TSUNAMI

Tsunami

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion3

Effect of Tsunami3

Short-run effect4

The long-run effect4

Biological and Physiological effect of Tsunami5

Vulnerability6

Social Vulnerability7

Resilience8

Human Effects of Tsunamis8

Conclusion10

Tsunami

Introduction

Natural disasters are known to cause tremendous pain and grief to those affected and a mass of physical damage to a country. However, it is important to consider the economic impact that these natural disasters have on a country. Tsunami has been one of the most important, yet disaster natural occurrences that people across the globe have experienced. Until 2004, tsunamis were only considered were to be a part of books and general knowledge, being labeled as a more dormant form of natural disasters that were thought to have been witnessed by individuals of today. The first display of this ferocious being came into books when the monster struck Indonesia; the monstrous waves rose up to almost 30 feet, almost leveling the height of a 5-storie building. The common fallacy is that natural disasters are completely bad for a country and that they cause tremendous damage to the affected country physically, socially and economically. However, studies have proven that natural disasters often dramatically raise a country's economic activity during the reconstruction period (Klein, 2007).

Discussion

Effect of Tsunami

A disaster, as defined by the UNESCO, is “A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.”

Short-run effect

In general, natural disasters undoubtedly have a huge impact on a country's economy in the short-run. In the Joint Economic Committee's analysis (2005), it was estimated that Hurricane Katrina caused damage worth $100 billion or more. Physical destruction is apparent when evaluating the immediate effects of any natural disaster such as Tsunami. These effects are magnified when considering a smaller country with a developing economy. Loss of a country's physical capital stock is not the only short-term effect that natural disasters cause. There is also a decline in human capital accumulation; which is a direct effect and linked to the severity of the disaster. According to a report by the United Nations (2002), natural disasters claim an estimate of 100 000 lives annually. Many people lose friends and family, and some are forced to migrate to a better environment, as with the case of a severe volcanic eruption in Montserrat where two thirds of the island's population was forced to migrate. With the occurrence of a natural disaster, there is a disruption in the social habits of the affected areas (Drabek, 1994).

The long-run effect

(Skidmore and Toya, 2006) concluded that climatic disasters, excluding droughts, lead to increased growth rates, but they also found some evidence that geologic disasters could cause a decrease in a country's economic growth. According to Popp (2006), the key macroeconomic variables that natural disasters affect are technology, human capital accumulation, physical capital accumulation, and the natural resource stock, all of which will be reflected in GDP. Skidmore explicated that when something is destroyed; one doesn't necessarily rebuild the same thing, but most ...