Answer:
In literary terms, the answer to the question: The image of a "disaster swallowing" would be an example of personification.
Explanation:
In literature there are many devices and techniques with which the writer may convey meaning and message to his readers and audience. One such device is personification, literally, giving human traits to inhuman situation, objects, or circumstances. When in this excerpt the writer speaks of a disaster, and gives the image of swallowing, it gives the object: disaster, an almost human quality, and makes the audience get thet image of a human mouth eating up something. It is also the imagery of something enormous, unstoppable and even horrific, that holds human qualities. This is the essence of personification.
