Article Index - International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters

Authors: David Alexander
Issue: March 1990
Description: This article concerns mass reaction to a violent earthquake in the eastern part of Naples Province, southern Italy.Patterns of perception and mass behavior are reconstructed from the testimonies of a group of local high school students and from the author\\'s personal experience of the event. This information shows that the perception, and therefore the reaction, of people differed according to age group, older people being by virtue of experience the first to realize that an earthquake was happening. Flight behavior was the prevalent first reaction to the tremors, and fear of being indoors rapidly developed. During the early stages of the emergency panic, defined as nonrational imperative behavior, was common and people were injured as a result. Family ties, however, remained an important influence upon behavior, although they did not impede flight.\r\nThe findings of this study generally confirm previous literature on mass reactions to earthquake events, except that anxiety, panic, and flight appear to have been more widespread, and preparedness less common, than in many other cases that sociologists have studied.

Authors: David H. Olson, Joan M. Patterson, Hamilton I. McCubbin
Issue: March 1983
Description: Families in Disaster research has drawn heavily from the family stress and crises research paradigms and concepts advanced by Reuben Hill\\'s ABC-X Model and by related research. This article attempts to broaden the perspective of family behavior in disaster situations by advancing additional concepts, definitions and propositions. Findings from longitudinal research on American families faced with the historically unique traumatic situations of having a husband/father held captive or unaccounted for int he Vietnam War were analyzed first in reference to the ABC-X Model, which suggested the need to expand this classic model. This article introduces the Double ABC-X Model in an effort to capture the dynamic nature nature of family response to stress over time. This expanded model includes: AA-the family\\'s pile up of life events and stressors over time; BB-the family\\'s resources which are strengthened or developed within and in transaction with the community and include coping and social support; CC-the family\\'s perception of the stressor and related changes in the family; and XX-the additional end state of family adaptation following a crisis. This model merits careful consideration and additional testing in light of stress and disaster studies reviewed and propositions advanced during the past decade.

Authors: Lucia Velotti, Joseph E. Trainor, Karen Engel, Manuel Torres and Takumi Myamoto
Issue: March 2013
Description: Vertical protective strategy (VPS) refers to activities intended to move people to a level of elevation above a (perceived) threat within the area at risk. VPS is an important but understudied approach to providing safety, particularly in the case of short warning events, such as tsunamis and coastal floods. While extensive engineering analyses have looked at the feasibility of VPS, the social, scientific and policy analyses associated with it have only been given cursory attention. This paper attempts to fill this gap by first briefly introducing VPS and then discussing the strategy in relation to shelter in-place and traditional horizontal evacuation. We then go on to highlight issues related to the adoption and implementation of VPS as a government sponsored activity. Last, we propose a research agenda that identifies areas to be further investigated.

Authors: David M. Neal
Issue: August 1984
Description: Blame occurs frequently after disasters, yet, the process of blame is a neglected topic of disaster research. Our study looks at how a grassroots citizen\\'s group blamed a local company for air pollution and health problems. The blaming process directed toward the company aided in the mobilization of the citizen\\'s group but also prevented any immediate issue-oriented actions. As blame directed toward the company decreased within the group, solidarity within the group decreased. Yet, as blame decreased within the group, issue-oriented actions by the group increased. The placement of blame by the group had both positive and negative consequences for their goals. Comparing this case with other studies of blame in disaster, we found: 1) placing blame does not lead to structural changes in the social system, 2) organizations can be the focus of blame, and 3) only one target of blame can exist. In addition, we suggest that the type of disaster (diffuse or focalized, and technological or natural) may have an impact upon who or what becomes the target of blame.

Authors: Ronald W. Perry, William A. Wallace, Eric K. Noji, Charles E. Faupel, Anthony Yezer
Issue: March 1989
Description: Reviews of Evacuation in Emergencies: An Annotated Guide to Research and A Guide for Emergency Evacuation Management and Operations by Ronald W. Perry Review of Terminal Disasters: Computer Applications in Emergency Management by William A. Wallace Reviews of Mass Casualties: A Lessons Learned Approach and Triage Decision Trees and Triage Protocols by Eric K. Noji Review of Race, Religion, and Ethnicity in Disaster Recovery by Charles E. Faupel Review of The Economics of Bushfires: The South Australian Experience by Anthony Yezer.

Authors: Ronald W. Perry, Beverly A. Cigler, Charlotte A. Cottrill, Maxwell A. Cameron, James S. Nyman, Judith A. Bradbury, Daniel J. Alesch
Issue: August 1989
Description: Crisis Management: A Casebook.\r\n\r\nManaging Disaster: Strategies and Policy Perspectives.\r\n\r\nDisasters: Violence of Nature and Threats by Man.\r\n\r\nEnvironmental Hazards: Communicating Risk as a Social Process.\r\n\r\nRisk Assessment and Management: Emergency Planning Perspectives.\r\n\r\nThe Politics of Earthquake Prediction.\r\n\r\nDisable Persons and Earthquake Hazards.\r\n\r\nSearching for Safety.\r\n\r\n

Authors: Robert A. Stallings
Issue: March 1996
Description: Review of Insurance and Natural Disasters by Robert A. Stallings. Review of The Southern California Fires of 1993 by Robert A. Stallings. Review of Dreading the Next Wave by Robert A. Stallings. Review of The Hyatt Skywalker Disaster and Other Lessons in the Regulation of Buildings by Robert A. Stallings. Review of Renewing FEMA by Robert A. Stallings.