Despite progress of science and technological advancements, mankind is still unable to come to grips with the fury of nature. Natural disasters continue to have an adverse impact on human life. The term disaster has come from a French word “Disastre” which is further a combination of two separate terms – Des‟ meaning evil or bad and “Astre” meaning star. So in combination it means evil or bad star.
Disaster is a sudden or great misfortune, calamity. Disaster is a sudden devastating event producing great material damage, loss of life and distress. Disaster disrupts normal pattern of life. It brings hardship and has adverse effect on health. It causes damage to infrastructure, buildings, communication system and other essential services, thereby causing disruption in normal life.