Images Of Disaster Behavior: Myths And Consequences
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Disaster Research Center
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Disasters have consistently captured human imagination. Throughout the
Old Testament, the frequency with which disasters are central or incidental
themes suggests that they have always been a familiar part of man's experience
and they have been a rather constant setting for posing questions about man's
existence and death.
Today, an examination of the news media forces one to the conclusions that disasters continue to be worthy of attention. We accept this attention as natural, and perhaps it is, since disasters continue to provide the context in which significant human dramas are reveled. Disasters are perhaps one of the few situationsin which there is both the opportunity for the expression of heroism as well as for the ability to confront fear and suffering. And this is played out on a rather dramatic stage for the spectators to see.
For those persons whose lives are characterized by the
repetitiveness of day-to-day living, disasters provide a vicarious contact with these rather universal themes.