A disaster hotspot is an area with a vulnerable population at risk from 2 or more hazards. The Philippines are considered a disaster hot spot. The Philippines are exposed to more than 2 hazards, geophysical and hydro-meteorological such as earthquakes and tropical storms these hazards are more affective as he Philippines is known for having a vulnerable, poor, population meaning it has a lower capacity to cope.
The Philippines are largely affected by geophysical hazards, mainly by tectonic hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes, these hazards occur due to the Philippines geographical location, it is located between 2 destructive plate boundaries of the Eurasian plate and the Philippines plate which when submerging under one another create allot of friction which causes heat, this melts the submerging plate under the Philippine islands themselves which form volcanoes on the islands such as Mayon which prove to be quiet catastrophic when erupting.
The friction created by the submergence of the plate can also be felt as an earthquake and as the plate boundaries are quiet close to the islands the earthquakes are generally more powerful like the Manila earthquake January 11, 1982 which was registered 6. 9 on the Richter scale. As the Philippines are also surrounded by sea and oceans tsunamis is a large possibility, when an earthquake under sea occurs the water above it gets shaken causing waves which get larger as they close in to the shores.
This is a large threat to the Philippines as it is formed of 7 thousand islands most of them relatively close to the sea level meaning that they can get submerged by waves not that high, a 7. 9 magnitude earthquake hit the east cost of the Philippines on August 16th, 1976 12: 11 A. M. , this created a tsunami devastating 700km of coastline bordering Moro Gulf in the North Celebes Sea this tragedy left 5, 000 dead, 2, 200 missing, 9, 500 injuries and a total of 93, 500 people left homeless.
Hydro meteorological Hazards also affect the Philippines like Tropical storms, as the Philippines are located 5°-20° above the equator which is considered as being the tropical storm belt so deadly tropical storms are quiet common, Washi 2011 was one of the world’s deadliest storms of 2011 which left 1, 000 people dead and many more homeless. Droughts also are a major occurrence like the February 2010 drought caused by the El Nino oscillation, losing the country 2. 5 million metric tonnes of rice and corn where 800, 000 hectares of rice and cornfields were already affected by other problems.
This damage caused 33 million US dollars’ worth of damage which was predicted to ride to 400 million. The high vulnerability of the population gives the Philippines a very low capacity to cope. This is due to the high levels ofpoverty(26. 5% in 2009) this means that people cannot afford to prepare for hazards, like have storm proof/ earthquake proof infrastructures. High population density at the coastal regions, like the capital Manila, means even more people are prone to flooding and tsunamis and also mudslides and also in higher concentrations so if a hazard does occur more people are affected at the same time.
