This book sets out to develop a new framework for the analysis of disaster situations in developing countries. In doing so, it challenges many of the accepted wisdoms of disaster theory upon which policy prescriptions are built.The author insists that although disasters are a problem of development, they are not necessarily a problem for development. What we should be looking at are the underlying social and economic processes within developing countries which structure the impact of natural disasters, rather than at disasters as unforeseen events requiring large scale intervention.