Disasters and disabled persons: An examination of the safety needs of a neglected minority

Disasters do not affect everyone in the same way. Safety needs of the ten per cnet of the population who are disabled prior to disaster must be ascertained; contingency plans and preparations should be made to ensure that disabled persons. Consideration of the safety needs of disabled persons in disasters seems to have beenlargely neglected by emergency services and those voluntary and statutory organizations directly concerned with disablement.     

Earthquake survivors' quality of life and academic achievement six years after the earthquakes in Marmara, Turkey

This study investigates the quality of life (QOL) and academic achievement of earthquake survivors six years after the earthquakes in Marmara, Turkey. Data were collected from 407 Turkish university students. Of these, 201 were earthquake survivors and 206 had not been exposed to an earthquake. The Turkish adaptation of the brief version of the World Health Organisation's QOL instrument (WHOQOL-BREF, TR) was used to measure QOL. The results reveal that the earthquake survivors' psychological and environmental domains of QOL and academic achievement were significantly lower than those of individuals not exposed to an earthquake. The results also highlight the risk factors that affect the QOL of the earthquake survivors significantly. These are their gender, their age at the time of earthquake and the continued existence of financial difficulties linked to the earthquakes.     

Aberfan and the management of trauma

This paper is a case study of the management of post-disaster trauma in 1960s Britain. It explores the traumatic aftermath of the 1966 Aberfan disaster (where 116 children and 28 adults were killed when a colliery spoil heap collapsed on top of a school in a small Welsh mining community) which had a devastating impact on the village. The professional and voluntary services made available to help the bereaved, survivors and wider community are documented and assessed. The paper demonstrates how limited finance and the popular and professional contemporary understanding of trauma and disasters hindered those services, and how the actions of government and media had a negative impact on the community's recovery. This case study of disaster management in the 1960s illustrates many of the pitfalls that continue to haunt the response to man-made tragedies in the UK.     

Impact of psychological risk factors on disaster rescue operations: the case of Italian volunteers

This paper reports on research into the characteristics of emergency rescue workers, with a focus on psychological distress. We present the results of a study of volunteers from the Italian national civil protection programme. A questionnaire was administered to 2,576 subjects from all over Italy. Most respondents were men, mostly unemployed, whose average level of education was higher than that among most Italian volunteers. Many were poorly endowed with basic skills, with large differences according to geography. Many expected to convert their volunteer activities into permanent jobs. Using this data, we employed a logistical regression model to analyse the risk of low, moderate and severe psychological distress symptoms, including anxiety and panic attacks, during rescue operations. The results indicate that some rescuers are particularly vulnerable to distress. The highest risk factors pertained to volunteers from southern Italy whose training is inadequate, who have little experience of emergency work and who play subordinate roles in small teams that lack psychological support services.     

Judgement days: moral attitudes in the wake of local disasters

The deaths and destruction stemming from a disaster are traumatic enough to implicate victims' beliefs not only about disasters themselves but also about other social and political concerns. In particular, disasters are associated with the scapegoating of out‐groups, suggesting that even deep‐rooted moral concerns may shift, at least temporarily, after disasters. This study uses exposure to local natural disaster fatalities to examine moral judgements regarding gays¹ in United States surveys from 1984–98. Survey respondents whose county has suffered a disaster feel appreciably more negatively towards gays, even though most of the disasters in this data set are relatively small and local. The increased antipathy towards gays dissipates within months, and is most marked among those who had, before the disaster, considered themselves more religious. These results raise the possibility that some groups, especially those already marginalised by society, may suffer in a backlash in the wake of a natural disaster.     

Preparedness for anthrax attack: the effect of knowledge on the willingness to treat patients

Little is known about the factors that may impact on the willingness of physicians and nurses to treat patients during a bioterrorism attack. This survey was conducted among 76 randomly selected nurses and physicians in the emergency rooms of three public hospitals in order to analyse the relationship between knowledge, profession and the willingness to treat anthrax. The study finds that the willingness of physicians and nurses to come to work is 50% greater among the group with the highest knowledge about anthrax (P < 0.0001). Within that group, the willingness to treat patients suspected of being infected with anthrax was 37% greater (P < 0.0001) and the willingness to treat patients diagnosed with anthrax was 28% greater (P = 0.004) than in the other groups. These results imply that enhancement of knowledge among health care workers may improve their willingness to come to work and treat patients infected with anthrax during a bioterrorism attack.     

The 2004 tsunami and mental health in Thailand: a longitudinal analysis of one‐and two‐year post‐disaster data

Some 280,000 people died in the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004. This cohort study examined its impact on mental health one and two years later. It did so by investigating the association between six consequent variables (personal injury, loss of home, loss of business, death of a family member, injury to a family member, or loss of a family member's business) and mental health, as measured by the 36‐item Short Form Health Survey (SF‐36), among residents in four provinces of Thailand. One year later, participants who suffered a personal injury, the loss of a business, or the loss of a family member reported poorer mental health than those who were unaffected. Two years later, participants who experienced the loss of a family member reported poorer mental health than those who were unaffected. This research shows that such a disaster may have long‐lasting ramifications for mental health, and that diverse losses may influence mental health differently.     

The living environment and children's fears following the Indonesian tsunami

The tsunami that struck South-east Asia on 26 December 2004 left more than 500,000 people in Aceh, Indonesia, homeless and displaced to temporary barracks and other communities. This study examines the associations between prolonged habitation in barracks and the nature of fears reported by school-age children and adolescents. In mid-2007, 30 months after the tsunami, the authors interviewed 155 child and parent dyads. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare the fears reported by children and adolescents living in barracks with those reported by their peers who were living in villages. After adjusting for demographic factors and tsunami exposure, the data reveals that children and adolescents living in barracks were three times more likely than those living in villages to report tsunami-related fears. The study demonstrates that continued residence in barracks 30 months after the tsunami is associated with higher rates of reporting tsunami-related fears, suggesting that barracks habitation has had a significant impact on the psychological experience of children and adolescents since the tsunami.     

土体环境对微生物诱导碳酸钙沉积加固海相粉土的影响研究

生物地基处理技术利用微生物诱导碳酸钙沉积来加固土体,符合环境保护和可持续发展的要求,具有良好的发展前景。目前已取得的研究成果主要是针对简单离子化学环境下的松散砂土,对不同环境下的细粒土研究的较少。以江苏东部沿海地区的海相吹填粉土为研究对象,选用巴氏芽孢杆菌进行微生物注浆试验,定量分析温度、pH值、氯化盐含量、土体中胶结阳离子含量等土中的环境因素对加固效果的影响规律。结果表明:随着温度的升高、试样中生成的碳酸钙增加,但无侧限抗压强度并不是呈现出一直提高的趋势,而是存在一个峰值。偏碱性的环境有利于巴氏芽孢杆菌的工作,但过高的pH值会影响加固效果。土中的氯化盐含量过高时会抑制细菌的活性从而对加固产生不利影响。土中的胶结阳离子含量对微生物注浆的影响很小,可忽略不计。本次试验研究结果能为现场环境下采用MICP技术加固粉土提供有效的依据。     

‘Sea of blood’: the intended and unintended effects of criminalising humanitarian volunteers assisting migrants in distress at sea

This paper investigates the impact of the recent criminalisation of humanitarian actors engaged in the search for and rescue of migrants in distress in the Mediterranean Sea, focusing on the impact on the motivation and engagement of humanitarian volunteers in Greece. It argues that criminalisation is aimed at reducing search and rescue (SAR) activities and thus removing perceived ‘pull factors’ for migrants. The paper locates this phenomenon within the broader trend of policing and punishing those who assist migrants in order to deter them and prevent others from engaging in such endeavours. It finds that efforts to criminalise can have the unintended effects of encouraging and mobilising volunteers, as well as generating public attention and support for migrants. However, the negative consequences of criminalisation are far-reaching, including contributing to a high mortality rate among those crossing the Mediterranean without SAR capabilities and the heightened risk of violence against migrants and those who help them.     

The rise of politics and the decline of vulnerability as criteria in disaster decisions of the United States, 1953–2009

This paper examines the shift from vulnerability to political responsiveness in presidential and gubernatorial disaster decisions in the United States from 1953–2009 (President Dwight D. Eisenhower to President Barack Obama) using annual request, declaration, and approval data from multiple sources. It makes three key conclusions: first, the 1988 Stafford Act expanded federal coverage to all categories of disasters, added a significant range of individual types of assistance, and provided extensive funding for recovery planning. Second, the election effects on disaster decisions increased over time whereas the impact of social and economic vulnerability (measured by scope of disaster) declined. Third, the changes affected governors more than presidents, and the choices of governors drove those of presidents. The analysis underscores the increasingly political nature of the disaster decision‐making process, as well as the difficulty in emphasising mitigation and preparedness as intensively as response and recovery. Proactive intervention yields fewer political rewards than responsiveness.     

Fiji, land of tropical cyclones and hurricanes: A case study of agricultural rehabilitation

Tropical cyclones and hurricanes have a severe impact on the social and economic activities of affected communities. For small island nations in the Pacific region, the effects can be devastating because of their smallness. FQi and several other countries in the region are vulnerable to such disasters as they are situated in the zone where cyclones occur frequently.
During the last decade, the frequency of natural disasters and their adverse impact on die economic and social development of small nations like Fiji, has aroused awareness mat relief efforts must go beyond immediate "mopping up" operations to those which contribute to attaining longer term benefits through reconstruction and rehabilitation.
The paper outlines the 1985 agricultural rehabilitation program and discusses related issues and problems.     

A study of farmers' flood perceptions based on the entropy method: an application from Jianghan Plain,China

Using survey data from 280 farmers in Jianghan Plain, China, this paper establishes an evaluation index system for three dimensions of farmers' flood perceptions and then uses the entropy method to estimate their overall flood perception. Farmers' flood perceptions exhibit the following characteristics: (i) their flood‐occurrence, flood‐prevention, and overall flood perceptions gradually increase with age, whereas their flood‐effects perception gradually decreases; (ii) their flood‐occurrence and flood‐effects perceptions gradually increase with a higher level of education, whereas their flood‐prevention perception gradually decreases and their overall flood perception shows nonlinear change; (iii) flood‐occurrence, flood‐effects, and overall flood perceptions are higher among farmers who serve in public offices than among those who do not do so; (iv) the flood‐occurrence, flood‐effects, and overall flood perceptions of farmers who work off‐farm are higher than those of farmers who work solely on‐farm, contrary to the flood‐prevention perception; and (v) the flood‐effects and flood‐prevention perceptions of male farmers are lower than those of female farmers, but the flood‐occurrence and overall flood perceptions of male farmers are higher than those of female farmers.     

台湾强震对赣粤闽交界及其沿海地区地震形势的影响

试图通过分析台湾地区与赣粤闽交界及其沿海地区的地质构造背景、动力环境、地震活动的相关性来探讨台湾强震对赣粤闽交界及其沿海地区地震形势的影响 ,从而分析赣粤闽交界及其沿海地区近期的地震趋势。     

Risk perception and trust in the context of urban brownfields

Data are reported from a postal questionnaire completed by 747 residents of two urban local authority areas within which there were sites of brownfield land with significant levels of contamination. Respondents rated their perceptions of the extent to which their neighbourhood and own home were relatively vulnerable to contamination, their concern about possible effects of contamination, their satisfaction with their council in terms of consultation with residents on housing and development issues, and their trust in their council with respect to contaminated land risks. Satisfaction with, and trust in, the council was generally low in both areas, and especially so among those who perceived themselves to be more vulnerable to contamination. Nonetheless, dissatisfaction was less marked in the area where the local authority, according to background information, had pursued a more open and proactive style of risk communication and consultation with residents. The main predictors of trust, across both areas, were perceptions that the council was openly prepared to tell residents what they knew, and that the council had residents’ interests at heart. Implications are discussed for the impact of different modes of risk communication on trust.     

Risk perception and trust in the context of urban brownfields

Data are reported from a postal questionnaire completed by 747 residents of two urban local authority areas within which there were sites of brownfield land with significant levels of contamination. Respondents rated their perceptions of the extent to which their neighbourhood and own home were relatively vulnerable to contamination, their concern about possible effects of contamination, their satisfaction with their council in terms of consultation with residents on housing and development issues, and their trust in their council with respect to contaminated land risks. Satisfaction with, and trust in, the council was generally low in both areas, and especially so among those who perceived themselves to be more vulnerable to contamination. Nonetheless, dissatisfaction was less marked in the area where the local authority, according to background information, had pursued a more open and proactive style of risk communication and consultation with residents. The main predictors of trust, across both areas, were perceptions that the council was openly prepared to tell residents what they knew, and that the council had residents' interests at heart. Implications are discussed for the impact of different modes of risk communication on trust.     

Providing health services during a civil war: the experience of a garrison town in South Sudan

The impact of conflict, particularly conflict arising during civil wars, on the provision of healthcare is a subject that has not been widely considered in conflict‐related research. Combatants often target health services to weaken or to defeat the enemy, while attempts to maintain or improve health systems also can comprise part of counter‐insurgency ‘hearts‐and‐minds’ strategies. This paper describes the dynamics associated with the provision of health services in Malakal, an important garrison town in South Sudan, during the second Sudanese civil war (1983–2005). Drawing on the concepts of opportunity hoarding and exploitation, it explores the social and political dynamics of service provision in and around the town during the war. These concepts provide a useful lens with which to understand better how health services are affected by conflict, while the empirical case study presented in the paper illustrates dynamics that may be repeated in other contexts. The concepts and case study set out in this paper should prove useful to healthcare providers working in conflict zones, including humanitarian aid agencies and their employees, increasing their understanding of the social and political dynamics that they are likely to face during future conflict‐related complex emergencies.     

Return migration after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster: the impact of institutional and individual factors

This paper explores two groups of factors, individual and institutional, that have influenced return migration since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in Japan on 11 March 2011. Based on an analysis of statistical data on evacuees, a questionnaire completed by 289 people who migrated, and 19 semi-structured interviews with disaster-affected people, the research found (apropos of institutional factors) that while the lifting of the government's evacuation order has had no immediate effect on return decisions, the termination of monetary compensation and housing subsidies has had a significant bearing on them. As for individual factors, a strong sense of attachment to home and the possession of property, job obligations, and having family members in the home location are key determinants of return decisions. Moreover, the paper suggests that there could be differing opinions among Japanese government officials and evacuees regarding radiation exposure risk and the degree to which infrastructure and social services have been rehabilitated.