Surviving a natural disaster has to do
with much more than getting through the environmental, physical, and financial
aspects of the disaster. The increased vulnerability that most people experience
when they have faced extreme danger, death and physical injury, and the loss of
their regular ways of life cannot be ignored. Such feelings of vulnerability
almost always lead to immense levels of stress. And the effects—the emotional
toll--of that stress can vary from person to person.
The
recent heavy winter storms throughout the Midwest remind us of how vulnerable
we humans are in the face of Mother Nature’s fury. Weather extremes are not uncommon in the
Great Plains and yet no matter how well-prepared we think we are, we continue
to be surprised by how helpless we are in the face of nature’s sudden fury.
The
extremes of Kansas weather are often exacerbated by heavy winds that only
increase the storm’s fury. Heavy winter snows accompanied by high winds create
drifts of six feet or more and the temperature can drop suddenly to 30 degrees
below zero with a wind chill making it even colder. The wind and snow are often so fierce that people
can become lost within a few yards of their front doors.
But
winter is not the only time the wind is vicious. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, the settlement of the Great Plains provided the growing nation with
agricultural riches and a bustling farm economy, but the rapid development of
previously arid lands into massive wheat fields had a detrimental effect upon
the land itself. Where buffalo grass had previously provided nutrients and kept
the soil anchored to the ground, the newly plowed wheat fields left the soil
exposed to the elements. In the summer
of 1934, with conditions worsened by a long drought, winds began to whip the
sunbaked soil into thick, dark, low-riding clouds of dust. The dust clouds
assaulted everything, destroying crops, killing livestock and suffocating
farmers and their families.
Of
course the most infamous of the killer winds is the tornado. A tornado appears as a rotating,
funnel-shaped cloud that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground with
whirling winds that can reach 300 miles per hour. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile
wide and 50 miles long. Some tornadoes
are clearly visible, while rain or nearby low-hanging clouds obscure
others. Occasionally, tornadoes develop
so rapidly that little, if any advance warning is possible. The most destructive
tornado in Kansas history smashed through Topeka on June 8, 1966. The storm cut
a swath of ruin though the capital city, destroying hundreds of homes, causing
millions of dollars in damage, and killing 16 residents. It remains one of the costliest tornadoes on
record.
A firestorm
is a conflagration which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains
its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during
some of the largest wildfires. Typically the state
experiences most of its wildfires in March and April when ranchers are conducting
controlled burns on the prairie. Drought
conditions and high winds make wild fires especially dangerous. When conditions
green up in the summer and the humidity is higher, it lowers the chances. Kansas Forest Service officials estimated that
more than 41,000 acres were burned across the state in 2012 making it one of
the worst years on record.
But
killer winds are not the only way Mother Nature dispenses her fury. Measured in terms of human suffering,
tremendous losses in property, and extensive disruption of business activities,
the July 1951 flood ranks as the greatest natural catastrophe in the history of
the region. The floods inn Kansas were
caused by above-normal precipitation during May and June that caused some major
flooding and established high streamflows, high ground-water levels and a
minimum capacity for the soil to absorb any additional rainfall.
The
heavy spring rains were followed by the great storm of July 9-13, 1951 that was
centered near the common divide of the Kansas and Neosho River Basins. Precipitation began during the afternoon of
July 9 and continued through the morning of July 10. Following a brief respite, the precipitation began
again the evening of July 10 and continued through July 12. Each day was characterized by excessive rainfall
during the late afternoon and night with little or no rainfall during the early
and mid-afternoon hours. By midnight July
13, unprecedented total amounts of rain had fallen since the beginning of the
storm.
Total
damage from the flood was unparalleled. From the headwaters of the Kansas River
to the mouth of the Missouri River at St. Louis, about 2 million acres were
flooded. 45,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and 17 major bridges, some of
them weighted with locomotives in an attempt to hold them, were washed away.
Transportation was disrupted as highways and railroads were closed from days to
weeks. One of the more unusual damage
reports came from LeRoy, Kansas where the Neosho River had washed caskets from
graves at the cemetery.
It
is quite normal for people to experience mild stress reactions to natural disasters
like these for several days or weeks afterward. Often, initially, people will
experience shock and denial in the first couple hours or days after the
disaster. When shock occurs, people feel stunned or dazed. Denial means that
they cannot acknowledge that a stressful situation has occurred or that they
cannot experience the full intensity of what has happened. Both shock and
denial are normal protective responses to the trauma of the disaster, which can
be too much to absorb all at once.
After
those initial reactions subside, people’s reactions can vary to a large extent.
Often they may feel intense and unpredictable feelings, though sometimes feelings
of anger and fear may be triggered by specific reminders of the natural disaster.
Some people will have reactions immediately following the event and some will
have delayed reactions. Some will recover quickly and some will have adverse
effects for a long time. Though most people’s reactions will dissipate within a
few weeks, as many as one in three survivors of natural disasters will
experience more severe stress responses. Those responses can last for multiple
weeks, months, or even years.
At
some period, my family has weathered all of these natural disasters and they
have left a lasting effect on each one of us.
It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit that we are able to
pick up the pieces of our shattered lives and do whatever it takes to move on,
rebuild, or start over.
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