Brookings: 'Natural disasters in 2011 strike the rich'

Brookings will be launching its annual review of natural disasters for 2011 on Wednesday, March 28. The review draws out some of the particular characteristics of disaster response and recovery which developed countries experienced, such as widespread flooding in Australia, a terrible earthquake in Christchurch, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident, and finally a string of floods, tornadoes and wildfires in the United States. It then reviews global disaster statistics, highlighting some of the difficulties in estimating the economic costs of disasters. It also focuses on Somalia, where a deadly combination of a natural hazard — drought — and conflict led to the only declaration of famine despite similar situation across East Africa. As introduced by the article, the review also addresses the elderly as one particular group of affected people.

The review asserts that, "although developed countries are generally better-prepared to withstand and recover from natural hazards, they still face many of the same challenges as developing countries, including responding to international offers of assistance in the immediate aftermath of disasters and incorporating disaster risk reduction into long-term recovery efforts." "The ability to prevent and respond to disasters requires access to communities at risk," it continues.