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What is a disaster? Although there is no universally accepted definition of the term disaster in the study of emergency management, the President can declare a major disaster for any event, including pandemic, hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought, or, regardless of cause, fire, flood, or explosion, that the President determines has caused damage of such severity that it is beyond the combined capabilities of state and local governments to respond. Disasters impact individuals and community groups, and they can cause stress. Group stress is also called collective stress. Stress is the body’s natural defense against when faced with dangers such as impending and actual crises and disasters including their impact or consequences. Stress impacts individual and communities differently, but generally and immediately, stress causes the body to flood with hormones that prepare systems to evade or confront danger. This is commonly referred to the “fight-or-flight” mechanism. When humans face a challenge or threat, we have a partly physical response. The body activates resources that help us either stay and confront the challenge or get to safety as fast as possible. The body produces larger quantities of chemicals called cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. These chemicals trigger the following physical reactions: increased blood pressure; heightened muscle preparedness; sweating; or alertness. These factors all improve a person’s ability to respond to a potentially hazardous or challenging situation like disastrous situations. Norepinephrine and epinephrine also cause a faster heart rate. Chronic stress is the response to emotional pressure suffered for a prolonged period of time in disasters in which individuals and/or communities perceive they have little or no control. It involves an endocrine system response in which corticosteroids are released. While the immediate effects of stress hormones are beneficial in a particular short-term situation, long-term exposure to stress creates a high level of these hormones. This may lead to health problems including damage to mental health. Environmental factors that trigger this reaction are called stressors. Disaster and crises are examples of stressors. Feelings of stress tend to increase in tandem with the number or extent of stressors. For example, populations that have inherent stressors from vulnerabilities and experience a disaster tend to have heighten stress. Therefore, we must take into account the special needs of vulnerable

populations. Defining vulnerability poses a challenge as vulnerability is not a fixed characteristic of an individual or a group. Rather, it is a fluid state defined by timing, the hazard at hand, circumstances, and access to different types of capital. Someone who is “mobility impaired” – for example, an individual with a broken leg – may be vulnerable to not getting out of harm’s way of an encroaching flood, but may be well-equipped to find stable housing and economic security in the flood’s wake. In this case, the vulnerability is associated with a temporary lack of physical capital, whereas her resilience is associated with access to economic capital. There are some individuals and groups who are highly and permanently vulnerable to many hazards, and to many consequences. This includes the impoverished; frail elderly; people living with chronic sensory, mobility, or cognitive impairments; and individuals dependent upon assistive devices or complex medical regimens in order to survive. These populations often experience stress at a higher level from disasters. Providing effective support and care to vulnerable populations prior to, during, and following an emergency is a critical priority for local, state and federal emergency planners. This will minimize the impact of stress from the disaster. In this Week’s reading, Barton does an outstanding job discussing how disaster and stress is related and the impact of individual and collective stress.