Post-disaster phases

Question 1

The emergent community begins to take form after survivors experience firsthand or learn of the disaster and begin to communicate about it

Answer 1

Neighbors and strangers describe to one another where they were when the disaster struck, what happened to them and their family members, feelings they experienced, and what they lost

Question 2

The integrative stage emerges from the widespread sharing of danger, loss, and deprivation that accompanies all disasters

Answer 2

Survivors of these events subsequently experience a strong sense of mutual suffering and an intimate, primary-group solidarity that occurs as the result of “having been there”

Question 3

The disintegration of the therapeutic community

Answer 3

Occurs as people return to everyday life and is evidenced by a growing concern with private interests; as disaster-stricken communities begin to feel “normal” again, the system swings back toward more common, self-oriented behavior