Natural Disasters examines the types of natural hazards, their costs in human lives and economic impact, and national and international responses to them. Detailed case studies examine disasters in the United States, the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and tsunami of 2004-2005, water resource management in China, the 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia, and the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia in 1985. The case studies also investigate strategies that governments and private agencies have adopted to predict, manage, and survive natural disasters. Primary source materials and useful research tools...