Global climate change is increasing the occurrence of extreme climate phenomenon with increasing severity, both in terms of human casualty as well as economic losses. Authorities need to be better equipped to face these global truths. An efficient disaster detection and alerting system could reduce the lost of life and properties. In the event of disaster, another important issue is a good search and rescue system with high level of precision, timeliness and safety for both the victims and the rescuers. This paper reviewed technological solutions for managing disaster using wireless sensor networks (WSN) via disaster detection and alerting system, and search and rescue operations.