The complex natural disasters have posed growing threats to Southeast Asian nations.
According to a 2011 report by the UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Environment and Disaster Statistics data, many
more people in Southeast Asia died as a result of environmental disasters from 2001 to
2010 than during the previous decade, mainly due to two extreme events: the Indian
Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004 and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008 (Asian
Development Bank, 2012). Disasters often affect more than one country. Asian Disaster
Reduction Center (ADRC) Data Book 2009 reported that Typhoon Ketsana in 2009
alone caused 715 deaths and affected a total of more than 7.5 million people across 4
countries: the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao P.D.R., with total economic
damage exceeding US$1.1 billion. The World Bank estimated the economic loss to
Thailand from the 2011 flood to be $45.7 billion. Similarly, the Kinetic Analysis Corp,
a US-based hazard-research company estimated the total losses after Typhoon Haiyan in
the Philippines in 2013 to be somewhere between $12 billion to $15 billion, or about 5
percent of economic output.