Disaster Nursing PDF - Introduction to Disaster

Disaster nursing INTRODUCTION TO DISASTER DISASTER I. Natural Disasters  Etymology - The word disaster comes from the  A natural disaster is a natural process or Latin words dis (...

Disaster nursing INTRODUCTION TO DISASTER DISASTER I. Natural Disasters  Etymology - The word disaster comes from the  A natural disaster is a natural process or Latin words dis (bad) and astro/aster (star). In the phenomenon that may cause loss of life, injury or Middle Ages, disasters such as floods or fires were other health impacts, property damage, loss of blamed on the misalignment of the planets or livelihoods and services, social and economic attributed to the events written by the stars. disruption, or environmental damage. Classifications of Natural Disaster  Geophysical (i.e. Earthquakes, Landslides and Debris Flow, Tsunamis and Volcanic Activity)  Hydrological (i.e. Avalanches, Floods and Sinkholes)  Any occurrence that causes damage, ecological  Climatological (i.e. Extreme Temperatures, disruption, loss of human life or deterioration of Thunderstorms and Lightning, Drought and health and health services on a scale sufficient to Wildfires, and Winter and Ice Storms) warrant an extraordinary response from outside  Meteorological (i.e. Hurricanes, Tornadoes, the affected community or area. (World Health Cyclones and Tropical Storms/Wave Surges) Organization 1995)  Disease Outbreaks (i.e. Epidemics)  A situation or event, which overwhelms local a. Common Source capacity, necessitating a request to the national b. Propagated or Progressive Epidemics or international level for external assistance; an c. Mixed Epidemics unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great damage, destruction and human suffering. (United Nations 2008) A. Geophysical Hazards  A serious disruption of the functioning of a (Earthquakes, Landslides and Debris Flow, Tsunamis and Volcanic Activity) community or society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental a. EARTHQUAKE losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of  A shaking or trembling of the earth that is volcanic or the affected community or society to cope with tectonic in origin. (Webster) using its own resources. (United Nations Office  Also known as a quake, tremor or temblor is the for Disaster Risk Reduction) shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere Synonym for Disaster that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, or  catastrophe  accident seismic activity, of an area is the frequency, type,  calamity  mishap and size of earthquakes experienced over a  cataclysm  misadventure particular time period.  tragedy  mischance  act of God  setback ANATOMY OF AN EARTHQUAKE  holocaust  reversal of fortune  Fault Lines - refer to the gap between tectonic  Filipino “sakuna” plates caused by plate  Hiligaynon “disgrasya / katalagman / kalamidad” movement. Fractures in Earth's crust where Main Types of Disaster rocks on either side of I. Natural Disasters the crack have slid past II. Man-Made Disasters each other. Sometimes III. Hybrid Disasters the cracks are tiny, as thin as hair, with barely noticeable movement between the rock layers Abigail marie Prelims | Disaster Nursing 1   Focus - is the point earthquake begins. Faults o Fractures in Earth's crust where rocks on either  Epicenter - is the point in the ground level directly side of the crack have slid past each other. above the focus. Sometimes the cracks are tiny, as thin as hair, with barely noticeable movement between the  Seismic Waves- are vibrations rapidly moving rock layers. from direction of the focus. Waves of energy that travel through Earth's layers, and are a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma movement, large landslides and large man-made explosions that give out low-frequency acoustic energy. Seismic Waves o Waves of energy that travel through Earth's layers, and are a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma movement, large landslides and large man-made explosions that give out low-frequency acoustic energy. Types of Earthquake a. Tectonic earthquakes Seismometer - are produced by sudden o A seismometer is an instrument that responds to movement along faults ground noises and shaking such as caused by and plate boundaries. earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device b. Volcanic earthquakes and a recording device to form a seismograph. - are induced by rising The output of such a device—formerly recorded lava or magma beneath on paper (see picture) or film, now recorded and active volcanoes. processed digitally— is a seismogram. Such c. Explosion earthquakes data is used to locate and characterize - related to earthquakes, and to study the Earth's internal volcanic structure. events, and they occur MEASURING THE STRENGTH OF AN EARTHQUAKE (beneath the 1. Magnitude is proportional to the energy released crater) with by an earthquake at the focus. It is calculated from volcanic earthquakes recorded by an instrument called explosions. It can also happen during nuclear seismograph. It is represented by Arabic tests. Numbers (e.g. 4.8, 9.0). d. Collapse earthquakes 2. Intensity is the strength of an earthquake as - small earthquakes in underground caverns perceived and felt by people in a certain locality. It and mines that are caused by seismic waves is a numerical rating based on the relative effects produced from the explosion of rock on the to people, objects, environment, and structures in surface. the surrounding. The intensity is generally higher near the epicenter. It is represented by Roman e. Cryoseism Numerals (e.g. II, IV, IX). In the Philippines, the - Ice quake or frost quake, is a seismic event intensity of an earthquake is determined using the caused by a sudden cracking action in frozen PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS soil or rock saturated with water or ice, or by stresses generated at frozen lakes. As water drains into the ground, it may eventually freeze and expand under colder temperatures, putting stress on its surroundings. Abigail marie Prelims | Disaster Nursing 2  MODIFIED MERCALLI SCALE Intensity Shaking Description/Damage I Not felt Not felt except by a very few under especially favorable conditions. II Weak Felt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings III Weak Felt quite noticeably by persons indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings. Many people do not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly. Vibrations similar to the passing of a truck. Duration estimated. IV Light Felt indoors by many, outdoors by a few during the day. At night, some awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably. V Moderate Felt by nearly everyone; many awakened. Some dishes, windows broken. Unstable object overturned. Pendulum clocks may stop. VI Strong Felt by all, many frightened. Some heavy furniture moved; a few instances of fallen plaster. Damage slight. VII Very Damage negligible in buildings of good design and construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary Strong structures; considerable damage in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken. VIII Severe Damage slight in specially designed structures; considerable damage in ordinary substantial buildings with partial collapse. Damage great in poorly built structures. Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture overturned. IX Violent Damage considerable in specially designed structures; well-designed frame structures thrown out of plumb. Damage great in substantial buildings, with partial collapse. Buildings shifted off foundations. X Extreme Some well-built wooden structures destroyed; most masonry and frame structures destroyed with foundations. Rails bent. Earthquake Related Hazards The Institute’s National Tsunami Monitoring and  Landslides and Ground Subsidence Early Warning  Flooding and Water-related Hazards  Operate and maintain an effective tsunami  Damage to Man-made Structures monitoring and communication system;  Lava flows, Pyroclastics and Lahars  Monitor all tsunami events that may affect the Philippines for timely issuance of tsunami 1. Subsidence advisories and warnings; - A gradual settling or sudden sinking of the  Develop a tsunami database with expected Earth’s surface owing to subsurface wavelengths and arrival times at certain forecast movement of earth materials. Principal causes are aquifer-system compaction, drainage of points; and organic soils, underground mining,  Release tsunami information in time based on hydrocompaction, natural compaction, Standard Operating Procedures. sinkholes, and thawing permafrost. Earthquake Mitigation 2. Seiches - Oscillating waves that produce major  Earthquake Resistant Buildings fluctuations in the water level. Series of  Emergency Alert System standing waves in a fully- or partially-enclosed  Immediate TV Coverage body of water caused by earthquakes or  Earthquake Survival Kits landslides.  Water Discharge Tunnel 3. Liquefaction - Similar to subsidence but occurs when b. LANDSLIDES sediments are saturated with water. While  Form of mass wasting where large amounts of earth these events can occur naturally, they are move down a slope under the influence of gravity. usually aggravated by earthquakes. They can have devastating effects especially in 4. Tsunamis heavily populated areas near hillsides or mountain - Giant waves produced when a fault displaces slopes. a large slab of the ocean floor. Nearly undetectable in the open ocean, but once Landslide Mitigation Technique tsunamis reach shallow waters, wave height  Brick, Stine or Block Retaining Wall increases dramatically and can reach up to 30  Concrete Retaining Wall meters. Abigail marie Prelims | Disaster Nursing 3   Dewatering Slopes Volcanic ash - Fine-grained material that  Ground Anchor is ejected during explosive volcanic  Soil or Rock Nailing eruptions caused by rapid expansion of gases. c. MUDSLIDES Volcanic Bombs - Large magma blobs.  Develop when water rapidly accumulates in the Volcanic Blocks - Large pieces of solid ground and results in a surge of water-saturated rock. rock, earth, and debris. Usually start on steep slopes Lapilli - “Little Rocks”. Rock fragments and can be activated by natural disasters. ejected from a volcano. d. ROCKSLIDES B. HYDROLOGICAL HAZARDS  A type of landslide caused by rock failure in which (Avalanches, Floods and Sinkholes) part of the bedding plane of failure passes through compacted rock and material collapses en masse a. AVALANCHE and not in individual blocks.  also called a snow slide is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain.  Primarily composed of flowing snow and air, large e. VOLCANIC ERUPTION avalanches have the capability to capture and move  A volcano is an opening or rupture in the earth's ice, rocks, and trees. surface that allows magma (hot liquid and semi- liquid rock), volcanic ash and gases to escape. A CAUSES OF AVALANCHE volcanic eruption is when lava and gas are released  Can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as from a volcano— sometimes explosively. increased precipitation or snow pack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, Volcanic Eruption Hazards and earthquakes  Lava flows  Pyroclastic flows Avalanche Mitigation  Lahars  Artificial Triggering (Active Control)  Jökulhlaups (glacial outburst floods)  Structural Defense  Landslides  Debris avalanches.  Volcanic activity also produces hazards that can b. FLOOD affect areas far from the volcano, such as tephra  An overflow of water that submerges land that is or ash falls, releases of gas and tsunamis. usually dry.  Climate change increased rainfall and extreme PYROCLASTIC MATERIALS weather events increases the severity of other Magma causes for flooding, resulting in more intense floods o Molten rock beneath the surface of and increased flood risk. the Earth. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO FLOODING Lava  Daily Tides o General term for magma that has been High tides that are regular, predictable rise erupted onto the surface of the Earth and maintains its integrity as a fluid or viscous and fall of the currents caused by the mass. moon and sun’s gravity.  King Tides Lahar Non-scientific term people often use to o A mixture of water and volcanic debris that describe exceptionally high tides. These moves rapidly downstream. Consistency can range from that of muddy dishwater to higher than normal “spring” tides occur that of wet cement, depending on the ratio during new or full moon during specific of water to debris. seasons around the globe.  El Niño Tephras o Volcanic rock fragments irrespective of causes changing weather patterns and grain size produced during an explosive warmer surface waters in the Pacific, eruption. which can lead to increase sea level. Abigail marie Prelims | Disaster Nursing 4   Coastal Storms C. CLIMATOLOGICAL HAZARDS Storms can cause an abnormal rise in (Extreme Temperatures, Thunderstorms and water levels over and above the Lightning, Drought and Wildfires, and Winter and Ice prescribed tide. The rise in water can Storms) cause extreme flooding in coastal areas particularly when storm-driven waves a. CLIMATE CHANGE coincide with high tide.  refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, but CAUSES OF FLOODS since the 1800s, human activities have been the  Increased Urbanization main driver of climate change, primarily due to the  Bad farming practice burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil and gas), which  Deforestation produces heat-trapping gases.  Storms o EL NIÑO “the boy”  Ice and snow melting is the warm phase of the El Niño–  Dam and levee failures Southern Oscillation (ENSO) associated with a band of warm ocean water that Main Types of Floods develops in the central and east-central  River Flood (Fluvial floods) equatorial Pacific (the area off the Pacific - caused by excessive rain or melting of snows coast of South America). which causes the level of water to overflow from a river. o LA NIÑA “the girl”  Flash Floods is an oceanic and atmospheric - Caused by excessive rainfall top of a higher phenomenon that is the colder counterpart ground (like a hill) which travels or flow to low of El Niño, as part of the broader ENSO lying areas. Usually accompanied by mud or climate pattern. debris that are washed away by the water (like trees). b. HEAT WAVE  Coastal Floods (Storm Surge)  Qualitatively, heat wave is a condition of air - brought about by tropical storms where water temperature which becomes fatal to human body is forces ashore by strong high winds. when exposed. Quantitatively, it is defined based on the temperature thresholds over a region in terms of  Urban Floods - drainage system in a city cannot absorb the actual temperature or its departure from normal. amount of water brought about by heavy or Heat waves are more dangerous when combined excessive rain. with high humidity. The combination of temperature and humidity is measured by the heat index. c. SINKHOLE  Sudden sinking of the Earth’s surface due to the HEAT INDEX movement of the earth underneath most often  Also known as the apparent temperature, is what caused by the removal of water, oil, natural gas, or the temperature feels like to the human body when mineral resources out of the ground by pumping, relative humidity is combined with the air fracking, or mining activities. temperature. KARST TOPOGRAPHY  Formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such c. DROUGHT as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum; and quartzite  is defined as drier than normal conditions. This given the right conditions. means that a drought is "a moisture deficit relative to the average water availability at a given location and season". A drought can last for days, months or years. d. WILDFIRE, FOREST FIRE, BUSHFIRE, WILDLAND FIRE OR RURAL FIRE  is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Abigail marie Prelims | Disaster Nursing 5  e. HEAVY RAINS D. METEOROLOGICAL HAZARDS  Intertropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, is a (Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Cyclones and Tropical band of low pressure around the Earth which Storms/Wave Surges) generally lies near to the equator. The trade winds of the northern and southern hemispheres come a. TROPICAL CYCLONE together here, which leads to the development of  A rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a frequent thunderstorms and heavy rain. low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement f. THUNDERSTORMS of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and/or  An electrical storm or a lightning storm, squalls. characterized by the presence of lightning and its  Depending on its location and strength, a tropical acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known cyclone is referred to by different names, including as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are hurricane (/ˈhʌrɪkən, -keɪn/), typhoon (/taɪˈfuːn/), sometimes called thundershowers. tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, or simply cyclone g. TORNADO  is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact Typhoon Hazards with both the surface of the Earth and a  Storm surge flooding cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a  Inland flooding from heavy rains Destructive cumulus cloud. winds  Tornadoes develop from severe thunderstorms in  Tornadoes warm, moist, unstable air along and ahead of cold  High surf and rip currents fronts. Such thunderstorms also may generate large - Often simply called a rip (or misleadingly a rip hail and damaging winds. tide), is a specific kind of water current that  When intense springtime storm systems produce can occur near beaches with breaking waves. large, persistent areas that support tornado Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of development, major outbreaks can occur. fast-moving water or localized current that flows away from the shoreline toward the h. HAILSTORM ocean, perpendicular or at an acute angle to  Hail is a type of solid rain made up of balls or lumps the shoreline. It usually breaks up not far from of ice. Hail forms when a thunderstorm updraft lifts a shore and is generally 24 meters (80 feet) water droplet above the freezing level in the wide. atmosphere.  The frozen water droplet then accretes super-cooled b. STORM SURGE water or water vapor, which freezes once it comes in  Storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a contact with the frozen droplet. coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of  This process causes a hailstone to grow. They rising water commonly associated with low- typically last for no more than 15 minutes but can pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. cause injuries to people and damage buildings, vehicles and crops. c. SQUALL LINE  is often named for the weather phenomenon that i. WINTER STORM accompanies it, such as rain, hail, or thunder; a line  An event in which wind coincides with varieties of squall is one associated with a squall line of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, thunderstorms that is often hundreds of kilometers such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. long. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessarily restricted to the winter season, but d. DERECHO may occur in the late autumn and early spring as  A derecho is a widespread, long lived wind well. storm that is associated with a band of rapidly  A snowstorm with strong winds and other conditions moving showers or thunderstorms. meeting certain criteria is called a blizzard.  The word derecho means “straight ahead” in  Winter storm brings about extreme cold, freezing Spanish. rain, sleet, heavy snowfall, ice, and high winds. Abigail marie Prelims | Disaster Nursing 6