to human life as emergencies. Those posing danger to the environment, though serious, do not require action as quickly and swiftly as an emergency. Some authorities do not consider it an emergency when there is an immediate danger to the life of an animal population. However, fires, tornadoes, and hurricanes that have the potential to sweep across properties are included in emergencies.
There are agencies involved in emergency management, and their action is divided into four categories: preparedness, quick response, recovery phase, and mitigation.
A state of emergency is another type of emergency that prompts governments to declare an emergency in the state and curtail individual rights. This is an extraordinary step to deal with civil unrest as people’s powers are usurped by the administration.
Disaster
A disaster is any man-made or natural hazard with the potential to cause widespread destruction of property and human lives. To the general public, a disaster is an event or phenomenon that leaves behind a trail of destruction and also claims human lives. Landslides, earthquakes, fires, explosions, volcanoes, and floods are some well-known disasters. However, terrorism and its related events have caused much more havoc and destruction than natural disasters in recent times. Both 9/11 and 26/11 in India are considered no less than natural disasters, as they inflicted a dent in the human psyche and resulted in the loss of lives and property common in any natural disaster.
Although the intensity of a natural disaster may be the same, its after-effects are felt more in developing countries than in advanced, developed nations. This is due to both higher population density and lesser preparedness in case of third-world countries. An earthquake in a developed country causes much less destruction than a similar one in a poor country with a higher population density and houses that have not been designed to withstand earthquakes.
Key Takeaways
- While both emergencies and disasters require quick action, one can prepare for emergencies but not disasters.
- Emergencies can be on a small scale, involving a single person, while disasters are typically on a much larger scale and have the potential to cause extensive destruction of life and property.
- Emergencies like fires in a building can be tackled by police and fire departments working closely together, but disasters like floods and wildfires require prompt action by the administration on a war footing to reduce the destruction of life and property.
