While these are no protection against the direct effects of a disaster, they greatly facilitate responses to disaster. By contrast, poor countries lack these resources. Second, many characteristics of poorer countries make their people more vulnerable to the effects of a disaster. Substandard housing is more easily destroyed by the high winds of hurricanes and cyclones. The dwellings of the poor, crowded onto flood plains and unstable hillsides, are especially vulnerable to floods.
Deforestation destabilizes hillsides and contributes to the devastation of floods.
Chronic malnutrition and poor health status reduces resistance to infectious diseases in shelters and refugee camps. Inefficient, understaffed, and unprepared government bureaucracies mismanage relief efforts. For these reasons, although disasters are no more likely to strike poor countries than rich ones, the poor countries of the world share the overwhelming burden of the human consequences of disaster. Africa and Europe have about the same total population. But from 1992 to 1996, in the relatively wealthy countries of Europe, an average of 2352 people per year were killed and 54,820 made homeless by disasters.