Contextualising Disaster and Disaster Management: A disaster is defined as?

• A. A minor disruption with no losses
• B. A serious disruption causing wide losses
• C. Everyday event
• D. Only natural events

Answer: (B)

Disasters are events that disrupt normal functioning and cause significant losses that overwhelm the affected community’s ability to cope with its own resources. The description of a serious disruption causing wide losses captures this idea: it signals a disruption large enough to impact people, property, infrastructure, and the environment, requiring external assistance beyond local capabilities.

The other options don’t fit because a minor disruption with no losses isn’t a disaster, an everyday event isn’t a disruption on a scale that produces wide losses, and disasters can be natural or human-made, not limited to natural events.