Natural Disasters | Allianz Knowledge

A view shows boats piled next to a house, where they were washed ashore during Hurricane Sandy, ... / Credits: Reuters

A car drives through a flooded residential area at the U.S. coast after hurricane Sandy. / Credits: Reuters

Hurricane Katrina pictured by satellite as she smashed into New Orleans causing tens of billions of ... / Credits: Shutterstock

Environment The risks of ignoring climate change more
Environment When the government has to fix everything once again more
Environment How global warming creates extreme weather more

A Buddhist monk walks in a flooded street in central Bangkok. / Credits: Reuters

Environment Cities prepare for extreme weather Battered by climate change impacts and tired of waiting for national ... more

AquaDams protect a highway from flooding in Manitoba, Canada, in spring 2011. / Credits: AquaDam

Environment: Interview Fighting floods with water In a flood situation, how can adding more water help? David Dooleage, inventor ... more

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Allianz Knowledge on natural disasters: A police car is submerged in New Orleans East

Indonesian engineers unload a buoy, a tsunami early warning system

An aerial view shows a flooded village in Rajanpur district of Pakistan's Punjab province

A worker removes debris from the January 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince

Taming the Water Wolf

An aerial view of a neighborhood partially destroyed by a landslide caused by heavy rains in Nova Friburgo.

Steel against Avalanches.

A woman walks with her bicycle on a seawall

Glacial Lake Tsunami

Shouting saves lives.

Environment Disaster protection: Lessons from nature We can’t prevent natural disasters but we can mitigate their impacts. What lessons have ... more

Flood water surrounding Tewkesbury Abbey, in central England.

A radar image of the San Andreas fault in the San Francisco Bay.

Slums in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, one month after an earthquake killed over 200,000 people.

Flames burn along a ridge behind a home in the Big Tujunga Canyon area of Los Angeles.

City workers inspect houses teetering on a cliff top in Pacifica, California.

The snow stream of an avalanche in Switzerland.

Smoke rises from Mount Merapi volcano, Indonesia.

People look out from their tarpaulin and bamboo hut on the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar.

A tornado bears down on houses in the American Midwest.

A resort island at the Male Atoll in the Maldives.

A Kenyan woman walks to a food distribution centre in Burmayo.

A Chinese farmer walks amid a heavy sand storm in Gansu Province.

Environment Major disaster risks worldwide Beware building a home in these risk-prone areas. See where people are most exposed to ... more

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Environment: Interview Lost in Japan: How to defend against tsunamis Dr. Jörn Lauterjung, who develops tsunami early warning systems at the German ... more

An American Red Cross worker holds an injured baby in a camp in Haiti / Credits: Reuters

Environment Haiti earthquake: Natural disaster, or man-made? It wasn’t just tectonic plates that crushed Haiti. It was weak buildings, ... more

Seagulls fly behind a damaged car at a port in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, after the area was ... / Credits: Reuters

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Flood victims in Pakistan left without receiving aid for three days reach for food handouts. / Credits: Reuters

The children of Mollakasim, a village hit by the earthquake in the Van region of Turkey, on their ... / Credits: Katja Oristanio

Environment After the quake: Reconstructing Turkey In the aftermath of the devastating 2011 earthquake, Allianz Turkey launched a ... more

Rescuers pull survivors from beneath mounds of collapsed buildings in Turkey.

Houses swept by a tsunami smoulder near Sendai Airport in Japan March 11, 2011.

A man looks for any victims amongst rubble in central Christchurch.

Doctors treat a child injured in the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

A road in Japan destroyed by an earthquake.

A map showing the world's major fault lines.

A seismograph shows an earthquake's magnitude.

The 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan upended this expressway.

A photo showing the aftermath of the biggest earthquake in history in Chile.

A satellite photo shows tsunami damage in Sri Lanka.

A first aid box.

Earthquake drill in a Tokyo classroom.

The Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan is designed to withstand earthquakes.

The Barier protective pod is designed to protect people from earthquakes and floods.

Environment The impact of earthquakes worldwide Earthquakes strike suddenly without warning. But past earthquakes have taught us some ... more

A giant wave

Cars and airplanes swept up by a tsunami are pictured among debris at Sendai Airport, northeastern Japan March 11, 2011.

The beach at Lhok Nga in Indonesia, hit by the 2004 tsunami.

An expert looks at computer graphs tracking a tsunami.

People launch floating paper lanterns in remembrance of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The shoreline of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in June 2004 and in December 2004, shortly after the Indian Ocean tsunami.

A fisherman carrying his catch in Calang, Indonesia.

An Indonesian man carrying mangrove saplings.

Children attending a tsunami awareness class.

A tsunami early warning buoy.

Environment Tsunamis - Creating a wave of destruction Here is everything you need to know about tsunamis: causes, impacts and early warnings ... more

A child looking for aid donations.

Haiti after the earthquake.

Bank check for relief donation.

A man donates to raise money for the American Red Cross Japan earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Los Angeles.

Artwork is painted on the windows.

Relief workers unload food and supplies at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Call center.

A survivor receives an aid kit from an international humanitarian organization in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Environment Best practices for disaster relief donations What should you bear in mind when making disaster relief donations? The following tips ... more

Tokyo is a member of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. This alliance of cities seeks to cut ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Cities are key to climate protection By improving efficiency, transportation, and urban planning, the world’s ... more

A Japanese relief worker gets an idea of the devastation in Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture.

Sudanese people displaced from Muhajiriya eat at their shelter in Al Fasher, northern Darfur.

A flood-affected person rests under a makeshift canopy at a relief camp in Hyderabad, Pakistan.

Japanese Red Cross on duty.

Lawyers and NGO workers hold a candle-lit vigil, in remembrance of earthquake victims, in Multan. 2005 more than 73,000 people were killed and about 3 million became homeless when an earthquake hit Pakistani Kashmir and neighbouring North West Frontier Province.

Environment Myths and reality of disaster relief Here are some of the most widespread myths about disaster relief - and what it really ... more

Earthquake-shattered Haitians receive water supplies. / Credits: Thalia Frenkel, American Red Cross

Environment An orientation guide to disaster relief The size of the disaster relief market and a lack of control mechanisms can ... more

Storm surge barriers in the Zeeland region of the Netherlands protect against the worst North Sea ... / Credits: Shutterstock

Environment Dutch flood protection: Taming the water wolf The Dutch flood protection system is an example of how planning, engineering ... more

A woman crosses a bamboo bridge over a breached dam after cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh in June 2009 / Credits: Reuters

Environment Disaster protection in Bangladesh: Shouting saves lives Bangladesh is frequently struck by the worst tropical storms and cyclones, but ... more

A firefighter trying to quench a fire

A volcano erupting in the rainforests of the Congo Bassin

Beaches are the first breaking point for tsunamis

Rescuers searching for avalanche victims in the French Alps

A house destroyed by a passing tornado

Residents from a flooded neighborhood are being evacuated with a truck from

A crumbling house sits on the edge of a drop following a landslide where residential buildings collapsed into the Concordia lake at the village of Nachterstedt

A crowd in a snow storm

Earthquake survivors sit at the location of their destroyed house in Constitucion city, south of Santiago

Environment How protect yourself from natural disasters Before nature strikes, take care to protect yourself and your home from the potentially ... more

A woman carries her belongings on her head as she makes her way through a flooded street in ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment How the damage from floods is mostly man-made Floods are the most common natural catastrophe worldwide. And yet the risks ... more

A submerged house after a flood in Poland / Credits: Allianz Poland

Environment Allianz Risk Pulse: Floods Floods are the most common natural catastrophe worldwide. The latest Allianz ... more

A Honda staff member walks between Honda Motor cars after floodwaters receded from a Honda ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Bangkok floods eyewitness: Crocodiles and corrosion Joachim Hufenreuter of Allianz faced a uniquely daunting mission: to inspect ... more

Hiromi Sato holds her little son, Haruse, in the disaster-stricken city of Minamisanriku, in March 2012

A journalist checks radiation levels with her dosimeter near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reactor buildings in Fukushima prefecture on February 28, 2012

An empty shopping street in Tomioka town, located inside the exclusion zone of a 20 kilometer radius around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

A fishing port in the city of Kamishi, Iwate Prefecture, in April 2011: the cargo ship Asia Symphony was swept ashore by the tsunami

A year later, the huge ship might be gone but the economic impact of the disaster is manifest

A ship was washed onto a building when the city of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, was hit by the tsunami

The most serious problem is how to handle the enormous amount of debris

Four days after the earthquake struck, survivors carry food found in a supermarket in a residential area of the fishing town of Otsuchi in Iwate prefecture

The Otsuchi supermarket reopened in December 2011

Environment Japan: One year after On March 11, 2011, a huge earthquake and a gigantic tsunami destroyed large parts of the ... more

Desolation at the heart of Hisanohama. One year after the tsunami local residents are still unsure ... / Credits: Makiko

Environment: Interview Japan earthquake - A survivor’s tale After losing her home to the tsunami, Fukushima resident Makiko draws strength ... more

Flashback: A woman waits in line during a food distribution effort at an area destroyed by the ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Rebuilding lives after Japan earthquake Martin Hahn, Head of the International Cooperation Department at the German Red ... more

Heavy monsoon rains turned Indonesia’s capital Jakarta into a huge lake in February 2008.

The 1998 Yangtze River flood was one of the most severe floods China had ever seen.

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005.

Around 30 million people in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Nepal were affected by heavy rainfalls in August 2007.

In August 2007, Sudan was also hit by devastating floods.

People clear the streets of Jakarta after heavy floods in February 2007.

Farmers in Bangladesh on their fertile floodplains.

Summer 2002: The overflowing Danube River caused severe floods in parts of Austria, Eastern Germany, and Eastern Europe.

The Thames Barrier, the second-largest movable flood barrier in the world, was completed in 1984.

Environment How to prevent and fight floods Floods have affected a growing number of regions more heavily and frequently. Find out ... more

Haitians set up stalls next to debris in downtown Port-au-Prince after a devastating earthquake ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment The cycle of poverty and natural disasters Natural disasters are as much a result of poverty and weak government as plate ... more

52-year-old local resident Emiko Ohta stands in front of the debris of her destroyed home in Kuji, ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Japan's risk of earthquake aftershocks Markus Treml, a seismology expert specializing in earthquakes at Allianz ... more

A rescue worker carries a boy to an ambulance after his team found him alive in a collapsed ... / Credits: Reuters

Jamie Faulks looks at broken glass in his house after its roof was blown off by Cyclone Yasi in the ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Did climate change cause Australia's extreme flooding? After droughts and floods, Cyclone Yasi was the latest extreme weather to hit ... more