{"id":151,"date":"2022-01-28T17:14:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T22:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/?p=151"},"modified":"2025-08-27T11:48:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:48:32","slug":"summary-of-disasters-introducing-disaster-lab-research-on-the-canadian-red-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/thedisasterlab\/2022\/summary-of-disasters-introducing-disaster-lab-research-on-the-canadian-red-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSummary of Disasters\u201d: Introducing Disaster Lab Research on the Canadian Red Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n \u201cSummary of Disasters\u201d: Introducing Disaster Lab Research on the Canadian Red Cross\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n
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“Tornado in Ottawa Area – Red Crosser Sara Falconer in Dubrobin, one of the neighbourhoods struck by tornadoes that devastated areas of Ottawa, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec. The Canadian Red Cross is on the ground providing support to those affected.” Photo Credits: Canadian Red Cross<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is a disaster?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer, I always thought, was subjective. A disaster was, well, you know, a disaster<\/em>. No additional thought required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when Laura Madokoro approached me about working on The Disaster Lab, I had never considered the multiple meanings of the term. My primary research involves discourse analysis and an examination of the competing ways that language is used to support policy decisions. Embarrassingly, however, I still get ensnared in the trap of thinking of certain terms as static.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meaning of disaster<\/em> \u2013 before the Disaster Lab \u2013 seemed relatively straightforward to me. In a series of posts here, I will explore the fundamental question of what has constituted a disaster <\/em>and introduce some of the early findings from my research. Spoiler: I have found that the very concept of disaster <\/em>has evolved considerably over the course of the 20th century. My research will also critically analyze how events are defined (as disaster, emergency, or other) and how these definitions have a measurable impact on what aid is provided and by whom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Canadian Red Cross assisted 230 communities in 1918. From the Canadian Disaster Database.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My first task in tracking this evolution was identifying disasters in Canadian Red Cross (CRC) Annual Reports between 1943-2020. In the early years, each province submitted a report from their Disaster Services Committee which included an in-exhaustive list of disaster responses. As the society professionalized over the last eighty years, the reporting style changed and, increasingly, only large-scale disasters were highlighted in the annual reports. The language used to describe events that had once been termed disaster <\/em>also evolved; however, the annual reports largely provided clear (though still in-exhaustive) lists of CRC domestic responses. Once I had a spreadsheet with over 200 disasters (almost entirely from post-1945), I then compared the CRC definition(s) of disaster <\/em>to the current definition used by Public Safety Canada in their Canadian Disaster Database (CDD).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of December 2021, the Canadian Disaster Database defines a disaster as an event that meets any of the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n