ABSTRACT
The lived experience of slow calamity can, in this way, be said to be characterised by a fading in and out of direct consciousness, always being there as a menacing presence, inducing dread and melancholic sentiments towards anticipated futures. The prospect of a secondary disaster of resettlement, or failed resettlement, rather, thus gives rise to a parallel sense of future uncertainty and dread. Just as the continued development of the disaster situation always remains uncertain from the perspective of the present moment, the outcome of the resettlement process remains equally uncertain and elusive. While more intense disaster experiences resulting from having witnessed the world turn from the relative routine to something altogether unrecognisable in minutes or hours is distinct, generating an intense feeling of un-ness, disbelief and requiring very rapid adjustment, slow calamities are experienced as less intensely acute but still very distressing.
