Disaster Management in Natural Calamities . Mr. Prasad P. Kamat & Mr.Gaurav Meghani D.Y.Patil College Of Engg.

& Technology Kolhapur I. Introduction Various disasters like earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions, fires, flood, tsunami and cyclones are natural hazards that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. The rapid growth of the world's population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environment has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled with deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation nonengineered constructions which make the disaster-prone areas mere vulnerable, tardy communication, poor or no budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developing countries suffer more or less chronically by natural disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties due to natural disaster. Among various natural hazards, earthquakes, landslides, floods and cyclones are the major disasters adversely affecting very large areas and population in the Indian sub-continent. These natural disasters are of (i) geophysical origin such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, land slides and (ii) climatic origin such as drought, flood, cyclone, locust, forest fire. Though it may not be feasible to control nature and to stop the development of natural phenomena but the efforts could be made to avoid disasters and alleviate their effects on human lives, infrastructure and property. It is almost impossible to prevent the occurrence of natural disasters and their damages. However it is possible to reduce the impact of disasters by adopting suitable disaster mitigation strategies. The disaster mitigation works mainly address the following: (i) minimise the potential risks by developing disaster early warning strategies, (ii) prepare and implement developmental plans to provide resilience to such disasters, (iii) mobilise resources including communication and tele-medicinal services and (iv) to help in rehabilitation and post-disaster reduction. Disaster management on the other hand involves: (i) pre-disaster planning, preparedness, monitoring including relief management capability. (ii) prediction and early warning. (iii) damage assessment and relief management. Disaster reduction is a systematic work which involves with different regions, different professions and different scientific fields, and has become an important measure for human, society and nature sustainable development. II. Classification of Disaster

Natural disaster Flood, Typhoon, Cyclone, Storm, Drought, Earthquake, Tsunami, Landslides Man-caused disaster Fire, Collapse, Explosion, Traffic accident, Wars, Pollution Table 1. Applications of space remote sensing in disaster management Disaster Prevention Preparedness (Warning) Relief

Mapping geological Earthquakes lineaments land use Volcanic eruptions Landslides Topographi and land use maps

Geodynamic measurements of Locate stricken strain accumulation areas, mapdamage Detection/measurement of gaseous emissions Mapping lava flows, ashfalls and lahars,map damage Mapping slide area

Topographic and Rainfall,slope stability land use maps Flood plain maps; Regional rainfall ; evapoland use maps transpiration

Flash floods Land use maps Major floods Storm surge Hurricanes Tornadoes Drought Tsunami

Local rainfall measurements Map flood damage Map extent of floods

Land use and land Sea state; ocean surface wind Map extent of cover maps velocities damage Synoptic weather forecasts Map extent of damage

Nowcasts; local weather Local Map amount, extent weather observations of damage Long ranged climate models Monitoring vegetative biomass;

Nowcasts; local weather Local Map extent of weather observations damage

Normal Underlined Bold Italics

-Operational or needs very little research -Research and development required -Requires improved observation capability -Requires improved spatial or temporal resolution

NATURAL DISASTERS FLOOD Flood is a common natural disaster during the later part of the monsoon period. Flood scale estimated to affect 6.7 million hectares of land annually. The statistics of 10 years(1979-89) indicates that on an average in India about 30 million population are affected every year. The effects of flood on the affected population are manifested in the form of drowning, Diarrheas diseases, respiratory infections etc. MANAGEMENT PRE FLOOD STAGE State level flood preparedness review chaired by Chief Secretary and heads of other departments in the month of April. Flood Preparedness meeting in all the affected districts before 15th of May.

Regular Coordination at all levels with all line departments, PRIs & NG0s for better flood management. Establish early warning mechanisms with the help of related deptts. Installation & Maintenance of Rain Gauge before the flood season. Repairing of embankments and continuous supervision of the same. Construction of Mounds and identification of high places for shelter of the old, infant, handicapped, women & destitute. Repairing of roads which are likely to be flooded on the basis of past experiences. Identification & inventory of Boats and necessary repairing of the same before the flood. Pre stocking of food and other essential commodities in the vulnerable areas for quick distribution among the affected population. Identification of proposed relief centres & wider dissemination of the same among the masses. Equip the hospitals and vaterinary centres with sufficient medicines and vaccines along with doctors and paramedical staff. Mobilize the services of trained home guards. Ensure safe drinking water for the marooned population. To ensure functioning of Control Rooms from District-Subdivision-Block level round the clock. Prestocking of Materials for immediate repairing of roads, culverts & Embankments with sufficient manpower to ensure communication. DURING FLOOD Regular Information Sharing at each level. Distribution of relief according to the norms. Evacuation & Shelter arrangements. Regular patrolling of vulnerable embankments. Ensuring safe drinking water and action for controlling outbreak of Epidemics. Preparation of database { Form- 9} of affected population for relief, cash dole. Mobilizing the services various Disaster Management Committees, Task Forces for necessary support to the flood victims. AFTER FLOOD Restoring communication {road, telecom, electricity etc}. Immediate repairing of embankments and irrigation channels. Steps for control of epidemics. Allotment of fund for repairing/ reconstruction of fully & partly damaged houses as per norms.

 To provide support to farmers for crop damage. DROUGHT Drought is also perennial feature in India 16% of the country make up drought prone areas. Statistics of 10 years (1979-89) shows that on an average more than 50 million population are affected annually by the drought conditions. LONG-TERM MANAGEMENT Several chronically drought-affected districts in India experience acute shortage of drinking and irrigation water. To address this issue, a nationwide project titled 'Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development (IMSD)' was taken up in collaboration with other DOS centres and State Remote Sensing Applications Centres. The project essentially aims at generating locale-specific action plan for development of land and water resources on a micro watershed basis in drought- prone areas of the country using IRS data. In the first phase, 175 districts covering 84 million ha has been covered (Rao,1998). For providing safe drinking water to rural masses, a nationwide project titled "National Drinking Water Technology Mission", was launched by Department of Space (DOS) in collaboration with other State Remote Sensing Applications Centres, and Central Ground Water Board and State Ground water Departments. Ground water potential maps showing ground water prospect at 1:250,000 scale have been prepared for entire country. The success rate achieved by drilling wells through the use of remote sensing data has been found to be much better than those achieved by conventional means. Furthermore, as a follow-up large scale (1:50,000) mapping of ground water prospects for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerela under Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission is in progress. CYCLONES Coastal area of the country experiences about two to three Tropical cyclones of different intensity every year with varying degree of destruction and loss of life. East coast is more vulnerable than West Coast. Statistics of 9 years period indicates that on an average at least 3 cyclones annually of varying intensity touch the Indian coast. Since 1990, cyclones are showing upward trend CYCLONE MANAGEMENT The most striking advantage of the earth observation satellite data has been demonstrated during the recent Orissa supercyclone event Meteorologists have been using satellite images for monitoring storms over the recent years. One of the most important applications in this endeavor is to determine the strength and intensity of a storm.

EARTHQUAKE

The Himalayan region from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh is in Seismic Belt in the past century 20 earth quake of severe magnitude affected India. Recent Earthquake in Latur and Osmanabad districts of Maharashtra State indicated that even large number of casualty can take place even in low seismic zone. MANAGEMENT Engineers have devised several techniques and have worked out ways to reduce earthquake damage to buildings and structures of all sizes and shapes. These are very much in evidence in US and Japanese cities especially San Francisco and Tokyo with their skyscrapers and other high-rise buildings. There are a number of ways, ranging from simple to complex, to build earthquake-resistant structures. Simpler techniques for small and medium-size buildings include bolting buildings to their foundations, providing support walls call shear walls made of concrete reinforced with steel bars or rods. Shear cores made up of shear walls in the building centre, around a stairwell or lift shaft, are also common in larger buildings. Walls can also be reinforced by cross-bracing with diagonal steel beams or even with steel mesh or rods forming a cage around brick walls to keep them from falling. Medium-size buildings are also provided base isolators, kind of shock-absorbers between the building and the foundation made of alternative layers of concrete and an elastic material such as synthetic rubber, to absorb some of the sideways motion that would otherwise damage a building. Base-plates or concrete flat platforms on which the building rests are also sometimes used. Moats around the building also provide shock-absorbing capabilities besides isolating buildings from other structures around. Skyscrapers are specially constructed with deep and secure anchoring and reinforced framework with stronger jointing to provide greater flexibility. Provisions are also made within buildings such as schools, hospitals and workplaces with heavier appliances, furniture etc fastened down, water and gas lines specially reinforced with flexible jointing to prevent breaking. TSUNAMI It is now well known to the world that a tsunami can be dangerous, destructive and cause extensive damage. When the first news came that an earthquake with a large magnitude of 7 or 8 on the Richter scale, occurred near Sumatra in Indonesia on December 26, 2004, all the neighboring countries were of the view that the danger was far away from their location and hence took no action. Scientists, officials of the government and other organizations, and also the members of expert disaster management groups in South East Asian countries, although aware of the event within minutes after the occurrence of the large earthquake, did not realize at that time, the extent of damage that it could cause in other regions several hundred kilometers away.

The human loss from the Asian tsunami now stands at nearly 250,000, with a belated recognition that this great loss could have been avoided (Kerr, 2005; Bhattacharjee, 2005). The tsunami came, caused tremendous damage to human life and property and then retreated. MANAGEMENT Site Planning and Land Management- Within the broader framework of a comprehensive plan, site planning determines the location, configuration, and density of development on particular sites and is, therefore, an important tool in reducing tsunami risk. The designation and zoning of tsunami hazard areas for such openspace uses as agriculture, parks and recreation, or natural hazard areas is recommended as the first land use planning strategy. This strategy is designed to keep development at a minimum in hazard areas. In areas where it is not feasible to restrict land to open-space uses, other land use planning measures can be used. These include strategically controlling the type of development and uses allowed in hazard areas, and avoiding high-value and high-occupancy uses to the greatest degree possible. The capital improvement planning and budgeting process can be used to reinforce land use planning policies. Engineering structures As most of the structures along the coast area comprises of fisherman community, which are constructed of light weight materials without any engineering inputs. Therefore there is an urgent need to educate the community about the good construction practices that they should adopt such as: Site selection Avoid building or living in buildings within several hundred feet of the coastline as these areas are more likely to experience damage from tsunamis. Construct the structure on a higher ground level with respect to mean sea level. Elevate coastal homes: Most tsunami waves are less than 3 meters in height. Elevating house will help reduce damage to property from most tsunamis. Structural columns resist the impact while other walls are expendable. It is important to also take note that adequate measures are also brought into the design to cater for earthquake forces. Construction of water breakers to reduce the velocity of waves. Use of water & corrosion resistant materials for construction. Construction of community halls at higher locations, which can act as shelters at the time of a disaster. VOLCANIC ERUPTION Many times precursors of volcanic eruptions have been observed in various areas of volcanic activity. Ground deformations, changes in the compositions of gases emitting from volcanic vents, changes in the temperatures of fumaroles, hot springs and crater lakes as well as earth tremors are preceding volcanic eruptions. Thermal infrared remote sensing has been applied for volcanic hazard assessment. However, deficiencies of equipment and coverage suggest that thermal infrared has not been adequately evaluated for surveillance of volcanoes. MANAGEMENT To help protect lives and property, scientists of the USGS Volcano Hazards Program maintain a close watch on the volcanic regions of the United States, including the Pacific Coast States, Wyoming, Hawai`i, and Alaska. This ongoing

work enables the USGS to detect the first signs of volcano unrest and to warn the public of impending eruptions and associated hazards. LANDSLIDES Aerial photographs and large-scale satellite images have been used to locate the areas with the incidence of landslide. Higher spatial resolution and stereo imaging capability of IRS -IC and -1D enable further refining the location and monitoring of landslides. A number of studies have been carried out in India using satellite data and aerial photographs to develop appropriate methodologies for terrain classification and preparation of maps showing landslide hazards in the Garhwal Himalayan region, Nilagiri hills in south India and in Sikkim forest area. Such studies have been carried out using mostly aerial photographs because of their high resolution enabling contour mapping with intervals of better than 2m in height. The availability of 1m resolution data from the future IRS mission may help generating contour maps at 2m intervals making thereby space remote sensing a highly cost effective tool in landslide zonation. Landslide: refers to the downward sliding of huge quantities of land masswhich occur along steep slopes of hills or mountains and may be sudden or slow. MANAGEMENT The main factors which contribute to landslides are Slope, water content, geological structure, unconsolidated or loose sediments, lithology and human interference. Slope: Retaining wall may be constructed against the slopes, which can prevents rolling down of material. Terracing of the slope is an effective measure. Effect of water: Make proper drainage network for quick removal of percolating moisture or rain water by constructing ditches and water ways along the slope Geological structures: Weak planes or zones may covered or grouted to prevent percolation of water, this increases the compaction of loose material. II. DISASTER PREPAREDNESS 1. Disaster Management Structure a. National level

The Emergency Medical Relief Division of Directorate General Health Services in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is the technical unit exclusively meant for management of crisis situations. The Division is headed by Director, Emergency Medical Services and Relief. For the purpose of the crisis situations, he reports/receives instructions directly from the technical chief (Director General of Health Services) and Administrative Headed of the Ministry (Secretary Health & F.W). The secretary, Health & F.W. has empowered Director, EMR to represent the Dept. for crisis situation in different Crisis Management Groups. Disaster Management requires multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach, which needs coordination at various levels from Central to District Level. In the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Govt. of India) and mechanism of coordination is done through the office of the Director, Emergency Medical Services and Relief (EMR). The objective of the coordination is to review crisis situations from time to time and meet those needs, which State Government cannot meet. For this purpose, continuous dialogue and communication are maintained with the Director of Health Services, Stores Division under the Federal Government, vaccine producing institutes and National Institute of Communicable Diseases and Director, Malaria unit. b. State level: Usually a Joint Director or a Deputy Director of Health Services under Director of Health Services in the state is responsible for crisis management, coordination, monitoring and implementation. He has information about key personnel involved in disaster management at State, District and Central level. c. District/PHC level: At district level, the chief medical officer/Civil Surgeon is responsible to implement and coordinate heath sector activities. He has details of information about officer involved in disaster management at PHCS, District and State level. 2. Non-Governmental Organizations: There are number of NGOs which are functioning in the field of disaster management. Most of them are small and work locally. However, Indian Red Cross Society and Ramakrishna Mission are the two organizations, which take very active part in disaster management. As a matter of fact these two organizations supplement government efforts. They have sufficient infrastructure to provide immediate facilities within shortest possible time. a. Indian Red Cross Society: The Indian Red Cross Society was established in the year 1920 to render medical and other assistance to the sick and injured during was and peace time and to manage the funds and gifts received from public for such purposes. Its activities include mother and child welfare scheme including nutrition programme, arrangements of relief to the victims of epidemics, earthquakes, cyclones, droughts, floods and natural and industrial calamities in India and abroad. They also provide paramedical education in fields like first aid, nursing and blood banking. Promotion of voluntary blood donation is one of the prime targets of the society and the government is providing grants-in-aid to it to help in this programme. There is a network of 51 blood banks run by Red Cross in 11 States. 3. CONTINGENCY PLAN A detailed contingency plan is circulated in advance upto district level in the high risk areas Distribution of health education material in local language, mobilization of extra

medical team for immediate deployment, purification of water by bleaching powder and chlorine tablets and frequent checking of chlorine level of water at distribution point by sanitary inspectors, are the salient features to reduce morbidity and mortality following disaster. The separate budget allocation is available upto district level for such public health activities. a) Pre-Disaster Activities: (i) Guideline / Checklist A detail guideline separately for food (Annexure I), drought (Annexure II), cyclone and earthquake has been prepared and is circulated in the month of March and April to all drought prone states and during May and June to flood and cyclone prone states. Telephone Nos. and other relevant information of concerned officers at the State level are updated. (ii) Control rooms Control rooms during disaster situation are established at the State Directorate of Health Services and Chief Medical Officer at District level Control Room at Federal level is activated during monsoon period or during any other disaster. In the normal period, the office of the Director, EMR functions as control room. (iii) Mass casualty management: The casualties management system is different in the towns and cities and rural areas. Ambulance Services In towns and cities following agencies have fleet of ambulances. The facilities of ambulance services have plenty of scope for improvement in order to satisfy the people. These ambulances provide transport services and do not have latest cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipments except oxygen supply, first aid box except in Delhi where Centralized Accident Trauma Services (CATS) has been established as a pilot project which would be subsequently replicated in other towns and cities in phased manner. St. John Ambulance Association in the Ambulance Wing of the Indian Red Cross Society. It performs sports meets, factories, mines and other places requiring urgent attention for safety and care in natural and industrial calamities. Is also imparts training in first-aid nursing and allied subjects. Rural areas there is no organized ambulance services where the casualty clearance is usually done by community, local police officials or local health officials. Other services are provided by normal health infrastructure mentioned above. Ambulance services throughout the country can be requisitioned by dialing the following telephone Nos. a) Police : Tel: 100 b) Fire Services : Tel: 101 c) Hospital Services: Tel: 102 (Casualty Services) (iv) Temporary Settlements: The east coast is mare vulnerable to cyclones than west coast there are many oval shaped temporary shelter, having two floors attached with Community kitchen and toilet facilities in the four states of eastern coast. These Centers are utilized during disaster phase as community centres. They are managed by local community. For other types of disaster there is no pre identified Centres to be used as temporary shelters after a disaster. However, the local authorities use existing buildings of schools, colleges, court building for this purpose. In State plan of Deli and Assam there are pre-identified shelters. 4. Activities During Disaster (Emergency Phase):

a) Mechanism of activation of Disaster Contingency Plan: The first information about the disasters is known through mass media or Governmental agencies namely the State Government, Meteorology Dept. and Ministry of Agriculture. Following this information telephonic contacts is made with the health authorities at the State level to get detailed information about disaster. Simultaneously contacts are established with the State representative located at Delhi and Ministry of Agriculture Government of India. During entire process Director, EMR have requisite permission from Ministry Health to take necessary steps immediately followed by detailed information to them for their information. The ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, being the chief of the Crisis Management Group meets daily at 4:00 PM with respective responsible person from different departments. During this meeting the situation is analysed and backup support is arranged. By 6:00 PM the Ministry of Agriculture Informs about the magnitude and action taken to Head of the Government followed by the media coverage at National level. b) Arrangement for Feedback Information: During disaster Director, EMR contacts the Control Room and the officer concerned at the State level either by telephone, telex or wireless system (Police Control Room) between 10 to 12 Noon. The feedback information consists following: i) The extent of disaster situation on particular day ii) Population affected iii) Health profile like No. of patients, type of patients and any problem to deal with the situation c) Mobilization of manpower: By and large, initial re-deployment of medical team is done by District Chief from PHCs under them followed by medical teams from other Districts by Directors of Health Services. Federal deployment of manpower is rarely done as such state has adequate manpower. Specialised coverage during mass scale casualties (surgical and orthopedic) is provided at Developmental Block level by District Hospitals. They have the facilities or surgery, medicine, orthopedic, paediatrists and obstetrics and gynecology. Super speciality services are provided by teaching medical institutions located nearby. There are 125 Medical colleges all over the country amongst 450 districts. d) Support facilities i) Communication Wireless:Police wireless network is available in all police stations throughout the country upto grass root level which plays a major role for communication during disaster. Telephone: District as well as large number of developmental block have telephone facilities which are utilized during disaster situations. Telegraph Facilities: Telegraph facilities are also available upto peripheral areas. Postal Services: All villages in the country have the facilities of daily postal services Ham Operators: There are number of Amateur Radio Associations with Ham facilities all over the country. These facilities are utilized for large number of occasions such as rallies, big gatherings; Motor rallies as well as disaster warning. ii) Transport and logistical supply Each Community Health Centres have the facility of one jeep, one van and a truck. In case of emergency they are utilized for disaster management. By and large the other

officials are also having transport facilities, which are pooled by District Magistrate who is the nodal person for disaster management in the District where large number of vehicles are available. Additionally, under the Law the District Collector can requisition any type of vehicle from any source. With these powers transport facilities hardly poses any problem. e) Communication and Public Information: The District Chief is in direct contact with the State Chief of the Health by telephones. All Districts have such facilities. In case of non-functioning or any other problem they are allowed to use Police wireless network, which is well spread upto periphery. The State Chief of Health communicates with Doctors, EMR by telephone, telex, through their representative at Delhi or Police wireless network. Control Room at Federal level is activated during monsoon period or during any other disaster. In the normal period, the office of the Director, EMR functions as control room. It is under the charge of Senior Medical Officer supported by three clerical and other supportive staff. Additional staff are provided immediately by the Administrative wing of Director General of Health Services for round the clock service. They are provided transport facilities, food, tea snacks etc. The control room has telephone facilities (two lines) and utilize telex facilities available in the Directorate General of Health Services. f) Public Information: Public information is given through mass media either by Relief and Rehabilitation Department at State level and Ministry of Agriculture at Central level. 5. Post-Disaster Activities: Post disaster activities mainly confine to repair of damage to health infrastructure, replenishment of medical stores up to pre disaster level and financial transactions. Post disaster evaluation in a scientific manner and workshops/exchange of views of lessons learnt are not done at present. Philosophy that disaster management needs to be built into the development process. Disaster management is not a function of Disaster Management Department alone but of all Departments mitigation concerns must inform all aspects of Govt. activity. Institutional mechanisms States asked to convert Departments of Relief and Rehabilitation into Departments of Disaster Management with wider Terms of Reference to include mitigation and vulnerability reduction. States also asked to set up Disaster Management Authorities with the Chief Minister as the Head and Ministers of relevant Departments like Health, Agriculture, Water Resources, PWD as Members. This will:(a) Ensure that the ownership of responsibility for mitigation and preparedness is jointly shared by the relevant Departments. (b) Enable holistic approach to disaster management National Disaster Management Authority being set up at the National level. Empowered Group of Ministers on Disaster Management. Draft National Policy prepared.

 States also advised to clearly enunciate a disaster management policy. States advised to adopt Disaster Management Acts. Financing Financing arrangements put in place by Finance Commissions. Terms of Reference of the Twelfth Finance Commission changed to mandate that the Finance Commission looks at the entire disaster management cycle and not only relief and rehabilitation. Draft policy proposes that 10% of the plan funds be set apart for mitigation. Planning Commission has included a specific chapter on Disaster Management in the Tenth Five Year Plan document with emphasis on predisaster aspects. States advised to draw up plan schemes for Disaster Management. Guidelines issued to all Ministries/State Governments that: Wherever there is a shelf of projects, projects addressing mitigation will be given priority. All projects in vulnerable areas must have disaster mitigation as a Term of Reference States advised to change their Relief Codes into Disaster Management Codes by including aspects of prevention/reduction/mitigation. Response Systems Specialist teams being trained. Four battalions set apart for conversion to specialist response teams for search, rescue and evacuation. States also advised to constitute Specialist Response Teams. Orders issued that States may spend upto 10% of allocation of CRF in a particular year for procuring search and rescue equipment. Training in Search and Rescue made an integral part of post induction training for all CPMFs. Caches of equipment being positioned at regional CPMF centres. National level training institutions for search and rescue identified and declared. Drawn up Project for strengthening of emergency and fire services. Project finalized to convert Fire Services into all hazard response units 9cost US $ 417 million). Equipping and training of fire services for carrying out search and rescue in all types of disasters. Filling up deficiencies in the availability of fire units as well as rescue equipments at sub-divisional and district level. Provision of Hazmat vans in selected metropolitan cities. Management Systems Incident Command System work on institutionalizing the Incident Command System initiated so as to make arrangements for professional Incident Management. Working with US Forest Service on this. States being assisted to set up Control Rooms at the State level as well as at district level under the GOI-UNDP project in multi-hazard prone States.

Funds under the Police Modernisation Scheme made available for setting up Control Rooms.

CONCLUSION: Apart from loss of human lives, natural disasters inflict severe damage to ecology and economy of a region. Space technology has made significant contribution in all the three phases, i.e. preparedness, prevention and relief of disaster management. With a constellation of both INSAT and IRS series of satellites, India has developed an operational mechanism for disaster warning especially cyclone and drought, and their monitoring and mitigation. However, prediction of certain events likes earthquake, volcanic eruption and flood is still at experimental level. Developments in space-based earth observation and weather watch capabilities in future may help refining existing models/approaches for prediction of such events and their management. It is absolutely necessary to create awareness amongst the public as well as decision makers for allocating resources for appropriate investments in information technology. Awareness and training in Information technology in a much grater measure is required to develop human resources, particularly in the developing countries, who are chronically suffer from natural disasters. The disasters usually occur in the well-defined areas, even though the community does not know the coping mechanism for the disaster. The disaster mitigation programmes must be extensively taken up covering various aspects at national level to minimize the disaster damages. There should be a greater emphasis on development of new technologies in disaster mitigation. The disaster preparedness and awareness is the only effective way of mitigating the impact of future disasters. REFERENCES:
CSR Journals Resource material from the First International Training course on Disasters and Development organized by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center Bangkok, Thailand National Disaster Prevention and Countermeasures headquarters : http://www.mogaha.go.kr/ndch/start.htm Federal Emergency Management Agency http://www.fema.gov/ www.google.com www.yahoosearch.com www.pudhari.com www.esakal.com