Natural Disasters Case Study

1.1. Introduction of Study
Disasters are occurring more frequently during the last few decades and they are threatening the safety and lives of people around the world. Moreover, research has confirmed that the number of disasters has increased in recent years (AL Khalaileh, M.A., Bond, E. & ALasad, J.A. , 2012; Bond, A. E., & Tichy, M., 2009). Accordingly, organizations and society both face a significant challenge in the matter of responding to these disasters.
Disaster, as defined by Asian Disaster Reduction Center (2003), is "a serious disruption of functioning of society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources". In fact, disasters do not only cause loss of life and destruction of public infrastructure; rather, they may also cause interruption of normal of healthcare delivery and appropriate response to disaster victims (Hodge A.J et al, 2009).

Natural disasters mainly include: floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, tornadoes, and landslides. While, disasters which are considered as man-made include: chemical, biological, wars, traffic accident, environmental pollution, fire, structure collapse, and pandemic diseases (Veenama, T. G., 2013). Hospitals and other healthcare facilities may further classify disasters as "internal" or "external" (Suner, S., Molloy, M. S., Keim, M. E., Fares, S., Darling, R. G., Ciottone, G.