A booklet for Students and the Community
Chapter 12
Other Types of Hazards and Disasters
We have covered in detail the major natural hazards and disasters with meteorological and geological origins. In this chapter we look firstly at those with biological origins and two other less obvious natural ones. Brief details and examples of the more common human-caused and technological hazards and disasters are also included in this chapter.
OTHER NATURAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS
Biological Origin
Human Epidemics and Pandemics - Human populations have been devastated in the past by disease in disastrous epidemics and pandemics (ie geographically unconfined epidemics). A staggering 75 million people died between the years 1347 and 1351 from the ‘Black Death’, which was actually three varieties of plague. Even in Sydney, Australia, in 1900 an epidemic of 1,200 cases of Bubonic Plague were reported, of which 550 were fatal. A more recent disaster was the world-wide Influenza pandemic of 1918-19 when over 21.5 million people died, including 10,000 in Australia (January-December 1919). Fortunately we have been able to make great advances in prevention and restriction of effects of contagious human diseases. The threat of human epidemics has lessened considerably, but still has potential for disasters (eg Hepatitis and the on-going HIV/AIDS pandemic). Mosquito-borne diseases such as Malaria, and in Australia, Ross River Fever and Encephalitis periodically approach epidemic proportions, particularly following monsoon season or widespread floods.
Exotic Animal Diseases - Animal diseases epidemics have great potential to
cause disasters. Because of Australia’s
geographic isolation and careful management, threat from exotic animal diseases has been
quite low. However, with increased mobility
and illegal foreign entries, quarantine measures alone may no longer provide an effective
barrier. Campaigns are conducted to alert us
to the threat and to encourage adherence to quarantine regulations. Should an epidemic occur (eg
‘foot-and-mouth’) the situation
could be disastrous, threatening our entire local and export livestock industry, and
seriously affecting public health. In early
1997, a small outbreak of Anthrax, which affected hundreds of dairy cattle in Victoria,
was a timely reminder of the constant need for vigilance.
Disaster plans include quarantining properties, destroying infected stock and
vaccinating nearby herds.
Insect and Vermin Plagues - Locusts, mice and rabbits over-breed from time to time in ideal conditions creating plagues which decimate food crops on a large scale. Such events in Australia regularly cause heavy rural export losses but in poorer countries can cause famine. Biological control is proving to be safer and more effective than chemical sprays and poisons.
Extreme Cold (Meteorological)
Northern Hemisphere - In many countries, prolonged periods of near or sub-zero temperatures are major natural killers. Such was the case in northern Europe and America in the 1996-97 winter, when temperatures in some countries plunged to minus 32°C, freezing large rivers and lakes, and closing airports, roads and railways under deep snow. Hundreds of deaths resulted, many essential services were interrupted, and commercial, industrial and agricultural losses occurred.
Australia - Fortunately, in Australia less severe conditions apply, although severe cold snaps sometimes occur during winter in higher areas of NSW, ACT, Victoria and Tasmania. As these coldest regions are sparsely populated, deaths rarely occur, but roads are often cut by snow and occasionally small settlements have been isolated without power for extended periods. Some residents of Bombala, Delegate, Nimmitabel and Jindabyne in the Monaro region of NSW were cut off without heating in July 1987 when deep snow broke power and phone lines and blocked roads for up to a week. One building roof collapsed and some sheep perished without feed.
Effects of Severe Frosts - A more frequent and widespread hazard for
agriculture in many parts of SE Australia is severe, late-spring frost . This can cause very heavy fruit, vegetable and
crop losses. For humans, the most common
hazard related to cold conditions, results when individuals suffer hypothermia (from cold
exposure) which can be fatal.
Exposure and Hypothermia - If the body core temperature falls below normal due to prolonged heat loss, hypothermia will set in. Symptoms are difficult to recognise but, if not treated promptly, can cause death within an hour!
| Common Causes |
Common Symptoms |
||
| » | Wet or inadequate clothing. | Loss of energy and/or stumbling or shivering. | |
| » | Exposure to cold, wet or windy conditions. | Mental/physical lethargy, loss of judgement or determination | |
| » | Fatigue and/or excessive perspiring. | Impaired senses, slurred speech or swollen lips and hands | |
| Lack of readily digestible, high protein food. | |
|
|
| Alcohol intake or shock (after an accident etc). | |
|
|
Survival : If symptoms appear, the victim must be sheltered from the cold and gradually warmed in a sleeping bag, blankets or heavy clothing, before the body loses its ability to keep warm. Companions should:
u assist by staying very close to the victim to provide body warmth;
u give the victim small amounts of warm food and drink - but never alcohol; and
u not rub or massage the victim or expose to excessive external heat (eg fire).
Warning : Delaying action may result in death if the victim’s body temperature has fallen too low.
Asteroids and Comets (Extra-Terrestrial)
Thousands of tiny asteroids enter Earth’s atmosphere daily,
burning up in bright streaks as meteors (shooting stars).
A very few larger ones reach the surface as fragments of burnt rock or iron known
as meteorites. About every 700 years on
average, a 100 metre diameter asteroid (or larger) strikes the Earth at up to a quarter of
a million kilometres per hour. This
translates to the explosive energy equal to a 100 megaton atomic bomb! Those impacts on land disintegrate everything in
the vicinity and throw up millions of tonnes of dust into the atmosphere from the large
crater they create. In Australia alone, 22
impact craters have been found, the best-known large one being at Wolf Creek in WA. If such an impact occurred in the ocean, it would
trigger an enormous tsunami with unthinkable consequences.
Even more frightening is the remote prospect of a much larger asteroid or even a
comet colliding with us in a cataclysmic event that could plunge the world into years of
darkness and a new ice age which would threaten human existence. Such an event may have caused the extinction of
the dinosaurs. In Australia, geological
evidence is mounting to support the theory a giant tsunami with wave heights up to 100
metres struck the south-east coast of NSW as recently as 300 years ago. The most likely explanation for a tsunami of such
enormity is that it resulted from a large meteorite impact in the South Pacific Ocean.
HUMAN-CAUSED HAZARDS AND DISASTERS
Wars
The ultimate human-caused disaster is war. Regardless of the type of warfare, the scale of destruction, loss of life, injuries and suffering in war are such that it is placed high on the list of worst disasters to have affected most countries. For example, even though the majority of World War II was fought well away from Australia, two wartime disasters occurred in our waters, and two more on our soil. In November 1945, the HMAS Sydney was sunk off WA with the loss of 645 lives and in May 1943, the hospital ship ‘Centaur’ went down losing 268. At Darwin, in February 1942, heavy Japanese bombing caused 242 deaths and over 300 injuries as buildings, aircraft and ships were destroyed or damaged. Finally, in August 1944, during an attempted mass-escape from the Prisoner-of-War camp at Cowra, NSW, three Australians and 234 Japanese died. These losses, however, were very small compared to the number of Australians lost fighting overseas.
Urban Structure Fires Perhaps
the most common human-caused hazard (often a disaster) is fire in large, occupied
buildings. Causes can be accidental or
deliberate, but unless structures have been built to safe fire standards, and sound
emergency procedures are used, heavy loss of life can result. Disastrous fires have affected most countries. Notable overseas cases include: a high-rise building fire in Sao Paulo, Brazil (see photo); the Kings
Cross Station inferno in London and Bradford
Soccer Stadium , both in England; and hotel fires all around the world, such as at Pattaya, Thailand
in July 1997 when 100 died. These, and many
like them, have cost thousands of lives, injuries and untold property. In August 1981, 19 people died in the Rembrandt
Hotel fire, Sydney, NSW.
Terrorist Bombings and Shooting Massacres
Perhaps the most upsetting disasters of all are those which involve deliberate brutal acts of mass-murder against defenceless, innocent men, women and children. Examples of such despicable acts are: the Oklahoma City bombing (USA) which killed 168; the 1996 Dunblane massacre of 16 school children and their teacher in Scotland; and the Port Arthur massacre of 35 people in Tasmania in April 1996. The horror, pain and trauma of such events destroy families and the morale of whole communities and places emergency and recovery workers under great stress.
TECHNOLOGICAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS
Transportation Accidents
Considering the huge numbers of passengers, the frequency of travel,
and the vast distances covered, modern transport methods are very safe. Accidents, and occasionally disasters, happen if
components or systems fail, or safety procedures are ignored.
Australia - Our worst railway disaster was the January 1977 Granville accident (Sydney). A full, peak-hour electric train derailed and collided with a concrete bridge support, bringing it down on carriages, killing 83 people and injuring 213. During a ‘black’, 5 year period in long-distance passenger bus history (from October 1989 to October 1994) 8 major accidents caused a total of 95 deaths and 272 injuries! The worst of these was the December 1989 Kempsey two-bus collision which left 35 dead and 41 injured. These events led to improved highways, compulsory seat belts and lower speed limits for coaches and other heavy vehicles.
By comparison, Australia has a very good air
transport record. Coincidentally, however,
our two worst air accidents each
caused 29 deaths near Perth, WA in 1980 and Mackay, Qld 1960. Unfortunately, Australia has suffered 2 major
bridge collapses. In 1970, Melbourne’s Westgate
Bridge collapsed during construction
(35 dead) and in Hobart, 1975, a huge pylon of the Tasman Bridge was smashed by a ship which sank as a massive
concrete bridge-span collapsed. This plunged
cars into the river, killed 13, and severed Hobart’s vital road link over the Derwent
River for many months.
Overseas - Far worse transportation disasters have occurred overseas (eg the collision of two jumbo jets on the runway in the Canary Islands in 1977, which killed 576 people).
Nuclear Power Accidents
Potentially, the most difficult hazard to respond to is nuclear
fallout radiation which could follow an accident involving the nuclear reactor of a power
station or ship etc. Minor accidents have
occurred including the Three Mile Island radioactive leak in the USA and more recently an
incident in Japan. However, there was one tragic major accident:
Chernobyl - The only nuclear power disaster was in 1986 at Chernobyl, near Kiev, Ukrainia, (then part of the Soviet Union). Officials admitted to only 31 deaths and 400 casualties initially, as a result of the explosion, but as years pass there is evidence of the health, and ultimately the lives, of thousands of people being adversely affected by radiation produced in the accident.
Hazardous Materials
There is greater potential for disaster, due to the use or movement of hazardous materials, than from most other technological hazards. For example a whole community is more likely to be affected by a toxic gas leak than by deaths and injuries caused in a major transport accident.
BLEVE -
An entire community was involved at Mississauga, Ontario, Canada when
250,000 had to be evacuated to avert disaster following a train accident which triggered a
series of bleves (Boiling Liquid Expanding
Vapour Explosions). Liquefied gas Bleves have occurred in Cairns (1987
- 1 dead, 24 injured) and in Sydney where fortunately, there were no casualties.
Other Explosions - Great loss of life occurred in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1917 when a ship carrying explosives collided with another. The resulting explosion destroyed large sections of the town and killed 1,963 people! Australia’s most disastrous explosion was in the Mt Kembla mine, Wollongong, in 1902, when 95 miners died. One of our worst non-mining explosions occurred in 1974 at the Mt St Candice Convent in Hobart, when 7 died in a boiler explosion.
Toxic Emission - Not all hazardous materials accidents involve transport, and some can result in worse disasters. During 1984 cyanide gas escaped from a fertilizer factory in Bhopal, India. The resulting deadly cloud caused the deaths of approximately 2,000 people living close-by. In Australia in August 1991, the Coode Island fire burnt 8.6 million litres of chemicals in the heart of Melbourne and loomed as a potential disaster. Good luck rather than good management resulted in winds dispersing toxic fumes away from residential areas. Over 250 workers were evacuated from nearby ships and factories but only two injuries occurred (to fire-fighters).
TOXIC EMISSION SURVIVAL STEPS
Actions on hearing a warning signal or announcement of dangerous fumes etc:
u Remain in,
or immediately enter, a house or building. Do not attempt to evacuate.
u Close external doors and windows. Draw curtains and seal (tape) ventilators.
u Turn off air conditioners, extinguish naked flames (eg ‘pilot-lights’).
u Move to a room furthest away from the hazard area.
u Listen to radio/TV for official emergency information.
u Stay indoors until official ‘all clear’, then open doors and windows to restore ventilation.
u Avoid phone use until the ‘all-clear’ and cooperate with official instructions.
STUDENTS - FIND FURTHER INFORMATION
Research an unusual event from Annex A. Also find out more about:
u AIDS and Hepatitis, or Typhoid and Cholera; and
u Exotic animal diseases, or the long-term effects of the Chernobyl disaster.
 |
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AUSTRALIA, PO
Box 1020 Dickson, Australian Capital Territory 2602, AUSTRALIA Telephone: + 61 (0) 2 6266 5402 Facsimile: +61 (0) 2 6266 5029 Email: ema@ema.gov.au AUSTRALIAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE,
Mount Macedon Road, Mount Macedon, Victoria 3441, AUSTRALIA |
| This page was last updated May 31, 2001 |
