ABSTRACT
Disaster researchers have observed that some extreme events throughout the world cause excessive human deaths, while others result in a surprisingly low number of fatalities. After identifying 15 disasters from 19 countries, this chapter explores possible reasons, including physical characteristics (e.g., magnitude, areal extent, and duration) of disasters and preparedness and mitigation measures implemented by public authorities to reduce deaths, to explain the differences in the numbers of disaster deaths. Too many or too few disaster deaths relative to the immensity of a disaster highlights the underlying complexities associated with disaster deaths.
