The impact of a natural disaster is often measured by a handful of numbers: the number of fatalities and injuries, the number of homes and buildings destroyed, the cost of cleanup and repair. It doesn’t often account for the emotional wounds inflicted on survivors.
Posted June 29, 2018 | By Knvul Sheikh
Long after a big hurricane blows through, its effects hammer the mental-health system.
Posted October 12, 2017 | By Christine Vestal
The torrential rains may have ended, yet many people in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean continue to feel the impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma in unseen, dramatic ways.
Posted September 20, 2017 | By Susan Scutti
For Katrina Survivors, Harvey Could Take an Even Bigger Toll
Posted September 1, 2017 | By E. A. Crunden
Surviving two similar natural disasters can have psychological consequences, experts say.
Growth After Trauma
Posted November 2016 | By Lorna Collier
Why are some people more resilient than others – and can it be taught? RISK Project’s Dr. Sarah Lowe comments.
A new study finds links between pre-disaster mental health and recovery.
Posted July 1, 2021 | Reviewed by Chloe Williams
When disaster strikes, people’s lives are changed in unexpected and unprecedented ways. Natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods, man-made disasters such as terrorist attacks and chemical warfare, and public health disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic all cause individuals to suffer in a myriad of ways for which they are often unprepared.
The very thing that has made cities vulnerable in a pandemic has protected them in other disasters.
March 24, 2020 By Emily Badger
Findings from the RISK Project suggest that post-traumatic growth (PTG) was evident in five different key areas for most of the low-income survivors that participated in the study. Read more
It’s the flip side: the deep psychological health that emerges surprisingly often when people have a close brush with a disaster like Hurricane Florence.
written by the RISK Project Principal Investigators, Jean Rhodes and Mary Waters.
The health dangers don’t stop with a hurricane’s churning. They can get worse.
By William Wan ,Lena H. Sun and Carolyn Y. Johnson
September 17
In coming weeks, long after Hurricane Florence’s winds and rains have faded, its aftermath will still pose life-threatening hazards: snakes, submerged sharp objects, bacterial infections and disease-carrying mosquitoes.