Disasters without Borders: The Coronavirus Pandemic, Global Climate Change and the Ascendancy of Gradual Onset Disasters.

Throughout much of its history, the sociological study of human communities in disaster has been based on events that occur rapidly, are limited in geographic scope, and their management understood as phased stages of response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness. More recent literature has questioned these concepts, arguing that gradual-onset phenomena like droughts, famines and epidemics merit consideration as disasters and that their exclusion has negative consequences for the communities impacted, public policy in terms of urgency and visibility and for the discipline itself as the analytical tools of sociological research are not brought to bear on these events. We agree that gradual-onset disasters merit greater attention from social scientists and in this paper have addressed the two most significant ongoing disasters that are gradual in onset, global in scope and have caused profound impacts on lives, livelihoods, communities and the governments that must cope with their effects. These disasters are the coronavirus pandemic and global climate change both of which include dimensions that challenge the prevailing definition of disaster. We begin with an examination of the foundational work in the sociological study of a disaster that established a conceptual framework based solely on rapidly occurring disasters. Our focus is on several components of the existing framework for defining and studying disasters, which we term "borders." These borders are temporal, spatial, phasing and positioning, which, in our view, must be reexamined, and to some degree expanded or redefined to accommodate the full range of disasters to which our globalized world is vulnerable. To do so will expand or redefine these borders to incorporate and promote an understanding of significant risks associated with disaster agents that are gradual and potentially catastrophic, global in scope and require international cooperation to manage.

Preparedness and hazard mitigation actions before and after two earthquakes

This study examines the current state of preparedness among Los Amgeles country and san Francisco bay area residents, determine the extent to which levels od preparedness have change since the symar earthquake in 1971, identifies the circumstances under which people was prepared, and assesses the extent to which respondents overall perceptions of preparedness match their report of preparedness activities. Since the 1971s, residents of the two areas have increased their level of survival activities substantially, but progress in home - hazard mitigation and family earthquake planning have generally remained constant and low. Pre-earthquake preparedness was predicted by home ownership, income, education, marital status, number of children at home , number of years in the neighborthood, and number of eartquakes experienced. In contrast, post -eathquake preparedness was predicted by proximity to the earthquake epicenter, earthquake-related experiences, fear,and levels of pre-earthquake preparedness (AU)

The Northridge , California earthquake of january 17, 1994 : General reconnaissance report

On January 17, 1994 at 4:31 a.m., a magnitude 6.6earthquake struck the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Epicentered in the San Fernando Valley town of Northridge, California, the earthquake caused serious damage to buildings and sections of elevated freeways; ignited at least one hundred fires as it ruptured gas pipelines; and disrupted water supply systems. As a consequence, 57 people died, another 1,500 were seriously injured, and 22,000 were left homeless. Over 3,000 buildings, most of which were residential structures, were declared unsafe for reentry due to earthquake damage. Los Angeles, a city which has extensively prepared itself for earthquakes, found that it had experienced the most destructive event since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Direct economic losses are estimated currently at over $20 billion.(AU)

Are the news media responsible for the disaster myths? : A content analysis of emergency response imagery

Disaster research scholars and emergency planners have often contended that the news media play a major role in creating and perpetuating various myths of natural disaster response. These myths include widspread panic flight, psychological dependency and vicious competition for necessities on the part of victims and physical convergence for the purpose of looting by non-victims. The evidence which ties the news media to these myths of community breakdown is largely indirect. Survey data reveal a generalized belief among members of the public that the above enumerated behaviors are typical reactions of people faced with a sudden crisis. These data also indicate that the news media are the principal source of information about disasters for most people. Lacking are detailed analyses which document the extent to which the myths of community breakdown actually appear in news coverage of natural disaster events. The present study, which focuses on the reporting of four earthquake events by two Southern California newspapers, attempts to address this issue. The results, though preliminary, suggest that some caution is warranted in making the generalization that natural disaster coverage disproportionately conveys a breakdown imagery of communities facing a major natural catastrophe(AU)