This paper studies the effect of fiscal and political decentralisation on the death toll by disasters for up to 46 developing and transitional economies from 1974 to 2004.  The results show that elected government at the local level does not help mitigate disaster risk. This study underscores the importance of the joint effects of different forms of decentralisation and shows that when political decentralisation is accompanied by fiscal decentralisation, it significantly reduces the number of total deaths due to natural disaster for the lowest tier of the government. Greater fiscal responsibility is argued to make local elected government more responsive to the vulnerable people.