Survivors’ Narratives of the Oklahoma City Bombing Retold Seven Years Post-Disaster

Abstract

Introduction: A large proportion of the existing voluminous disaster mental health research literature represents the quantitative study of psychopathology, especially posttraumatic stress disorder. Subjective disaster experience is relatively unexplored. Qualitative narratives of surviving a disaster may provide insight into individual experiences of it and efforts to derive meaning from it. Methods: From an initial random sample of 182 survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, narrative descriptions of this experience were collected 7 years after the bomb blast from 116 of the original sample, for the purpose of examining persistent as well as newly evolving content through qualitative analysis. The narrative content was analyzed for the evolution of thematic content in narrative data also collected at 6 months post-disaster and 1 year later. Results: The thematic content of the bombing experience was structured in a chronological fashion from the bomb blast (sensory, cognitive, and emotional), its immediate aftermath (e.g., escaping danger), and later experiences, (e.g., leaving the bomb site and receiving hospital treatment). During the time between interviews, the focus and general content of the narratives changed minimally, despite considerable compression of detail. Conclusions: The consistency of the material in these narratives over 7 years may reflect the persistence and salience of disaster memories, with the potential for its continuation for the rest of their lives.