Insurance response in disaster

The focus of this report is on human behavioral response to disaster insurance. Two questions are addressed initially; 1) why does a belief exist that suggests people be have badly in a disaster? and 2) why do people repeat their mistakes by relocating themselves in the same highrisk areas in which they were previously vulnerable? the answers to these questions in terms of human behavior lend to the understanding of the options used by people for minimiying the effects of disasters. Insurance is seen as the key to the adoption of hazard-mitigation adjustments and is recognized as a prime incentive in the move towards the efficient usage of hazardous areas

Disaster response : The perception of the threat and its influence on community decision on insurance

This paper attempt to provide a framework from which further research can be undertaken in the development of a model capatable of explaining the decision- making processes an individual employs in his decision to purchase natural disaster insurance by extracting variables from the literature related to natural disasters. The author summarizes what ithers have found to be relevant to the factors which influence a person's decision to purchase this type of insurance. The literature reviewed has mainly been undertaken by geographers and by sociologists. Who were primarily focussing their inquiries into people living in flood plain and earthquake-prone locations

New Zealand society and earthquake insurance : Effectiveness versus avoidance?

The risks associated with earthquake insurance range from a lack of adequate statistical data relating to frequency of earthquake occurrence to the lack of awareness by the general public of the safeguarding effects such a disaster insurance scheme has due to its loss-distributing capabilities. Such risks can be reduced if disaster insurance is made compulsory. New Zealand'compulsory natural hazard insurance scheme is examined, and it is suggested that one reason why the scheme is running into difficulty is because of New Zealand'social welfare tradition. Other reasons are also stated in relation to the effectiveness of this unique insurance scheme. The discussion is then broadened to include the lack of understanding of insurance programmes in Australia and the United States, as well as in New Zealand. The paper concludes that compulsory earthquake insurance should be introduced into the Australian and the United States systems as part of a multiple hazard reduction programme (AU)

Conceptual alternatives for the analysis of counter - disaster organizational networks

This paper focuses on the "disaster-relevant organizational network", in Australia, the group of organizations empowered to counter a natural disaster. It illustrates that there are forces within this specific organizational network that operate to reduce the overall effectiveness of counter disaster measures. A description of the hierarchy of organizations within network is given. A toxonomy is developed on the basis of the ability of organizations within the disaster-relevant organizational network to (1) influence the direction of the organizational network and (2) determine the organization's own role within that network. Some examples are drawn from recent wildfire situations experienced in Tasmania (1982) and Victoria (1983) to illustrate the general concept