"Disaster" means an event or set of circumstances which:

(1) Demands immediate action to preserve public health, protect life, protect public property, or to provide relief to any stricken community overtaken by such occurrences; or

(2) Reaches such a dimension or degree of destructiveness as to warrant the proclamation of a state of emergency by the president of the United States, the governor of Washington, or the governor or state executive of another state where the unemployed individual was working or living at the time of the proclamation.