Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
going on. Even residents of St Pierre journeyed up to
Mt Pelée in 1902 to see what was happening a few days
prior to the eruption. Ten thousand people flocked to
San Francisco beaches after the 1964 Alaskan earth-
quake to see the tsunami coming in. The death toll in
America during that tsunami event, and the one that
hit Hawaii in 1946, resulted from mainly curious (and
probably uninformed) residents returning home to
evaluate the damage too early.
Maybe there is some euphoria to living through
natural disasters or record-breaking events. The news
is reporting the heaviest one-day rainfall on record and
you wander outside to stand in it. I can still remember
as a child awaiting for days the approach of Hurricane
Hazel in southern Ontario, because no one in the area
had ever experienced a tropical cyclone. When Hazel
finally struck, there was a sense of relief that it had
arrived at last. The same thrill of expectation goes
through anyone who is witnessing for the first time the
initial stages of a ground tremor. Then reality sinks in.
The tremor becomes a major earthquake; the non-
chalant attitude to a cyclone becomes a nightmare as
the house disintegrates around you; the flood hits
home as rumors of friends being wiped out become
facts. The disaster has struck, and new emotions and
needs arise. Mechanisms for cleaning up after the
disaster must be carried out, and reconstruction and
recovery instigated. At this stage, the emphasis shifts
slowly away from the individual towards social groups.
cannot be found. Legally, western society presumes
that such a person is still alive. They could be wander-
ing around with amnesia; they may have taken the
opportunity to flee an unbearable family or work
situation in the confusion of the disaster; or they might
be responsible for the disaster and are fleeing
conviction. Unless there is a body, the person is
considered - for up to seven years - to be alive. A will
cannot be read, nor an estate settled, within this statu-
tory period. In extreme cases, where a will has not
been written, it is possible for a person's estate to be
sealed off. A dead person's car cannot be moved from
a driveway; a house is locked up; and business assets
frozen. Not only can such action be financially trying
for the surviving relatives, but the presence of the dead
person's possessions in the immediate vicinity is also a
constant reminder that they are missing.
In all societies, the trauma of death is resolved by a
burial or memorial service. It allows family members
and close friends to publicly show feelings of grief.
Mentally, it permits an individual to accept the death
and get on with life. Psychologically and sociologically,
funeral services and death rites are essential to
overcome issues associated with disaster fatalities. If
the disaster is large-scale and the death toll significant,
then society organizes mass burials and memorial
services. An official period of national mourning may
also be instigated following large disasters. Total
strangers who have never known any of the dead or
had any association with the affected communities
may find that they want to attend some sort of funeral.
Even in Australia, where less than 10 per cent of the
population regularly attends church services, special
services had to be arranged to fulfill this need following
both Cyclone Tracy and the Ash Wednesday bushfires.
Dea
th and grief
One of the immediate aspects of a disaster is coping
with the injured and the dead. Often the search for
survivors and rescuing the injured become major
components of large-scale natural disasters, requiring
international cooperation. While rescue operations
tend to take precedence over coping with the dead,
dead bodies pose special problems, both hygienically
and legally. The health aspect of dead, but unburied,
bodies is obvious. Decaying corpses, human or animal,
breed disease and must be cleared away within hours
or days if epidemics are to be avoided. The more chal-
lenging problem occurs in trying to define people as
legally dead. The problem is minor in the case of
unidentifiable bodies. Forensic science can be used to
match bodies against reports of missing people. After
time, it will simply be classified as a 'John Doe' and
buried as such. The more difficult legal problem occurs
when a person is reported as missing, and a body
Poss
essions and homes
While the death of close family may seem to be the
worst outcome of a disaster, the destruction of property
may leave longer-lasting scars. No funeral service is
held for a wrecked home, or a burnt photograph.
Following the Ash Wednesday bushfires, people stated
that the worst aspect was losing, firstly, personal
photographs; secondly, prized trophies or awards;
thirdly, property that had some sort of link to dead
parents, children, or friends. Some even vocalized that
the loss of possessions was worse than losing close
family. Following a bushfire, nothing can replace old
family photographs or a melted-down trophy. Almost
