Analzying Disaster and Trauma

Disaster and Trauma

Nature of the disaster and include any historical and relevant information.

Towards the end of August 2005, Hurricane Katrina, an overwhelming category 4 hurricane hit the Mexican Gulf as well a certain Southern regions of the United States, resulting into some of the greatest damages in the history of that nation approximated at around one hundred billion dollars. The well-known New Orleans city together with its surrounding regions were worst hit as nearly all of it is some six feet below sea level. City defenses, just designed for category 3 kind of hurricanes, gave away, resulting to massive flooding and related damage, death and displacement of approximately 100,000 individuals that either chose to say the course, or simply could not afford to escape (Shah, 2005).

Hurricane Katrina is considered as the most destructive natural calamity in the history of the United States. The destruction created by Hurricane Katrina, which was not only massive but also a powerful hurricane and a disastrous flood, greatly surpassed that of any other major calamity, like the Chicago Fire of 1871, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 (The White House, 2003). The overwhelming impacts of Hurricane Katrina were felt even before the arrival of the storm at the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. In the Mexican Gulf, Hurricane Katrina thrashed the offshore energy infrastructure and led to the evacuation of more than 75% of the Gulf's 819 manned oil platforms (Watson, 2005). Two days prior to landfall, United States energy companies approximated that the oncoming storm had already minimized Gulf of Mexico oil production by more than one third ( U.S. Department of Energy, 2005).

Ever since 1981, 75 hurricanes having Katrina's strength at landfall- a Category 3- have battered the mainland United States, around once every two years. Katrina was, however, anything but a "normal" hurricane. Firstly, Hurricane Katrina was larger than most. Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 storm which destroyed the Gulf Coast back in 1969, had top wind speeds which surpassed those of Hurricane Katrina upon landfall; however, Hurricane Camille's force winds only stretched 75 miles from its center, while Hurricane Katrina stretched 103 miles. As an outcome, Katrina's surge affected a bigger region than did Hurricane Camille. Hurricane Katrina affected around 93,000 square miles across counties and parishes. The severe strength that Hurricane Katrina attained prior to landfall on the Gulf Coast, together with its size, implied that its storm surge was consistent with a more powerful storm. In accordance to the U.S. Hurricane Centre, the height of Camille and Hurricane Katrina's corresponding storm gushes had been similar to one another (U.S. Department of Commerce; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; National Weather Service, 2005). Katrina's winds and storm surge, which crested up to 27 feet high, dealt a fierce blow to commercial buildings, homes, and property on the coast and for several miles inland. This particular storm surge devastated levees all along the edges of Lake Pontchartrain and the lowest reaches of the Mississippi River. The repercussions for New Orleans that rests mostly below sea level were awful. Considerable levees failures took place on the London Avenue Canal, the 17th Street Canal, the Industrial Canal. Around 80% of the city was flooded (The White House, 2003).

The loss of the people who experienced the disaster

Deaths

Hurricane Katrina together with the levee failures lead to the deaths of at least 986 residents of Louisiana. Some of the main causes of death were: drowning (40%), trauma and injury (25%), and heart conditions (11%). Almost half of the victims were above 74 years of age.

Displaced residents

More than one million individuals were displaced by the storm within the Gulf Region. Numerous people returned to their home within days; however, approximately six hundred thousand households had been displaced more than a month down the line. At their climax, hurricane shelters lodged approximately 273,000 individuals, and subsequently, FEMA shelters lodged in excess of 114,000 families.

Population decrease

The populace in New Orleans dropped to around 230,172 after Hurricane Katrina (July 2006) from 484,674 prior to Katrina (April 2000) - a drop of 254,502 individuals and a loss of more than 50% of its population. The population increased to approximately 384,000 by July 2014; 79% of what it actually was in 2000.

Housing damage

More than one million homes had been destroyed due to Katrina in the Gulf Coast Region. Approximately half of the destroyed units were situated within Louisiana. Similarly, within New Orleans, 134,000 homes (70% of the occupied units) faced destruction from the Katrina as well as the consequent flooding (Plyer, 2015).

Total damages

The total damage because of Hurricane Katrina was estimated at 135 billion dollars.

Emotional and health damages

The frequency of probable severe mental sickness doubled, and almost half of the respondents showed probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Increased levels of hurricane-associated loss and stressors were linked with worse health outcomes, controlling for baseline socio-demographic as well as health measures. Higher baseline resources envisaged lesser hurricane-related stressors; however, the outcomes of the loss and stressors were the same despite the baseline resources. Severe health outcomes of Hurricane Katrina continued for more than a year, and were quite serious for those facing the greatest loss and stressors. Permanent health and mental health services are required for low-income victims of a calamity, particularly those who encountered disaster-associated stressors and loss (Rhodes, et al., 2012).

Affected Individuals' Capability to Respond to Social or Communal Engagement

In the recent years, significantly, more stress has been placed on the responsibility of the community in disaster recovery and also on the significance of local awareness, action, engagement, as well as control in establishing the nature of disaster response. It is rational that the community shall be very first in the line of defense in preparation and response in the course of a disaster. Local groups and residents are in a position to best recognize their immediate needs, organize preparations, complement official response attempts, execute emergency response programs, and contribute to local-decision making for future occurrences. Likewise, local communities could offer a sense of connection (Cantrell & Stafford, 2013) and minimize the desertion and seclusion frequently felt amidst residents in times of disaster. The ability of offering these community services is not always present, but it could be nurtured, encouraged, and empowered. In every community, there exist different groups having different skills and abilities accompanied with personal and expert experiences, which are important for successful preparation and response to calamities. Amongst them are resident groups with the required expertise and trade skills for damage control and evaluation (architects, environmental scientists, contractors, experienced workers, and engineers); psychological, medical, and social service delivery experience (medical practitioners, civic or religious groups, counselors), disaster preparedness and response training (VFW, retired national / military police/guard); and longtime residents that have experienced past responses to natural calamities (Brennan, Cantrell, Spranger, & Kumaran, 2014).

Efficient community responses link these different groups and come up with action plans to respond to shared needs. Successfully connecting local organizations, leaders, and citizens offers a strong network for the local groups and citizens to be actively engaged in local preparedness as well as response attempts. This capacity-building procedure is most efficient when it takes place as part of a pre-disaster planning procedure (Cantrell, Nahmens, Peavey, Bryant, & Stair, 2012), and it carries on in the course of and after such terrible occurrences. Cooperative Extension together with other change agents could assist in the facilitation of this procedure.

What these people would need in order to start the healing process

First and foremost, there is need for restoring the basic infrastructure and the economy. Generally, New Orleans and its surrounding rebounded after experiencing devastating past river floods and hurricanes, frequently assisted by prevailing positive economic and demographic trends. The consistent aspect of recovery attempts focused on quick restoration of the city's urban infrastructure together with its economy- a return to the known. The long-term recovery of the hospitality industry is good, and sustained by main entertainment and sporting events, hotel and motel tax income fir early 2008 raised to close to or more than pre-Katrina levels (Brookings Institution 2008). Large engineering companies have secured federal contracts with the infusion of federal dollars for reconstruction. More than 16 billion dollars in building funds are meant to keep the economy going for more than two years.

Types of services as a therapist would provide as a member of the emergency response team (author response)

Outreach

This particular activity is organized in homes, congregated groups, and shelters in the devastated communities. They strive to offer emotional encouragement in the course of the severe period that comes after a calamity. Outreach helps survivors in expression and comprehension of disaster-related stress, trouble in sleeping and thinking well, and grief reactions, assisting the affected people to go back to a normative state.

Helping families

In case the influence of the calamity results to death, families require psychological health services, given that they make up at risk population (Raphael, 1986). The level of loss that entails loved ones, community, property, unfamiliar environs, and employment, might overpower their ability to cope.

Helping survivors within shelters

Intervention processes happen to be linked to the evaluation involving the shelter survival circumstance. In case this situation spans across weeks, aggravation of the survivor could explode in anger, aggression, along with depression. Shelter's psychological health personnel shall have to establish how the survivor's state will affect their capability in dealing with the challenges of the packed surroundings found in nations with scarce resources (Cohen, 2002).

Role and responsibility as a therapist

Disasters cause turmoil which interferes with lives. Social, economic, and political upheaval creates obstacles to recovery, calling for community leaders to meet with survivors and find out their needs.

When a community-wide disaster hits, panic and confusion are quite common in the general population. For these individuals, pain from the loss of their loved ones, homes, as well as community devastation is compounded by their need for psychological treatment and recovery services to assist with recovery. With numerous individuals in need when a calamity occurs, the leadership of the community counselors is important to assist victims in organizing tasks, streamlining services, and reconstructing their communities. Individuals in disaster situations often face anxiety over relocating, despair over loss of property and homes, and anguish over loss of loved ones. However, immediately after a calamity, counselors ought to stress daily difficulties before switching their focus to deeper psychological issues. First, therapists meet with the survivors to assist with daily problem solving and organization. For instance, in the outcome of a calamity, the victims might feel very overwhelmed by the shock. A community counselor would meet with these survivors and control the sense of devastation and loss (Community Counseling in Disaster Situations, 2016).

Risk factors would you watch out for Several elements make it probable that an individual would have more serious reactions to stress subsequent to disasters:

Severity of exposure

The level of experience to any disaster is greatly connected to future health problems. Those at the greatest risk are the individuals who experience the disaster on their own. Thereafter, there are individuals that happen to have a close connection with the victims. Those at a reduced possibility of lasting influence are individuals that were not directly exposed, like news involving the serious damage. Some of the elements that frequently resulted to psychological health issues are life threat and injury. Researchers have investigated serious natural calamities, like the earthquake in Armenia, United States' Andrew Hurricane, along with mudslides within Mexico. According to their findings, more than 50% of these survivors eventually undergo not only distress but also psychological health problems, which require medical attention.

Gender and family

Nearly all the time, girls or women undergo more negative influences than boys or men actually do. When kids are found within their dwellings, disaster recovery becomes more stressful. Women along with their husbands also encounter more distress in the course of recovery. The presence of extended family within the household who is very distressed is connected to additional stress for all. Researchers have also found that marital stress increases after disasters. Disagreements amidst family members and shortage of support within the household also make it more difficult to recuperate from disasters.

Age

Grownups that are in the age range of forty-sixty are more prone to acquire higher distress levels subsequent to disasters. The logic behind this is that, in that particular age range, one has higher demands levels from both work as well as family. Studies on how kids respond to disasters are scarce. Kids generally display higher distress levels subsequent a disaster compared to grownups. Increased stress levels within the parents is associated to poor recovery amid youngsters (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2015).