Large-scale Disasters: Prediction, Control, and Mitigation

Disaster Prevention and Management

ISSN: 0965-3562

Article publication date: 19 June 2009

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Citation

(2009), "Large-scale Disasters: Prediction, Control, and Mitigation", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2009.07318cae.004

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Large-scale Disasters: Prediction, Control, and Mitigation

Large-scale Disasters: Prediction, Control, and Mitigation

Article Type: Book reviews From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 18, Issue 3

Edited by Mohamed Gad-el-Hak,Cambridge University Press,Cambridge,www.cambridge.org2008,576 pp.,ISBN 978-0-521-87293-5,$150 (hard cover)

The term “gargantuan disaster” might not have entered the technical lexicon yet, but in this volume it is helpfully defined as a disaster affecting 10,000 people or more. The book delves into highly technical disaster detail, including formulas covering fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and turbulent flows.

Chapter five deals with relief logistics, beginning with this quote: “The most deadly killer in any humanitarian emergency is not dehydration, measles, malnutrition or the weather, it is bad management.” The chapter illustrates some of the information needs mentioned in Data Against Natural Disasters (above). “Unless a relief organization already has a process in place for identifying and preventing unsolicited and inappropriate donations from entering their system, the extra effort of separating, prioritizing, transporting, and storing these items results in delays and increased logistics costs”, writes author Nezih Altay in Large-scale Disasters.

Altay cites the delivery of diet pills and winter coats to the Dominican Republic after Hurricane Georges, clothing donations that rotted for lack of warehouse space after Katrina, and wagonloads of useless quilts delivered to northern India, among others. The book is a thorough, technical look at every aspect the disaster cycle.

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