Facing the Unexpected presents the wealth of information derived from disasters around the world over the past 25 years. The authors explore how these findings can improve disaster programs, identify remaining research needs, and discuss disaster within the broader context of sustainable development. How do different people think about disaster? Are we more likely to panic or to respond with altruism? Why are 110 people killed in a Valujet crash considered disaster victims while the 50,000 killed annually in traffic accidents in the U.S. are not? At the crossroads of social, cultural, and economic factors, this book examines these and other compelling questions. The authors review the influences that shape the U.S. governmental system for disaster planning and response, the effectiveness of local emergency agencies, and the level of professionalism in the field. They also compare technological versus natural disaster and examine the impact of technology on disaster programs.

Facing the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States

Disasters typically strike quickly and cause great harm. Unfortunately, because of the spontaneous and chaotic nature of disasters, the psychological consequences have proved exceedingly difficult to assess. Published reports have often overestimated a disaster's psychological cost to survivors, suggesting, for example, that many if not most survivors will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); at the same time, these reports have underestimated the scope of the disaster's broader impact in other domains. We argue that such ambiguities can be attributed to methodological limitations. When we focus on only the most scientifically sound research--studies that use prospective designs or include multivariate analyses of predictor and outcome measures--relatively clear conclusions about the psychological parameters of disasters emerge. We summarize the major aspects of these conclusions in five key points and close with a brief review of possible implications these points suggest for disaster intervention. 1. Disasters cause serious psychological harm in a minority of exposed individuals. People exposed to disaster show myriad psychological problems, including PTSD, grief, depression, anxiety, stress-related health costs, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. However, severe levels of these problems are typically observed only in a relatively small minority of exposed individuals. In adults, the proportion rarely exceeds 30% of most samples, and in the vast majority of methodologically sound studies, the level is usually considerably lower. Among youth, elevated symptoms are common in the first few months following a high-impact disaster, but again, chronic symptom elevations rarely exceed 30% of the youth sampled. 2. Disasters produce multiple patterns of outcome, including psychological resilience. In addition to chronic dysfunction, other patterns of disaster outcome are typically observed. Some survivors recover their psychological equilibrium within a period ranging from several months to 1 or 2 years. A sizeable proportion, often more than half of those exposed, experience only transient distress and maintain a stable trajectory of healthy functioning or resilience. Resilient outcomes have been evidenced across different methodologies, including recent studies that identified patterns of outcome using relatively sophisticated data analytic approaches, such as latent growth mixture modeling. 3. Disaster outcome depends on a combination of risk and resilience factors. As is true for most highly aversive events, individual differences in disaster outcomes are informed by a number of unique risk and resilience factors, including variables related to the context in which the disaster occurs, variables related to proximal exposure during the disaster, and variables related to distal exposure in the disaster's aftermath. Multivariate studies indicate that there is no one single dominant predictor of disaster outcomes. Rather, as with traumatic life events more generally, most predictor variables exert small to moderate effects, and it is the combination or additive total of risk and resilience factors that informs disaster outcomes. 4. Disasters put families, neighborhoods, and communities at risk. Although methodologically complex research on this facet of disasters' impact is limited, the available literature suggests that disasters meaningfully influence relationships within and across broad social units. Survivors often receive immediate support from their families, relatives, and friends, and for this reason many survivors subsequently claim that the experience brought them closer together. On the whole, however, the empirical evidence suggests a mixed pattern of findings. There is evidence that social relationships can improve after disasters, especially within the immediate family. However, the bulk of evidence indicates that the stress of disasters can erode both interpersonal relationships and sense of community. Regardless of how they are affected, postdisaster social relations are important predictors of coping success and resilience. 5. The remote effects of a disaster in unexposed populations are generally limited and transient. Increased incidence of extreme distress and pathology are often reported in remote regions hundreds if not thousands of miles from a disaster's geographic locale. Careful review of these studies indicates, however, that people in regions remote to a disaster may experience transient distress, but increased incidence of psychopathology is likely only among populations with preexisting vulnerabilities (e.g., prior trauma or psychiatric illness) or actual remote exposure (e.g., loss of a loved one in the disaster). Finally, we review the implications for intervention. There is considerable interest in prophylactic psychological interventions, such as critical incident stress debriefing (CISD), that can be applied globally to all exposed survivors in the immediate aftermath of disaster. Multiple studies have shown, however, that CISD is not only ineffective but in some cases can actually be psychologically harmful. Other less invasive and more practical forms of immediate intervention have been developed for use with both children and adults. Although promising, controlled evaluations of these less invasive interventions are not yet available. The available research suggests that psychological interventions are more likely to be effective during the short- and long-term recovery periods (1 month to several years postdisaster), especially when used in combination with some form of screening for at-risk individuals. Such interventions should also target the maintenance and enhancement of tangible, informational, and social-emotional support resources throughout the affected community. Language: en

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1529100610387086

Weighing the Costs of Disaster: Consequences, Risks, and Resilience in Individuals, Families, and Communities

▪ Abstract Recent perspectives in anthropological research define a disaster as a process/event involving the combination of a potentially destructive agent(s) from the natural and/or technological environment and a population in a socially and technologically produced condition of vulnerability. From this basic understanding three general topical areas have developed: (a) a behavioral and organizational response approach, (b) a social change approach, and (c) a political economic/environmental approach, focusing on the historical-structural dimensions of vulnerability to hazards, particularly in the developing world. Applied anthropological contributions to disaster management are discussed as well as research on perception and assessment of hazard risk. The article closes with a discussion of potentials in hazard and disaster research for theory building in anthropology, particularly in issues of human-environment relations and sociocultural change.

Anthropological research on hazards and disasters

Communities in Disaster: A Sociological Analysis of Collective Stress Situations@@@Disaster in Aisle 13: A Case Study of the Coliseum Explosion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, October 31, 1963

Disaster researchers have debated the utility of distinguishing "natural" from "technological" catastrophes. We suggest that litigation serves as a source of chronic stress for victims of human-caused disasters involved in court deliberations for damages. Data from the Exxon Valdez oil spill are used to evaluate a social structural model of disaster impacts three and one-half years after the event. Results suggest that the status of litigant and litigation stress serve as prominent sources of perceived community damage and event-related psychological stress. We conclude that litigation is a critical characteristic of technological disasters that precludes timely community recovery and promotes chronic social and psychological impacts. Suggestions for alternatives to litigation are provided. As we enter the twenty-first century, it is increasingly clear that large-scale disasters will be pervasive features of social life. The impact of disasters, according to the 2002 World Disasters Report, has significantly changed since

Disaster, Litigation, and the Corrosive Community

The study of technological disasters has been characterized by conceptual am biguity and non-ecological considerations of community vulnerability. This re search employs an ecological-symbolic theoretical approach that identifies nat ural resource communities as particularly vulnerable to disasters that contaminate biophysical resources. A longitudinal panel study, including a control community, provides data on disruption and stress experienced by res idents of a small fishing community in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The analysis reveals a continuing pattern of stress and disruptions some 18 months following the spill. The report concludes with a discussion of the specific long- term patterns observed.

Disruption and stress in an Alaskan fishing community: initial and continuing impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill

The Changing Association Between Age and Happiness: Emerging Trend or Methodological Artifact?

This paper examines the context within which Presbyterian Church (USA) leaders formally decided to prohibit the ordination of openly gay and lesbian elders, deacons, and clergy. Data from resolutions presented to Presbyterian General Assemblies from 1990-1996 reveal that a disproportionate percentage of initiatives seeking to restrict leaders'sexual behavior in general, and homosexual behavior in particular, come from Synods located where conservative Christians dominate the religious culture. State and county-level data on religious affiliation gathered by the Glenmary Research Center were merged to correspond with Synod boundaries. Analysis reveals that resolutions explicitly prohibiting homosexual and non-marital sexual behavior by church leaders are, overall, more likely to come from Synods where conservative Christians disproportionately outnumber Presbyterians. However, our analysis falls short of completely explaining this phenomenon. The Synod from which the single largest number of conservative overtures originated is actually the same one wherein conservatives are least prevalent. Thus, we provide qualified evidence that aspects of the larger Open-System within which church leaders make decisions help predict organizational action. In general, we argue that Presbyterian leaders who live and work where Biblical conservatism dominates the cultural scene are more likely to act in ways which reflect a literal interpretation of Biblical prohibitions against homosexuality. But much more work needs to be done.

Social context and the presbyterian gay/lesbian ordination debate: Testing open-systems theory

Rural youth and anticipatory occupational goal deflection

/pdf/residence-and-the-athletic-participation-educational-2mtvf696kp.pdf

Evans W. Curry

Papers

Disruption and stress in an Alaskan fishing community: initial and continuing impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill

The Changing Association Between Age and Happiness: Emerging Trend or Methodological Artifact?

Social context and the presbyterian gay/lesbian ordination debate: Testing open-systems theory

Rural youth and anticipatory occupational goal deflection

Residence and the Athletic Participation--Educational Aspiration Hypothesis.