Community Dynamics During and After Disasters with Liesel Ritchie

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Travis

When a disaster hits a community, there is most often a plethora of news coverage related to the impacts that it has on the people there. But as the weeks, months, and years drag on, we often have less and less of an idea of what's actually going on in those communities and how people are still working to cope with the results of these disasters.

So I'm curious what long-term resiliency looks like in a community touched by disaster, and thankfully Virginia Tech's Liesel Ritchie is an expert in this very subject and was kind enough to talk to me about it. Richie is a professor of sociology in Virginia Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and her research focuses on community resilience and the social impacts of disasters, including conducting social impact assessments with an emphasis on technological hazards and disasters as well as social capital.

Liesel and I talked a little about how sociology fits into the equation when it comes to understanding long-term resiliency for communities in the wake of a disaster. We also talked about the concept of social capital and how it's very beneficial for communities to start to build this prior to any sort of disaster happening, and how the community's response can be quite different depending on whether or not the disaster is of natural causes or results from some sort of technological failure.

And we also talked a little about the best approach for folks outside of these communities when it comes to helping folks there, either by giving things or showing up to try to help. So that is hopefully some information you can employ right away. As always, do not forget to like, rate, and or subscribe to the podcast. I'm Travis Williams and this is Virginia Tech's Curious Conversations.

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Travis

I think a really good place to start this conversation is simply to ask you, what role does sociology play in helping us better understand the impacts of natural disasters?

Liesel

When we think about that, we first need to think about what sociology is to begin with. So we think of sociology as the scientific study of groups and communities and individuals in those communities and the dynamics and the interactions that they have on a regular basis. And we like to understand the processes and those dynamics that fuel society and makes society operate.

When a disaster strikes, obviously there is social disruption. And so it's almost like having the opportunity to do an experiment that we couldn't ethically do otherwise. So when we think about understanding disasters, we think about the way dynamics are disrupted and social relationships are hindered and the way in which we respond and act as communities and members of those communities.

Travis

So it sounds like maybe a natural disaster provides you this interesting opportunity to really study what really is at the heart of this community.

Liesel

No, you're absolutely right. It helps us understand what makes communities tick. It helps us understand how communities are different and similar at the same time. And it also helps us understand to what extent communities are resilient some of the typical characteristics that pop up in some of these communities when they experience a natural disaster.

When they experience a natural disaster, there are some commonalities. Again, even though communities are individual and can be very different, but the commonalities with natural disasters and community responses have to do with what's called a therapeutic community. When people come together, are united, I think I'll back up on that one, okay? All right, so when we think about natural disasters, hitting communities, what we need to think about is the extent to which, again, they are resilient. But what we see after natural disasters tends to be a focus on what we call a therapeutic community. And it's really just what it sounds like. It is a group of groups in these communities or individuals that rise up in these communities and help one another. And they come together and we hear various catch phrases like Blacksburg strong or Colorado strong. And that's very typical of what we see. We can also see what's called an amplified rebound so that when resources are pumped into a community to help with disaster recovery, sometimes that can be very helpful for a community and they might experience not just a return to normal but a return to something that is perhaps beyond the status quo and can be better. And that's why it's so important to have community voices involved in recovery processes.

Travis

You mentioned some of the slogans that often come up when people experience something like this. Has there been any study that you know of that has maybe quantified, like is that actually helpful in a meaningful way?

Liesel

It is, it's very helpful. So when we think about disasters, again, one of the things that we can think about is social capital and how networks and associations and trust in communities and beyond communities can help us to recover and in fact, prepare for hazards and disasters as they might strike. And when we have this kind of social capital. It also tends to help us facilitate the use of other forms of capital and the development of other forms of capital. And there are resources that we have in our communities ranging from human capital, which is our education and our experiences and our skill sets, to the built infrastructure as a form of capital. And that is our bridges and our roads and our residences and other types of buildings.

There's political capital, and that's exactly what it sounds like as well. We have cultural capital, which actually is something that's even more important when we think about communities coming back together and trying to return to some kind of normalcy. And there's also natural capital. communities depend on natural resources for their culture and their livelihoods. Those are the kinds of things that again can come together and make for a more resilient community, whether it's in preparedness or response or the long-term recovery phases of a disaster.

Travis

When we look at natural disasters, a lot of times they happen and there's a lot of coverage and we're all paying attention. But I'm wondering what are some of the things in the weeks, the months, maybe even the years that follow a natural disaster that maybe somebody that's not living there simply wouldn't know about?

Liesel

A lot of my research has to do with the long-term impacts of a disaster. And you're right, the media attention is very fleeting. The attention from other communities and support networks beyond the community, they get tapped out and have to go back to their own lives. When a natural disaster occurs, because people are within a community and they've experienced that disaster,

There's a phrase that we refer to as outsiders just don't understand. And what that means is if you haven't been through a disaster, whether it's this one or some other disaster, then you can't really get a feel for the kinds of perspectives and emotions and other kinds of community reactions that we tend to see over time. A lot of times the natural disasters are distinct from what we would refer to as human caused or technological disasters in that recovery seems to go more quickly after a natural disaster than after a human caused or technological disaster.

Travis

Do we know why why that is?

Liesel

We do, we have research that shows that technological or these human caused events have much more finger pointing and blame assignment and responsibility for this event, whatever disaster it is, whether it's the Exxon Valdez oil spill or the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill or any other kinds of these events that emit toxic contaminations in communities.

And so there's a lot of uncertainty that goes on for a long time. And one of the other unique characteristics of technological disasters is that there is a primary responsible party. There is in fact, typically an entity to blame for these kinds of events. And that's why then we have litigation that comes with these technological and human caused events relative to natural disasters. Now, it's important to remember that these kinds of disasters share overlapping qualities and characteristics. They're not absolutely distinct because especially at this point, a lot of disasters have human driven elements. know, whether we are building in places that we might not necessarily need to be building, whether it's on the side of a mountain or too close to the ocean or too close to rivers where there's a inundation when flooding occurs, we need to be thinking about the ways in which human activity and human development can contribute to hazards and disasters, whether they're natural disasters or whether they're these human caused events.

Travis

What impact does it have on a community if they have someone to specifically or maybe not someone, but they have an entity that they can specifically go and blame for a disaster? Is that helpful or harmful when it comes to their recovery?

Liesel

It's a little bit of both. So returning to natural disasters, they're typically considered what we would call acts of God. You know, there's not anyone to blame. It's considered natural. It could happen to anyone. It could happen anywhere. So people are sort of more on a level playing field, at least in terms of the perception of what happened and why. But in the case of these toxic contamination events, it's not always clear who the perpetrator or the primary responsible party might be. When we saw the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, there was a company to blame. North Roke Southern was the entity that people were able to lay responsibility at the doorstep. But it can be problematic if people dwell on that, if they get hung up on waiting for an entity to pay up with respect to compensation and litigation. So that can go on for a lot longer. And what we've also seen in these long-term experiences is that after a certain period, and that could be four years to 10 years to 20 years, people can still be waiting on compensation. And what we see then is that the main stressors associated with an event are not the disaster itself, but the secondary trauma, such as being involved with long-term litigation. It's extremely stressful, and we have evidence to show that it's as stressful, if not more so, than the actual disaster itself.

Travis

Do we know why that is?

Liesel

We do, we have research that shows that technological or these human caused events have much more finger pointing and blame assignment and responsibility for this event, whatever disaster it is, whether it's the Exxon Valdez oil spill or the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill or any other kinds of these events that would emit toxic contaminations in communities.

And so there's a lot of uncertainty that goes on for a long time. And one of the other unique characteristics of technological disasters is that there is a primary responsible party. There is in fact, typically an entity to blame for these kinds of events. And that's why then we have litigation that comes with these technological and human caused events relative to natural disasters. Now, it's important to remember that these kinds of disasters share overlapping qualities and characteristics. They're not absolutely distinct because especially at this point, a lot of disasters have human driven elements. know, whether we are building in places that we might not necessarily need to be building, whether it's on the side of a mountain or too close to the ocean or too close to rivers where there's an inundation when flooding occurs, we need to be thinking about the ways in which human activity and human development can contribute to hazards and disasters, whether they're natural disasters or whether they're these human caused events.

Travis

What have you found to be some of the keys for these communities that have become resilient in the face of a natural disaster?

Well, as I was mentioning earlier, these different kinds of resources or capitals are really the keys to having a resilient community. And it's not just resilience to disasters and hazards. It can be resilience to external threats of any kind, whether it's a pandemic or an economic downturn or some other kind of event that threatens a community.

and the community's wellbeing. So community wellbeing tends typically to revolve around strong social capital, but of course we also need financial capital and those kinds of resources to be pumped into the community. always in disaster scenarios, people on the ground living in those communities are the first responders, right? They are there and they are living through it.

And it might be a while before external resources can arrive. We have formal responders like the police and like paramedics and firefighters and those kinds of folks. And then we have the experts in hazard and disasters who come in and help with the longer-term response and some of the recovery activities. So all of these things combined, knowing where your neighbors are, who they are, shaking their hand before a disaster happens is really important rather than waiting until something occurs and you need help.

Travis

That sounds like just great advice in general. Go build a really strong community and that will probably help you be more resilient.

Liesel

That is definitely a case that we try to make to policymakers and others in positions of power and authority that it doesn't make sense to wait until after a disaster happens to just pay out insurance or call on the government for resources. It can be something that is built over time so that communities can invest not only in financial assets, but in the social dimensions of their cultural livelihoods and their psychosocial health and mental well-being. And having strong schools, having strong leaders in our communities, and those can be both formal leaders who might be elected or appointed officials, and they can also be informal leaders like pastors in a community, or it might be just the person down at the coffee shop that everyone goes to when they want to know what's up in town.

Travis

That's great, I feel like every town has one or two or 12 of those. Well, how can outsiders to these situations best help?

Liesel

The best help is first off to listen. And that's to listen to what the community members and representatives are indicating is most needed in the community. And sometimes that's difficult to discern because different groups in the community might have different needs. But listening first and seeking those kinds of answers is really where we need to be starting. And then other kinds of help can come in the form of donations in terms of financial resources to trusted entities like Salvation Army and the Red Cross, for example. And other kinds of resources, say bottled water or clothes or other tangible things that people like to deliver and send are also important, but it's also critical to remember that they these communities may be inundated with those kinds of resources. And it can be really challenging for a community to manage those kinds of resources over time. Maybe they don't have the storage. Maybe they don't have the volunteer capacity to round up the resources and to organize them and to pass them along to community members as they're needed. But just like having good relationships and good friendships. It's important for people on the outside of communities to see that this is a relationship and that understanding what people's needs are from community to community is really a matter of focusing on what communities need rather than maybe what makes us feel good if we send a donation. And some of the horror stories, like in Haiti, when the earthquake happened back in 2010, there were a lot of resources and goods that were shipped over to Haiti that people couldn't use. For example, winter jackets, down jackets that people couldn't possibly use, stuffed animals, truckloads and truckloads of stuffed animals. And that's great for the kids, but really thinking about what the community needs rather than what we want to give them as outsiders.

Travis

What about outsiders that may want to go and help in a community? What is some good guidance in that respect?

Liesel

Some good guidance would be to scope out what's going on in the community. And that speaks to listening once again, but finding out from reliable resources what is actually needed and making sure that you do that before going into a community. There might be volunteer groups or organizations who feel like they want to be on the ground. They want to help. They might want to help deliver water. They might want to help rebuild homes.

But making sure that anyone from the outside who might be volunteering to help when they descend on these communities that they have their own resources, that they bring water with them, that they bring food with them. Because we don't want to draw down on local communities resources when folks from there might be needing hotel rooms. You know, we have to make sure that we are not placing an extra burden and being an extra tax on these community members when we go in the auspices of helping.

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Travis

And thanks to Liesel for talking to us about community resilience in the wake of disasters. If you or someone you know would make for a great curious conversation, email me at traviskw at vt.edu. I'm Travis Williams and this has been Virginia Tech's Curious Conversations.

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