Causes, consequences, and mitigation strategies for each disaster

Disaster impact depends on the interaction of a hazard with exposure and vulnerability, not on the physical event alone. People differ in income, housing strength, location, health, age, mobility, access to warnings, transport, savings, insurance, and emergency services. Consequently, the same flood, earthquake, or cyclone can produce very different losses in different communities. Option A is correct because it identifies these differences in resources, living conditions, and preparedness. A hazard does not selectively choose victims, all places are not identical, and denying hazards is factually incorrect.

The governing concept is the distinction among hazard, exposure, vulnerability and disaster. A hazard is a potentially damaging event, condition or process, such as a flood, earthquake or toxic release. It does not automatically become a disaster merely because it exists. When a hazardous event affects exposed and vulnerable people, infrastructure or livelihoods and produces serious disruption and losses beyond normal coping capacity, it may be classified as a disaster. Therefore option A is the best answer. Hazards and disasters are related but not identical; disasters can involve natural, technological or human-induced causes, and the level of vulnerability strongly influences the outcome. Option C is consequently too narrow.