Thomas E. Drabek

Emergent phenomena and the sociology of disaster: lessons, trends and opportunities from the research literature

Research on emergent behavior has been a significant topic within disaster studies. Through a detailed review of the literature we provide background information about this particular branch of disaster sociology. Following a brief discussion of the process by which literature was selected, important trends and areas of debate are discussed. These include the validation of previous findings, an expansion of the discussion on emergent phenomena and a critique of the bureaucratic approach. We conclude with implications for the theory and practice of emergency management.

A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community.

Sociologist Kai Erikson visited seven man-made disasters around America including a mercury spill which displaced a Native American tribe from its homeland; Three-Mile Island, where nearby residents feared exposure to radiation; and Yucca Mountain, Nevada, where the American government proposes to build a vast nuclear waste dump. He discovered that all these communities had in common a chronic dread and helplessness caused by radiation and other toxic substances. The author argues that this is a new and insidious type of trauma and this book is his plea that we do more to protect people from it.

Families in Disaster: Reactions and Relatives

In response to a massive flood which struck the metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado, June 16, 1965, approximately 3,700 families were evacuated from their homes. Interviews with a random sample of 278 of these families indicated that the initial response to warnings was marked disbelief regardless of warning source. Families evacuated as units, and data indicated a strong tendency for them to take refuge in homes of relatives rather than in official centers. This tendency was significantly affected by social class. Data further suggested that interaction between relatives during the warning period increased the likelihood that relative homes would be selected as evacuation points.

Understanding disaster warning responses

When threatened with some type of disaster, how do people respond? What are the social factors that constrain their responses? Receiver characteristics, message characteristics, and social contexts are explained and related to variations in disaster warning responses. Finally, two components of a vision for the future are described: (1) disaster event taxonomies, and (2) implemented social policies.

Social Processes in Disaster: Family Evacuation

Family responses to disaster warnings were studied through an analysis of interviews conducted with a random sample of 278 families who were suddenly evacuated from their homes prior to a major flood in Denver, Colorado, June 16, 1965. Using a symbolic interactionist perspective, analysis of the data revealed a series of interrelated but qualitatively distinct processes through which warning, confirmation, and evacuation occurred. Evacuation behavior followed four general patterns: 1) evacuation by default, 2) evacuation by invitation, 3) evacuation by compromise, and 4) evacuation by decision.

The Impact of Disaster on Kin Relationships.

Using a quasi-experimental design which permitted comparisons among victim and nonvictim families three years after a large community disaster, two types of questions were explored: (1) What were the patterns in kin relationships prior to and immediately following the event? (2) Were these patterns changed three years later? Three years after the disaster victim families reported higher interaction frequencies with immediate kin; more often designated relatives, as opposed to friends, as future help sources; and more frequently indicated that they visited more often with relatives than friends. However, nonvictim families reported more frequent participation in exchange transactions and activities with relatives in general, e.g., borrowing or lending.

Disaster warning and evacuation responses by private business employees

When people are advised that their place of employment is threatened with disaster, how do they respond? Interviews with employees (n = 406) of 118 businesses affected by one of seven recent disasters provide the first answers to this question. Multivariate analyses document the key variables that best predict variation are: 1) emergent perceptions of risk; 2) time of evacuation from work; 3) time of evacuation from home; 4) multiple evacuations; and 5) tension between work and family commitments. When warned of impending disaster, most employees initially responded with denial. Gradually, however, emergent perceptions of risk intensified especially among those living in communities in which the least amount of disaster planning had occurred or who resided in a mobile home or apartment. Highest levels of work and family tensions during these evacuations were reported by racial minority employees who had children living at home. Policy implications for these and other findings are discussed so as to pin-point changes business managers should make that will enable them to provide the leadership and compassion expected by employees.

Disaster planning and response by tourist business executives

Abstract The tourist industry represents a disaster vulnerability of catastrophic potential. Disaster evacuation planning is one strategy for mitigating this vulnerability. Based on intensive interviews with executives responsible for 185 tourist businesses, this article reports the first empirical data base for answering five questions: (1) What factors stimulated their disaster evacuation planning? (2) What model patterns described the planning processes used? (3) How much planning had been done? (4) What modal patterns described their disaster evacuation decision-making process? (5) What are the lessons? The key conclusion is that the tourist industry must respond proactively to a rapidly expanding vulnerability through both internal firm-specific disaster planning initiatives and partnerships to ensure adequate levels of community response capacity. Failure to do so will keep an expanding tourist population at risk. This, in turn, threatens future customer relations that may place such businesses in jeopardy.

Methodology of Studying Disasters: Past Patterns and Future Possibilities

How can we better understand, explain, and predict group and organizational responses to disasters? Such questions are not ulike many others that social scientists ask. Hence, the methodological probalems confronted by persons studying disaster responses are for the most part similar to problems confronted by those analyzing other social phenomena. There is neither a special set of strategies which might be referred to as disaster methodology nor a spearate set of techniques which might be labeled disaster research methods.

Nothing to fear : risks and hazards in American society

Collection of essays by contributors from a range of academic disciplines addressing the question of how risks and hazards are perceived and dealt with in the USA at every level.