Natural Hazard Disaster Summary

Summary and Analysis of Five 2025 Disasters Student Name GEOG 2272 A01 Disaster Summary Assignment Date Introduction A natural hazard is a physical occurrence in nature with the potential to impact people or the environment. There are several events like volcanic eruptions, heatwaves, and tropical cyclones among others that can be considered as natural hazards. Most cases of natural hazards emanated from factors such as the changing global climate patterns and rapid urbanization.6 Natural hazards often cause death, injury or property damage, and loss of socio-economic goods. If not dealt with quickly enough, a natural hazard can quickly become a natural disaster. In other words, when a hazard and exposure–vulnerability conditions interact, the result of higher levels of impacts that occur exceeds the coping capacity of the affected communities and/or environment, disaster happens.3,4 The UN has established different grounds in defining a natural disaster. For an event to be considered a disaster by the criteria of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), it must result in a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at a large scale.1 Disasters end with some or all of human, material, economic, and environmental losses and impacts. Numerically, if 10 or more people die as a result of the occurrence, the UN considers it a disaster. Similarly, a disaster declaration is made if 100 people or more are reported as being affected.1,2 In other cases, it is a disaster if it attracts an appeal for international assistance (criteria of EM-DAT). 5,6 In understanding disasters, there is a need to define risks. Risk refers to the potential of loss of life, injury, or damage to assets. Disasters pose higher risks than natural hazards. In this analysis, emphasis will be put in assessing 5 of the most devastating disasters to have occurred in 2025. The analysis will encompass Typhoon Bualoi, Enderlin tornado, Afghanistan flooding, Tarasin landslide, and Kanlaon eruptions. All the above disasters befit the UN definition considering their impacts to people and the environment as well as the difficulties faced in containing them. The analysis extends to accommodate the escalation of the 5 from hazards to disasters as well as the appropriate mitigation strategies. Typhoon Bualoi Hazard type Tropical Cyclone (Typhoon) Location Southeast Asia (Fig. 1) 1 Affected Countries Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos Date September 25–30, 2025 Population Affected Approximately 4.12 million people (Fig. 3)1 Economic Loss US$1.3 billion (in Vietnam, combined with Typhoon Matmo) Description of the Natural Hazard 37719001517650Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1Area covered by Typhoon Bualoi in South-East Asia Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1Area covered by Typhoon Bualoi in South-East Asia 377190012700Typhoon Bualoi came up as a strong tropical cyclone in September 2025 in Western pacific when La Niña strong had started. This strong tropical storm hit the central Philippines and then got stronger over the South China Sea. Bualoi rapidly intensified into a typhoon equivalent to Category 2 strength, before making its final and most devastating landfall in Hà Tĩnh Province, Vietnam on September 29 (Fig. 2). The cyclone made landfall with winds of 75–80 mph, while producing extreme rainfall along. Several provinces in Vietnam accumulated over 1 foot (300 mm) over a 24‑hour period (Fig. 2)3. The rain and storm surge along the coast caused serious flooding and landslides. The hazard was made worse by its proximity to a previous tropical cyclone named Ragasa which had already saturated the ground of the region. Description of the Disaster Typhoon Bualoi became a regional disaster from a natural hazard as the affected developing countries are highly physically vulnerable and economically less resourced. In particular, Vietnam and the Philippines had some vulnerabilities as a result of resource constraints and unpreparedness which gave rise to the disaster. The storm killed at least 85 people and hundreds more were seriously hurt. The event was so extreme that it overloaded the coping capacity of local structures and society. In Vietnam, more than 150,000 homes were destroyed, and close to 6,400 power poles were knocked down, resulting in widespread blackouts and transportation disruptions. 2,1,5 03261995Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2 Typhoon Bualoi started as La Nina as captured by NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP Satellite in September 2025 Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2 Typhoon Bualoi started as La Nina as captured by NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP Satellite in September 2025 01196975The risk of catastrophic damage was high due to many reasons. Firstly, most homes, especially in rural and low-lying coastal regions, lacked the structural integrity to survive the wind and the flood of the typhoon. The Vietnamese provinces that were impacted suffered damage to or inundation of over 546,000 houses (Fig.3). The agriculture, a vital economic sector of the region, reportedly suffered a great deal of damage with nearly 34,000 hectares of crops being submerged. The total loss in Vietnam was valued at about US$1.3 billion, including the effect of the subsequent storm, indicating a high economic exposure to the hazard. The severity of the disaster was aggravated as the disaster struck an affected area in recovery from earlier tropical cyclones and a flood due to monsoon. This caused additional systemic shock and lowered social resilience. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies 24384002315845Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3 Typhoon Bualoi causes extensive damage across Viet Nam | Nhan Dan Online Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3 Typhoon Bualoi causes extensive damage across Viet Nam | Nhan Dan Online 2438400383540The concerned governments in the affected regions implemented pre-emptive mitigation strategies which probably saved thousands of lives. For example, authorities in Vietnam evacuated more than 53,000 people from high-risk areas before Bualoi hit (Fig. 3)1. This showed the efficiency of disaster preparedness measures. Besides making the vessels more secure, work is being done to reinforce dikes and reservoirs. Still, the huge damages of the economy imply that the structural adaptation was not enough. To minimize adverse economic costs and losses to lives in the future, it is essential to take stronger and longer-term actions.5 Firstly, coastal zones must enforce complex building codes that can increase the resistance of residential and critical public infrastructure against Category 2-equivalent winds and flooding. Also, nations should put more emphasis on finding diverse and nature-based solutions to climate change. Finally, the introduction of early-maturing flood-resilient varieties and improving irrigation drainage will lead to massive agricultural boost din the vulnerable 50,000 arable hectares. Enderlin Tornado Hazard type Tornado (EF5) Location Near Enderlin, North Dakota, USA (Fig. 4)1 Affected Countries USA Date June 20, 2025 Population Affected 10 homes sustained damage, 3 fatalities Economic Loss Federal disaster relief approved in September 2025 Description of the Natural Hazard The Enderlin Tornado was a violent, long-tracked tornado that struck through the evening of June 20, 2025, from one of several successive derechos that swept across the Northern Great Plains. After intensive damage analysis, the tornado was upgraded and was given an EF5 rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale with estimated peak winds in excess of 210 mph (340 km/h). The tornado's track was 12.10 miles long and peaked at an impressive width of 1.05 miles (1.69 km). Its ferocity was attested to in the -1047752622550Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 4 Severe weather over the northern Plains (including an EF-5 tornado near Enderlin, North Dakota) Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 4 Severe weather over the northern Plains (including an EF-5 tornado near Enderlin, North Dakota) -1047750leveling of substantial homes, crops scoured from fields and most impressionable, the overturning of grain hopper cars that were full or derailed empty tanker cars on a stalled freight train. Description of the Disaster The Enderlin tornado was a high-impact event due to a very powerful natural hazard intersecting with vulnerable, exposed assets. Even though tornadoes occur in the central part of the US, an EF5 is a rare and extreme event that causes high-end damage to houses and modern buildings (Fig. 5).3 Three people died in two different areas due to the tornado, which was North Dakota’s deadliest since 1978. Multiple factors turned the hazard into a disaster. Firstly, there was the vulnerability of rural structures. Multiple farmsteads were in the tornado's path. While one strong and well-built home was “obliterated and swept away”, another has been destroyed altogether. While the US has better building practices than the developing world, a tornado of EF5 strength can be stronger than the average building. The immense wind speed can result in homes being blown away and deaths. 1,2,3 17811752153285Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 5 June 20, 2025 Summary; Updated: 10/06/2025 10:00am Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 5 June 20, 2025 Summary; Updated: 10/06/2025 10:00am 1781175523875Secondly, infrastructure exposure outlined how wide-ranging the disaster was. A major tornado struck a railway, derailing trains and rolling cars. Also, four tall steel electrical transmission towers were knocked down. As a result, Enderlin itself lost a significant amount of power. At last, amid the ongoing 2025 United States federal government shutdown, the first United States federal disaster relief approval was delayed. This revealed a new political risk factor that could impede essential assistance, regardless of a country’s level of development. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies The initial immediate mitigation measure of NWS' warnings was effective in sounding the general population. But, if preventing or mitigating similar future damage and loss of life from these rare, extreme events is a goal, a few long-term adaptation responses are worth discussing. The only reliable course is build widespread and mandatory residential-individualized storm shelters (safe rooms) throughout high-threat tornado corridors at points of new construction. This strategy could reach rural areas where the homes are more vulnerable. Secondly, to deal with EF5 strength winds, critical infrastructure such as electrical transmission towers and communication relays should be designed with improved anchorage and wind steadfastness. Better infrastructure would be less likely to collapse and the impact of service outages might not last as long. Augmentation of inspection and construction standards for anchorage within the foundation would increase homes' structural robustness to high-end EF3/EF4 impacts. Afghanistan Flooding Hazard type Flood (Flash Flood) Location Multiple provinces across Afghanistan (Fig. 7) 3 Affected Countries Afghanistan Date Recurring throughout 2025 (including June) Population Affected 173,300+ people affected in 2024; 270 households (approx. 1,631 individuals) severely impacted in a single May 2025 event (Fig. 6)4 Economic Loss Damages to shelter, infrastructure, agricultural land, harvests, and livestock Description of the Natural Hazard 30384752266315Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 6 Flood risk to population in Afghanistan Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 6 Flood risk to population in Afghanistan 3038475475615The catastrophic flooding in Afghanistan is due in large part to heavy, seasonal rains and flash floods that typically take place during the country’s spring and summer months. Melting snows combined with intense downpours cause the floods. Flash floods are known for their sudden onset and rapid flow, making them a serious threat to populations s...