'Natural Disasters in the Caribbean\r'

'The raw(a) disasters that ar typic in ally experienced in the Caribbean can go catastrophic and devastating impacts on the environment, stinting developing and social structure of these islands. S evere damage to the construct infrastructure that has supported communities on Caribbean islands for decades can plant a huge strain on economic activity. The social impacts that ar experienced following graphic disasters consist of homelessness, injury, suffering, sickness, disease, and plain death.This paper pull up stakes aver the major natural disasters that nurse busheled lifetime in the Caribbean and they include hurricanes, quakes, volcanoes, landslides, flooding and tsunamis. Other than Barbados, all Windward Islands of the Caribbean are of volcanic origin. Volcanoes are ruptures in the earth’s surface that allow for the thresh of lava and gas. The two types of volcanic eruptions, explosive and effusive, can some(prenominal) guide devastating consequences on the environment and the Caribbean inhabitants.Although non a common occurrence, several volcanic eruptions leave take place on Caribbean islands. For example, an eruption on St. Vincent in 1979 left economic losses of 1 billion dollars, but fortunately no casualties. swamp is another very impactful natural disaster that is wizard of the more common types of natural disasters to greatly affect CARICOM countries. Sometimes called the silent killer, flooding can greatly affect socio-economic development.Whether it is coastal or river flooding, it has the ability to greatly damage the plain landscape as advantageously as introduce water-borne disease that can t whizz down to death in local inhabitants. There is a disproportionate vulnerability of CARICOM countries to natural disaster demo by the many events that have occurred over the termination few hundred years. The intrinsic vulnerability is referable to the small size of Caribbean islands, their insularity and remoten ess, and the economic, environmental and demographic factors that are associated with these islands.Furthermore, there is limited hazard forecast ability for several CARICOM countries. The CARICOM countries are geographically do in a location that makes them vulnerable to natural disasters. The Caribbean climate is tropical and temperatures range between more or less 24°C and 32°C throughout all islands as a whole. The prevailing great deal winds along with year round sunny skies situated a warm climate for CARICOM countries with both juiceless and wet season.Precipitation depends on the elevation of the island and is also completed by water currents. The environmental impacts of Caribbean natural disasters are correlated with the large coastal zones on the numerous islands and the damage can vary from affecting the consummate landscape or the falling on one tree. It was noted that from 1960-1989, â€Å"hurricanes in the Greater Caribbean Basin resulted in the deaths of 28,000 people, disrupted the lives of 6 million people and undone property worth U. S. $16 billion. All the Caribbean nations that have already faced the fury of the hurricane light-haired and have had to fight back by burying the dead, decision shelter for the homeless and counting the economic losses. Sandy moved northwards with gusts in over one hundred ten mph destroying homes, crops and roads on its way. More than 69 people were killed in six countries. Even though Haiti was not in Sandy’s invest path, the island was greatly affected as Haiti has confirm that 52 people have dead and a drawing card of people are missing. Buildings were engulfed in mudslides or sweep out to sea by flood tides.The political relation in Port-au-Prince declared that about 200,000 people are homeless and only 17,000 shelters have been provided. The country has short-term fears of cholera and other water-borne disease and besides that there is also a huge food shortages because the ag ricultural landscape has been badly damaged by the hurricane Sandy. littler scale fatalities and damage were also reported in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, where seawaters surged over coastal barriers to photoflood roads and buildings.February 8th, 1843, the Eastern Caribbean was affected by the biggest ever recorded earthquake. The region from St. Maarten to Dominica experienced very intensifier damages. All masonry was destroyed and the earthquake also caused a big fire that destroyed a component part of wooden structures in Antigua. The estimated number of deaths is about 4000-6000 people, which represents 1/3 of the population. This earthquake was felt as farthermost south as Caracas and British Guiana and was even felt in Washington, which is 2000 km away.The magnitude of this earthquake is estimated to have a range of 8. 0-8. 5. On January 12, 2010, a 7. 3 magnitude strong earthquake happened in Haiti, the capital Port-au-Prince. The World H ealth Organization confirmed that the Haiti earthquake resulted in 222,500 death and 196,000 more injured. The epicenter was 15 kilometers from the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. According to the preliminary estimates of the multinational Committee of the Red Cross, this devastating earthquake will result in 3 million Haitian refugees.\r\n'