ABSTRACT
When a natural disaster strikes a settlement, the communities’ responses are a complex reflection of the physical nature of the hazard, and the varied ways in which individuals, interest groups, and the whole population perceive the problems and their solutions. Individuals are influenced by the extent to which they are directly affected (as sufferers, innocent bystanders, or as managers, for example), by the nature of the events themselves (such as their magnitude, intensity, and duration), and by their memories, experience of the problems, and social characteristics (education, age and sex, security, and family commitments etc.). In general, the individual affected by the hazard seeks peace of mind, or to minimise loss, and personal responses reflect these ambitions. Crudely put, the individual may choose to ‘fight’ or ‘take flight’ - to resist the hazard, or either to move away from it or to transfer the responsibility for suffering and its alleviation to a higher authority (such as the government). If the individual fights, a range of actions may be open and the weapons may be sufficient to restore peace of mind or reduce losses to an acceptable level, regardless of whether the problems are solved. If an individual’s faith is placed in higher authority, he or she may also have peace of mind restored or losses alleviated. But if both individual and community efforts fail to solve the problem, the individual will probably respond by further adjustments or by accepting only a lower level of satisfaction.
