# 6109
FEMA and Ready.gov, along with organizations like the American Red Cross (and indeed, this blog), spend a great deal of time trying to convince individuals, families, businesses and communities to prepare for emergencies and disasters.
The standardized advice is that everyone needs to be prepared to deal with a disaster for at least 3 days (meaning having a first aid kit, emergency supplies, and a plan) before help arrives.
Sure . . . they’d like you to be prepared for longer . . . but few enough Americans can be bothered to prepare for even 72 hours.
I personally advocate a minimum of a week’s worth of supplies (two would be better), but then I live in the heart of hurricane country, and am admittedly a bit of a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy (see NPM11: Living The Prepared Life).
There are some post-disaster aftershocks, however, that even two weeks of supplies won’t prepare you for.
The recent earthquakes in Haiti and in Fukushima, Japan – along with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans – have shown how communities can be forever changed by a disaster.
With our short attention span, and the news media’s proclivity for moving on to the next big disaster or story, we often forget that the struggle to rebuild devastated communities can take years.
And sometimes, for some of the people caught in harm’s way, there is no going back to the way things used to be.
Today, in a sobering news story by ABC (Australian Brocasting Corp), we learn that the first of what may eventually become 5,000 homes are to be demolished in the wake of their recent series of earthquakes near Christchurch, NZ.
The land they were built on experienced significant liquefaction during the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes, and so homes will not be rebuilt on these lots.
NZ begins demolishing Christchurch suburbs
By New Zealand correspondent Dominique Schwartz
Updated January 30, 2012 18:50:35
As this story indicates, that despite some compensation offered by the government, many residents have lost tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of dollars and say they have `no way of moving forward’.
With tremors continuing (see map above), those who escaped with only minor or moderate damage get nerve-wracking daily reminders that the ground beneath their feet could move violently again at any time.
And for those who would like to move away and start anew, the reality is that there are few buyers willing to purchase a home or a business in an area where the ground continues to shake.
Not all of the aftershocks of a disaster are seismic in nature. Some are economic, while others can be psychological.
While often hidden from view, the psychological impact of a disaster can be enormous and ongoing. Last year in Post Disaster Stress & Suicide Rates we looked at the impact of disaster-related PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Although a good disaster plan and emergency kit are imperative to get you through the opening hours and days of a disaster, knowing how to help friends, family, and neighbors deal with the psychological effects of a disaster can be equally important.
Luckily, there are things that can be done - even by the layperson - to help reduce the psychological impact of a disaster.
A few resources you may wish to revisit:
In Psychological First Aid: The WHO Guide For Field Workers we looked a simple guidebook anyone can use to help others in emotional distress.
The CDC also provides a website which contains a number of resources devoted to coping with disasters.
Coping With a Disaster or Traumatic Event
Trauma and Disaster Mental Health Resources
The effects of a disaster, terrorist attack, or other public health emergency can be long-lasting, and the resulting trauma can reverberate even with those not directly affected by the disaster. This page provides general strategies for promoting mental health and resilience. These strategies were developed by various organizations based on experiences in prior disasters.
As does the National Center For PTSD - including videos - on how to provide Psychological First Aid.
Psychological First Aid: Field Operations Guide
For Disaster Responders
Developed jointly with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, PFA is an evidence-informed modular approach for assisting people in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism: to reduce initial distress, and to foster short and long-term adaptive functioning.
A small reminder that not all wounds are readily visible to the naked eye, and that the proper bandage for them may not always reside inside your first aid kit.
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