North Georgia Conference

When disaster victims hold their feelings inside they can boil out in unexpected ways. We need to be prepared and not caught emotional reacting to them.

Children, adults, and pets can be very frightened by a disaster. In the aftermath, there can be behavior changes but most of these will be minor in nature and of a short duration. However reminder of the disaster can cause both those feelings and behavior change to return. Typically reminders may be approaching storms, sounds of fast moving water, replays of the disaster or similar disasters on the television, disaster pictures, and noises or smells that remind them of the disaster.

The magnitude of this reaction is sometimes governed by the following events:

1. Exposure to a previous disaster or other traumatic event

2. Direct disaster exposure including evacuation, seeing injured or dying, being treated for personal injuries, and feeling that their life was threatened

3. Loss of family pet, a friend, or death or injury of family member.

4. After disaster stress from temporary living elsewhere, loss of job or jobs, the financial cost of returning to their pre-disaster living conditions, losing items that were important, and loss of contact with friends and neighbors.

Following are some of the typical reactions; however some may exhibit no behavior change and others will behave in other ways.

Infants may not have words, but will retain memories and react by being more irritable, crying more, and wanting to be held or cuddled.

Preschoolers and kindergarteners may feel helpless, powerless, and frightened by the situation, return to thumb sucking, baby talk, clinging; eating problems; speech problems; sensitivity to loud noises; nightmares; needing people nearby or a light on to sleep.

For pre-teens, they may become focused on the details of the disaster and want to talk about it whenever possible. This can be so strong that it interferes with their focus at school and their corresponding academic performance can suffer. They may fear that the disaster is going to happen again and have sad or angry feelings. Others are irrational fears, visual problems, peer problems, headaches, nausea, hearing problems, short attention span, social withdrawal, disobedience, and fighting.

For teenagers, the world may change somewhat in that it can seem more dangerous and unsafe. One reaction may be risk-taking behaviors such as alcohol or drug use, reckless driving, and other avenues. Another may be a fear of leaving home and avoiding social activity. Frequently, there is this sense of being overwhelmed by their emotions but unable to express what they are feeling. Others are headaches or other physical complaints, depression, confusion, poor performance, aggressive behavior, sleep disturbances, school problems, and antisocial behavior – stealing and vandalism. Timing of these varies with some reacting immediately and some a month or two later.

For adults, there is the firmly established memories and traumatic images or suffering from the event, guilt if they survived when others didn’t, numbness, sadness, and apathy with social withdrawal, relationship difficulties, and need to bring closure to the event with some personal meaning in all that has happened. Preexisting physical problems may worsen due to stress.. A desire to tell their story is very strong. Displays of anger, mood swings, suspicion, irritability, apathy, changes in appetite and sleep patterns are quite common Like teenagers, performance at work or school may suffer along with social withdrawal.

For pets the reaction is played out in their eating habits, wanting to be close, and displaying a desire to hide for approaching storms.

The victim group also expands to include police, fire, EMT's, and the various leaders and representatives of local governmental agencies that are severely pressed and stressed by the long hours and the issues confronting them for large-scale disasters. The combination of fatigue and stress becomes an issue that drives these first responders to becoming incapacitated. Outside relief with fresh bodies and minds is called for.

The above reactions play out over the weeks and months following a disaster with the four emotional stages following a disaster. These are the heroic, honeymoon, disillusionment, and reconstruction phase.

The heroic phase has an excite-ment and intensity of effort as people come together to prevent loss of life and property and with people working together like never before.

The honeymoon phase is a period of two to ten weeks during which there is an outpouring of relief supplies, support and promises of additional aid from community agencies and government. Optimism runs high.

The disillusionment phase lasts from several months to a year or longer. Everything seems to take far too long. Promised aid does not materialize or falls short of expectation. Victims tend to give up their wait for help and begin to get on with their live, somehow solving their own problems or doing with less.

The reconstruction phase is the period during which individuals and communities work to reestablish a normal functioning community. This phase can take one or more years.

So now what do you do with relatives, friends, and neighbors who have been in a disaster?

1. Know that there will be behavior changes and react in a supportive manner to those who have been in disaster

2. Get the person to talking, as the reflection will guide them back to the present. Anger is a natural emotion at some point during the recovery process, expect it and realize it is not directed toward you. Provide only factual information about the disaster and make promises only for yourself. Reassume them that all is not back but that the worst is over and they are safe. Excessive reflection can work against their recovering from disaster.

3. Get the person busy with constructive actions. Focused activities move people beyond shock and into recovery. Encourage them to return to the disaster site and begin to process their feelings. Have them begin to protect and salvage whatever they can save. Get them to apply for available aid (Red Cross, FEMA, etc.) and submit their insurance claim. Assist them in reestablishing a residence and replacement of basic items (clothing, feed, beds, and appliances). Planning for a funeral may be needed. If this person is “falling through the system cracks” apply to the long-term recovery organization through their case managers, but insurance and FEMA options should be completed before seeking this avenue. Children and teenagers should be given assignments too do depending on their abilities ranging from clean up, recovery scattered items, running errands, painting or scenes from the disaster. The content of the work is not as important as the fact that something is being done. Re-establish daily routines for work, school, play, meals, and rest.

4. Help the person with getting a perspective on some of their issues so that they can begin a foundation that will help them regain a sense of self-assurance and control over their lives, such as the person regaining his or her own problem-solving ability.

5. Be sure that the person gets adequate sleep. Symptoms of the lack of sleep are depression, loss of concentration, moodiness, and defeated. Two or three nights of good sleep and you will see a totally different person.

6. Extensive news coverage of the disaster can cause fear, confusion and anxiety for children and especially for younger children. Repeatedly watching images of a disaster can cause them to believe it is happening again. Exposure should be controlled for both children and adults unless it is used to encourage communications and providing explanations. If a child or adult continues to be very upset by the disaster or if reactions interfere with school or work, then it may be appropriate to talk with the school staff or a metal health provider.

By the eighteen-month point of the Katrina disaster, there has been a significant jump in the number of suicides, the cases of drug and alcohol use, and other family problems for those impacted by the storm.

As Christians, we are gradually becoming better informed, trained, and responsive but there is still a long way to go. How is your preparation proceeding?