Vernon J. Parenton

Disaster and Aftermath: Selected Aspects of Individual and Group Behavior in Critical Situations

IN THIS period of relative insecurity there appears to be an increasing interest in and concern about the fate of communities that have experienced disasters. This concern, of course, reflects a manifestation of survival values, or, otherwise phrased, how much destruction can a community endure and still retain its identity and existence? This paper, which draws from a more comprehensive study,1 is an attempt to describe the salient aspects of individual and group behavior under such conditions of stress. The data were derived in the following manner: participant observation over a period of seven months, unstructured interviews with key personnel, planned interviews with representatives of the main groups and associations, and semistructured interviews with a representative sample of 75 families living in the impact area. During the predawn hours of June 27, 1957, a disaster agent, subsequently known as Hurricane Audrey, struck the marshy coast of Cameron Parish in southwest Louisiana with an estimated wind velocity of 140 miles per hour, bringing in an unprecedented high tide of approximately 11 feet which was swept inland for about 15 miles with waves of 12 to 14 feet.2 The full force of the hurricane, striking along a 45-mile front, encompassed the three unincorporated coastal communities of Cameron (county seat of Cameron Parish), Creole, and Grand Chenier with estimated populations of 1,700, 1,100, and 700, respectively. The pattern of settlement extending from the community of Cameron to some distance east of Creole, a total of approximately 17 miles, was of the line-village type which in some parts was doubled and tripled. The community of Grand Chenier, beginning at the Mermentau River (about ten miles east of Creole) and extending in a line village pattern for approximately 18 miles, represented the easternmost boundary of the impact area. Within this designated area lived an estimated population of 3,500 persons (about 85 percent white and 15 percent nonwhite) pursuing such occupations as fishing, shrimping, oil exploration and production, processing of menhaden fish, cattle raising, trapping, servicing hunting and fishing parties, and subsistence farming. When the hurricane had spent its force and the waters had receded into the Gulf of Mexico, loss of human life had surpassed the 400 mark. The extent to which the population was left homeless can be seen by noting the following statistics on houses demolished or damaged: of the approximately 1,100 housing units within the impact area, more than half (54 percent) were completely washed away and demolished; an additional 28 percent incurred great damages, while only 18 percent survived with but slight damages.3 The cattle * Presented before the twenty-second annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, April 18, 1959. 1 See Charles W. Fogleman, Family and Community in Disaster: A Socio-Psychological Study of the Effects of a Major Disaster Upon Individuals and Groups Within the Impact Area (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Louisiana State University, August 1958; prepared under the direction of Vernon J. Parenton as a joint project of the Disaster Research Group of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington, D. C., and the Institute of Population Research, Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana). The interpretations and evaluations presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Disaster Research Group. 2 Along this segment of the marshy coast the altitude varies from sea level to approximately 10 feet. I Albert S. Foley, Operation Bayou: The Hurricane Audrey Disaster Study (Committee on Disaster Studies, Preliminary Work Report; Washington, D. C.: National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, 1957), p. 30.