Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
cope with the disaster and its after-effects increased
significantly afterwards. The number of suicides rose in
the year following a particularly bad tornado in Wichita
Falls, Kansas, in 1979.
Just as work stress over time can lead to increased
illness and absenteeism in workers, so the culmination
of life changes, such as those resulting from a
natural disaster, can lead to psychosomatic illness.
Psychosomatic illness is any physical disease, such as
ulcers, depression, or arthritis that owes its origin to a
psychological problem. Scales have been constructed to
foreshadow the likelihood of an individual undergoing a
psychosomatic illness. Death in the immediate family, a
household move, the birth of a child, a change in job, or
a divorce all contribute equally to the chance of physical
illness in the following year. Again, non-returnees from
the evacuation of Darwin in 1974 suffered a significant
increase in stress-related illnesses. Further study has
shown that it was not necessarily non-returnees that
suffered more; it was the people who wanted to return
but could not (Kearney & Britton, 1985). In this latter
group, there was a 50 per cent increase in the number
of people who were nervous, depressed, or worried
about the future, and a 100 per cent increase in the
number of people complaining about bowel trouble or
who were using sedatives.
The prolonged prominence of psychosomatic illness
may not only destabilize a family unit in the short term
but, if not resolved, have profound long-term ramifica-
tions for society. Where one or more family members
suffer from a psychological disorder, the chance of
that disorder appearing in offspring is significantly
increased. Natural disasters can also breed a cycle of
sociological and psychological disorder, affecting a
future generation who has never actually experienced
the event. Ten years after Cyclone Tracy, social workers
in Brisbane were able to recognize cyclone-trauma-
tized victims, who had been evacuated to this city, as a
distinct subgroup.
The impression should not be given that all natural
disasters produce copious psychological problems. A
natural disaster may simply apply stress to an already-
stressed person or family. The disaster may simply be
'the straw that broke the camel's back'. The evacuees
from Darwin who did not return, and who developed
psychological problems, may have been those people
in Darwin already suffering problems, who would have
left the city permanently some day even if Cyclone
Tracy had not struck. Even if the families were stable
Frequency of psychological problems amongst young
survivors of Cyclone Tracy, Darwin, 1974.
Table 13.1
Stayers
Returnees
Non-Returnees
Trait
%
%
%
fear of rain
and wind
19.8
24.2
29.3
fear of dark
10.8
13.2
11.5
fear of jet
noise
4.5
7.9
15.5
clinging
to mother
6.3
5.3
12.6
bed-wetting
2.7
6.8
7.6
thumb-sucking
0.0
1.6
2.0
temper
tantrums
2.7
1.1
7.2
fighting
0.9
3.2
4.9
deliberate
vandalism
2.7
1.1
3.4
injuries
0.0
2.6
5.5
diseases
9.9
5.8
10.9
Source: Western and Milne, 1979.
found the availability of drugs, which at the time were
beginning their dramatic spread beyond the capital
cities, irresistible. At the time of the Live Aid Concert
for Ethiopia, Molly Meldrum (the Australian organizer
of that relief campaign) observed that we were more
concerned in Australia with people's plight in the Sahel
than we were about the unrecognized or deliberately
ignored drug problems of children driven into cities
by the Australian drought. Significant adolescent
problems still existed in country towns in 1989, six
years after that drought, with many young people
drifting to capital cities or resort towns and contribut-
ing to delinquency rates in those places.
As time passes, the shock of a natural hazard and the
trauma of death also lead to psychiatric problems. The
Aberfan, Wales, disaster, while not strictly a natural
disaster, illustrates this phenomenon well. Failure of a
250-metre high, coal tailings pile killed 116 children,
the entire juvenile population, in a manner of seconds.
The whole population was personally affected and
underwent psychological trauma. Over 158 residents
subsequently sought psychiatric treatment. A similar,
but less severe, situation arose in communities badly
affected by Australia's 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires.
The number of people requiring psychiatric help to
