Geneva: On Thursday, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said that Earthquakes and tsunamis accounted for most of the 10,373 lives lost in disasters last year, while extreme weather events accounted for most of 61.7 million people affected by natural hazards. There were 281 extreme weather events recorded by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in its EM-DAT (International Disaster Database).
UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami said that "No part of the globe was spared from the impact of extreme weather events last year," He further added that floods, droughts, storms, and wildfires affected 57.3 million people, underlining once more that "if we want to reduce disaster losses, then we must improve how we manage disaster risk."
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Reports reveal that the country most affected by disasters was India, where there were 23.9 million people hit, followed by the Philippines with almost 6.5 million people impacted, and then China with 6.4 million affected. The country with the most deaths was Indonesia with 4,535, followed by India (1,388), Guatemala (427), Japan (419) and China with 341 deaths. The UN official said that time is running out for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Centigrade or 2 degrees Centigrade.
There were no such mega-disasters in 2018, but the loss of life from significant natural hazards appears to be on the decline likely due to improving standards of living, and better disaster risk management..
