The Effects of Natural Disasters

By Gayane Ambaryan

Natural disasters, such as an earthquake, hurricane and others can have many unpredictable effects on a society, including economic, structural and even mental. Many people can be killed and lose their property. Many houses, schools and hospitals can collapse and many factories, roads and railways destroy. So there are various possible effects due to natural disasters. This essay is going to describe some of them.

The first effect of a natural disaster is economical. Earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters strike suddenly and lead to loss of property and businesses and that can have severe long-term economic consequences. Thousands of people lose their financial resources and jobs which significantly slows down economic growth. Usually, rebuilding an economy that has been destroyed by a natural disaster takes a lot of time, resources and international financial assistance. It takes more money and time than originally expected. In some cases, especially in countries with an already poor economy, it can take more than ten years to get the economy back on track.

The next effect of a natural disaster is mental. Because disasters always happen unexpectedly, people lose not only their homes and jobs, but first of all they lose their relatives and that leaves them with psychological trauma. Emotional pain is usually hidden at the outset, but it often lingers, to emerge long after. People usually make adjustments, but for some of them it will never be the same. They will never again have what they had. Even those who try hard to put the disaster in the past and forget about it don’t usually live in quite the same way. They usually live with emotional scars the rest of their lives.

In conclusion, any kind of natural disasters can be really tremendous. They mostly occur suddenly, and people usually aren’t expecting them. Large numbers of people can become homeless and unemployed, and they can lose everything that they had. The natural disasters can have many other effects but we highlight only the two most significant ones: economical and mental. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, forest fires, and tornados are happening more often than ever before, and have great effects on our life.