From reading the text this week the difference between hazards, emergencies, disasters, and catastrophes is the amount of elements that are effected by the event. For hazards it’s an unpredictable event. Hazards also include the general public. Falling trees are not hazards when in a wood line. But a tree on the brink of falling onto a house is a hazard. Some more examples of hazards are living in a place that is prone to tornadoes, hiking on a mountain that has avalanche warning, driving down the wrong side of the road in the opposite way of traffic and last living next to a power plant. All of these hazards are unknown and could affect human life at any moment.
Emergencies are localized to a specific agency. They are daily occurrences that “an event involving a minor consequences for a community—perhaps a few casualties and a limited amount of property damage” (Perry 2006). Agencies that respond to these emergencies are fire, medical and police. Some examples of an emergency are car fires, roll over vehicles, missing children, domestic cases and large liquid spills. These situations can be controlled with one department and there is no need for public knowledge.
When a large amount of casualties are involved but it only involves a central area these are known as disasters. Multiples agencies are able to react to the situations. A disaster is bigger than an emergency. It involves coordination from multiple people. Examples of disasters are an active shooter such as the shooter, James Holmes, in Aurora, CO. Another example would be the torrential flooding in South Carolina in 2015, the tornado that hit the St Louis Airport in 2011, small earthquakes that hit japan every year and tropical storms through the Hawaiian Islands.
Last a catastrophe is the greatest of the four categories, a catastrophe involves everyone. Locally and non-local. It can also effect agencies by destroying them. Examples of catastrophes are the September 11 attacks, the Boston Marathon Bombing, Haiti in 2010, 1991 earthquake in LA and Sumatran tsunami in 2004. All of these events killed thousands of people and affected many more.
Perry, R.W., Prater, C.S., & Lindell, M.K. (2006). Fundamentals of Emergency Management. Retrieved from http://training.fema.gov/hiedu/aemrc/booksdownload/fem/
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