Disaster Stories Research Articles

Ecology of grief: Climatic events and disasters in the Himalaya

Entangled in the push for modernity and securing frontiers, the young and rising mountains of the Himalayas bear stark witness to the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities. Much of these effects are evident in the register of disasters, which displays horrific events. While popular media have increased its focus on climate change in this region, especially Uttarakhand, the emphasis has heavily relied on a techno-managerial aspect. Valuable these approaches may seem, they render the emotive and affective dimensions of disaster an appendix to the explanation. Drawing on scholarship on grief, I argue that grief is a structuring affect in the Himalayas that can politicise the Anthropocene as a generative framework to reveal historical inequalities. I show how it is politically urgent to emphasise grief when framing the story of disaster, not merely as a footnote but as the core element for portraying the plot of human suffering in public remembrance. I propose that a turn to the political in grief should emerge in the form of public witnessing and grievability. In demonstrating these claims, the paper approaches an unsettling account of disaster in the Raini village of Uttarakhand (India). Through this, the article centres on a normative dimension of climate change that often characterises a disaster as an ‘eventful’ register – invisibilising the affective contours of loss.

Tapping on Collective National Trauma

Tapping on Collective National Trauma

The Power of Climate Narratives: Despair, Hope and Resilience in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Fifty Degrees Below

Climate crises have become an unavoidable dominating element in the present, the climate is changing and the exact degree to which it will change is unpredictable. Climate change is responsible for the extreme weather conditions like flooding, desertification and sea level rise. To emphasise on the severity of climate change and the consequences of it a new genre of literature termed Climate Fiction addresses the concerns of climate change on a global scale. In a growing dystopian world where climate change is the norm,climate fiction through works of art and literature addresses pressing environmental concerns to reach wider audience. Cli-fi novels and films are set in future and narrate the story of disaster and its effect on humans. To raise awareness documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth and Before The Flood, movies like Day After Tomorrow, Kedarnath, Water world play major role in humanising climate change and makes it relatable to broad audience. Some of the notable works of climate fiction include Solar by Ian McEwan, State of Fear by Michael Crichton, The Drowned World by J.G.Ballard and The Science in the Capital Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Grace's paradise requiem beast‐time love story: Belize 2022

SummaryThis story is part of a special section in honor of Kathleen Stewart, who is ever mindful of how we language what we world. My story is written as an exercise in poetic force, generating the life of beast‐signs and backtalk, which were fundamental concepts in Stewart's early writing. In this “hundreds,” Miss Grace tells a disaster story meant to encourage a scanning for signs of “the beast” in the trauma of a deadly Caribbean hurricane that destroyed her beachside village leaving only anguish and hordes of tourist investors in its wake. Miss Grace worlds beast‐time encounters with some'ting crazy, as vibratory conjurations and transductions, as in some quality of an accidental discovery of feelings. I turn to the power of crazy, fluid connections through which Grace's sea‐stormy encounters became a make‐believe space that composed itself as a dense entanglement of sensation, attention, and matter. I re‐imagine the evidence of Grace's beast‐time affective economy as a dynamized force, co‐constituting enactments of trauma and curiosity, attempts to find room to maneuver in a new tourist real, on a beach, in Belize.

Shifting discourses of togetherness and heroism in retold earthquake stories

Abstract This paper examines how disaster-related discourses are produced in storytelling, and whether and in what way these discourses may change in the second telling. We examine two sets of retold stories taken from a corpus of 123 retold stories about the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand. Findings indicate that these storytellers tell structurally similar stories, yet implement subtle linguistic changes which produce different positionings and discourses in the two tellings. We draw on positioning analysis and the ethnomethodological concept of tellability to show how, in the first telling, the storytellers orient to and produce discourses of united togetherness, whereas in the second telling they produce discourses of bravery and heroism. We argue that the positioning and discursive strategies used in disaster stories may change drastically over time, showing how retold stories of the same event change to meet the evolving realities of the teller and their post-disaster community.

Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood

Inventing Disaster: The Culture of Calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood

Reconditioning the resilience of Palu City within the natural disaster stories

In September 2018, the city of Palu was devastated by three natural disasters: an earthquake, a tsunami, and liquefaction. The disaster impacted most of the city, including the destruction of the city’s coastal areas by the tsunami, and some places experienced ’moving land’ or liquefaction. Both disasters were triggered by an earthquake with a magnitude of ±7M, which caused numerous buildings to collapse and thousands of casualties. Nevertheless, this series of tragedies force the city to adapt and rebuild a new life. Using the qualitative approach, this research seeks to understand how Palu’s city life changes in terms of resilience, supported by the exploration of the city’s historical, natural, and urban morphology. This research was also done based on author’s own first-hand experience of natural disasters in Palu. The finding revealed that the city of Palu has a long history of natural disasters, yet the people still desire to continue living in Palu. The government created new urban spaces and embraced adaptive design by enacting the ratification of new regulations regarding urban development planning that place greater attention on disaster issues. Finally, natural disasters let people and cities learn more about how to safely cope with living in natural disaster-prone cities.

Sustainable Stories: Managing Climate Change with Literature

Literary and cultural texts are essential in shaping emotional and intellectual dispositions toward the human potential for a sustainable transformation of society. Due to its appeal to the human imagination and human empathy, literature can enable readers for sophisticated understandings of social and ecological justice. An overabundance of catastrophic near future scenarios largely prevents imagining the necessary transition toward a socially responsible and ecologically mindful future as a non-violent and non-disastrous process. The paper argues that transition stories that narrate the rebuilding of the world in the midst of crisis are much better instruments in bringing about a human “mindshift” (Göpel) than disaster stories. Transition stories, among them the Parable novels by Octavia Butler and Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (2020), offer feasible ideas about how to orchestrate economic and social change. The analysis of recent American, Canadian, British, and German near future novels—both adult and young adult fictions—sheds light on those aspects best suited for effecting behavioral change in recipients’ minds: exemplary ecologically sustainable characters and actions, companion quests, cooperative communities, sources of epistemological innovation and spiritual resilience, and an ethics and aesthetics of repair.

Disaster Storytelling: Extending the Memory of the Community Toward Disaster Preparedness from Myth, Scientific Explanation, and Popular Culture

Disasters are likely to regularly occur in Indonesia since it is geographically located in the area known as the Ring of Fire, and is surrounded by many volcanoes, which float above several constantly moving pieces of tectonic plates. Disaster cycles transcend over generations and can be very long. Thus, it is very important to convey knowledge on disasters across generations since this information will affect the possibility of human survival should a disaster occur. How can we convey this information across generations? Are myths more effective than scientific explanations, or is it the other way around? Should we use both? How does a myth look like in our modern times? This study describes a number of myths – originating in several Indonesian locations, such as Yogyakarta, Palu, Sigi, Donggala, Banten, and Simeulue – so that a common thread can be drawn to obtain an effective way of conveying myths to future generations. From survivors’ stories of disasters, it seems that these accounts depend on their prior knowledge. Thus, it is important for the local story to be understood, so that it stays in the memory of the community, and can be narrated as a part of their everyday life. Thus, in accordance with the local community’s culture, it is essential to provide appropriate educational media on the risks of disasters and efforts to save themselves, should a disaster actually occur.

Disaster Museums in Japan: Telling the Stories of Disasters Before and After 3.11

Japan has an established tradition of museums commemorating its long history of disasters, which memorialize lives lost and convey the scientific mechanisms of natural hazards, disaster history, and people’s experiences during and after disasters. The first part of this paper provides an overview of seven modern disaster museums in Japan established before 3.11, starting from the museum of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. These seven museums commemorate disasters of different types, time, and scales of damages. Considering their shared commonalities and individual characteristics, it describes the components and approaches of exhibits that these museums use to convey experiences and stories of disasters, passing on local knowledge toward future disaster risk reduction. The second part of the paper provides an overview of new museums and exhibit facilities established to commemorate the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011. The scale of the devastation of 3.11, as well as an explosion of interest and support for activities of memorialization, documentation, and exhibition, has resulted in a variety and decentralization of new museums and exhibit spaces throughout the area affected by the 3.11 disaster. Spanning various combinations and types of exhibit facilities, this paper concludes by considering emergent trends compared to pre-3.11 disaster museums and potential future developments.

Disaster Storytelling and Volcanic Eruptions Caused by Debris Avalanches on Mt. Bandai in Aizu and Mt. Unzendake and Mt. Mayuyama in Shimabara

People tend to forget the past. For example, nine years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, and memories of the disaster have begun to fade even in the disaster-stricken areas. People who have experienced disasters directly have tried to spread the memories of those events in various ways because they do not want their children and grandchildren to endure what they did. One of the most impressive ways of sharing these memories is for witnesses of disasters to communicate how they directly experienced them. There is a challenge in handing down these stories because people directly affected by the disasters will die within the next ten years. This paper takes up two examples of volcanoes in Japan, and examines how stories of these disasters were passed on to people who have not experienced them directly. We proceed by investigating common points in these stories and comparing them, and also by exploring the activity of passing how these disaster stories have been passed down after more than 100 years since its occurrence when there are no more survivors who have any direct memory of it.

The Role of the “Mediator” in Sustainable Preservation and Utilization of Disaster Remains – Report from the 2020 International Forum on Telling Live Lessons from Disasters –

Preserving disaster remains does not always mean inheriting memories of disasters. Without long-term preservation and sustainable utilization of disaster remains, we cannot hand down the stories of disasters to the future generations. Keeping this in mind, a breakout session “Disaster Remains and Passing-on of Memories” was held in the “2020 International Forum on Telling Live Lessons from Disasters,” to grasp the trends of disaster remains inside and outside Japan. The discussions in the breakout session have put a spotlight on the important role of the “mediator” in sustainable utilization of disaster remains. With reference to the reports presented by the speakers at the breakout session, the objective of this study is to discuss the role of the “mediator” in sustainable utilization of disaster remains. The role of the “mediator” has been found to include a role of encouraging the preservation of disaster remains and a role of digging up buried memories.

Disaster Tourism as a Tool for Disaster Story Telling

Tourism helps communities sustain the memories of disaster and pass on live lessons. On the other hand, the memories and experiences of disaster and reconstruction thereafter constitute an important part of local resources for tourism that contribute to the development of local economies. In Indonesia, such tourism is even associated with sustainable tourism. In a particular type of tourism characterized by locally organized programs that exploits the indigenous resources and contacts with local resident, telling live lessons plays a pivotal role in linking pre- and post-devastation, local resident and visitors, and areas with and without disaster experiences. Here, we examine the significance of tourism as a forum for learning from and connecting with areas hit by disasters from the viewpoint of three “Links.” That is, “linking between pre- and post-devastation,” “linking between local resident and visitors,” and “linking between areas with and without disaster experiences.”

Genesis by John Goldingay, and: Genesis 25B–50 by Kathleen M. O'Connor

Reviewed by: Genesisby John Goldingay, and: Genesis 25B–50by Kathleen M. O'Connor Bradley C. Gregory john goldingay, Genesis( Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020). Pp. xix + 808. $59.99. kathleen m. o'connor, Genesis 25B–50( Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary; Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2020). Pp. xxvi + 306. $55. These two commentaries on Genesis, written by highly regarded scholars, both aim at making the results of biblical scholarship accessible and relevant to educated laypeople and scholars alike. O'Connor's commentary on the first half of Genesis appeared in 2018 and was reviewed previously in this journal (by Michael S. Moore, CBQ82 [2020] 123–24). O'Connor's introduction, although the same as that in the first volume, is succinct but effective. She agrees with the majority view that Genesis should be dated to the Persian period, and she adeptly articulates the need to balance an appreciation for the compositional history of Genesis with the coherence of its final literary form. Her discussion of the concept of authorship in the ancient world will be particularly helpful for nonspecialists. By placing the book in its Persian context, O'C. views the experience of war, disaster, and trauma as a key both for why Genesis was written and for the interpretation of its individual passages. Genesis, then, is a book written to help traumatized people process their experiences and survive. O'C. argues there are three ways the book does this: (1) through "disaster stories" that encode and mirror the experience of the nation's collapse; (2) through themes related to impossibility, such as barrenness, famine, and landlessness; and (3) through the divine promises of children, land, and blessing. Using this interpretive grid, each section of the commentary deals with the exegetical issues in the passage, keeping technical language to a minimum, and then in a section called "Connections" she sets the passage in a wider context, the canon and/or Christian theology. Throughout there are a number of sidebars on issues of historical context, cultural issues, pictures, and famous works of art. The result is an inviting and accessible commentary that would be especially good for classroom use. The introduction in Goldingay's commentary is also brief but helpful. He begins by discussing the narrative shape and structure of Genesis before turning to the fraught question of the relationship between narrative and history. He argues that Genesis is somewhere between history and pure fiction, likening it to something akin to Greek histories or modern movies that are "based on fact" (p. 5). G. does not wish to dispute the consensus that the [End Page 675]final form of Genesis should be dated to the Persian period and accepts that the book had a long prehistory, but, unlike O'C., he does not see this recognition as particularly helpful for interpretation. Instead, he is mainly interested in the text as it stands and argues that one cannot base an understanding of Genesis on knowing the date of its stories or on seeing it as the expression of the ideology of a particular group or period in Israel's history. I seek to understand [Genesis] as it stands against the broad context of the life of Israel, as a repository of Israel's collective memory or a reflective reworking of that memory that so commended itself to the community that the community held on to it when it let other memories fall away. (p. 9) Each section of the commentary, then, begins with an introduction and G.'s translation of the passage along with notes on philological and text-critical issues; these are followed by a verse-by-verse exegesis. For some passages, a section is included at the end called "Implications," which takes up in greater depth theological issues or problems raised by the passage. One particularly notable feature of G.'s commentary is that throughout, not just in the "Implications" section, he often engages the history of interpretation. For example, on Gen 1:1–2:4a, in addition to contemporary scholars he also interacts with Jubilees, Philo, Origen, Ephrem, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Ibn Ezra, Luther, and Calvin...

In Search of a King: Saul and the Ark of God. Textual, Literary, and Ritual Elements in a Foundational Biblical Story

The story of King Saul fills most of the first book of Samuel. Saul first appears in chapter 9, and in chapter 31, he and his sons die. The end of his reign is already mentioned at the end of chapter 14; the rest of the story, as told after this note, is a story of disaster. The account insists on Saul's belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of Israel's tribes, most likely to diminish his importance. One would expect a more prestigious origin of the first ruler of the (Northern) Kingdom of Israel.

Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Reviewed by: Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes Deborah Stevenson, Editor Rhodes, Jewell Parker Paradise on Fire. Little, 2021 [256p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780316493833 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780316493840 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 4-7 After her parents’ death in an apartment fire, Adaugo, known as Addy, is hypervigilant about mapping her surroundings and identifying escape routes (“No matter what: Escape. Survive”). Now she’s thousands of miles away from her Bronx home in a summer program called Wilderness Adventures, which allows Addy’s group of urban Black kids to experience the California wild. Addy takes to the wilderness like a duck to water, reveling in exploring her surroundings and cartographically comprehending the untamed country around her. When a group camping trip turns into a frenzied flight from a wildfire, will Addy’s skills save her and her new friends? Rhodes has a knack for disaster stories with real-life implications, and Addy is an original character whose focus on control is plausible and plausibly advantageous in this very different milieu. The kids are a reasonably individuated bunch, and it’s a nice touch that Addy’s abilities are respected by most of the group when the time comes. The escape itself is harrowing, and the book doesn’t pull any punches about the price and fury of wildfires. Addy’s (and the author’s) clear love of the natural world shines throughout, balancing the pounding adventure with respect and appreciation. Readers may not want to race a wildfire, but they’ll definitely long to hit the hills with Addy. Rhodes appends a detailed note about wildfires, climate change, and systemic racism’s effects on minority access to nature. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Pengembangan Alat Peraga Kotak Mitigasi Bencana sebagai Penunjang Pembelajaran Kebencanaan di Sekolah Dasar

The purpose of this research is to develop a tool for disaster mitigation box as a support for learning disaster in elementary schools. This research uses the R&D approach according to Borg & Gall, which includes the step of development, pilot testing, and the final testing. In The development stage, resulted in seven aspects of the mitigation box namely a disaster poster, disaster impact poster, evacuation map, symbols for evacuation, newspaper clippings, disaster stories and songs about disasters. The seven aspects are declared very feasible to use in disaster learning. The trial phase is a limited trial. Limited trials were carried out 2 times to 32 students in grade III of SD Negeri 6 Mataram. In this limited trial it was stated that this disaster mitigation box was very suitable for learning. Disaster mitigation box testing phase is the stage to determine the effect of the use of disaster mitigation boxes to increase disaster awareness. Increased disaster awareness is determined based on the gain score. The results of the study concluded that the gain score for implementing the disaster mitigation box was 0.50 (medium). The development of the disaster mitigation box teaching aid received a good response from students by 80.80% and according to observers the learning went very well. The results of the research and validation test of learning development experts using disaster mitigation box props are worthy to be used as references in disaster learning. DOI: 10.29408/kpj.v4i1.1998

Sustainable Groundwater Stories – From Disasters to Epical Narration

Fiction writers rarely imagine water’s subterranean realms. Novelists tend not to encroach beneath the predominant attention to surface water to find the potency of groundwater narratives. This paper examines the deep, time connections of water and story. Blending post-human imaginaries with the politics of Australian water cultures and drawing from Val Plumwood’s “shadow places”, the paper applies the notion of “shadow waters”1 to creative writing methodologies. Telling disaster stories is not enough. Narrating the vulnerabilities and potencies of groundwater’s tidal movements means linking ancient pasts with perilous futures through the precarious present. Acknowledging the long tradition of Indigenous oral story lines, Alexis Wright’s “epical storytelling” in Carpentaria is exemplary.2 What can be learnt of sustainable groundwater ecologies and incursions into groundwater management from stories that give voice and representation to aquifers themselves?

Mass-Listening and the Diaspora: The Year in Puerto Rico

Mass-Listening and the DiasporaThe Year in Puerto Rico Ricia Anne Chansky (bio) Since the hurricane, I've been able to see that there is an incredible emotional need. It's up to us as individuals to try to fulfill this emotional need by listening. —Félix Serrano Villegas, San Juan1 We in Puerto Rico are now over two years from the successive landfalls of Hurricanes Irma and María in September 2017, and we still linger in a fraught aftermath. Looking beyond the sites photographed for glossy tourism campaigns reveals a different reality. Hospitals and schools remain closed, electricity and other utility services are precarious, and lasting instability combined with a dire lack of social services leave many citizens languishing in medical and mental health crises. The relief and rebuilding funds voted into existence by the United States Congress have yet to be fully released, leaving the majority of the $45.2 billion approved for disbursement sitting in an account instead of reaching people in need. In a more publicized aspect of this immoral—if not illegal—process, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, better known as HUD, purposely missed the deadline to initiate the process for distributing billions of dollars' worth of relief funds earmarked for the archipelago. As I complete this essay, we are now in the midst of another disaster. An ongoing swarm of over 1,800 earthquakes has been recorded just off the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico, the largest to date registering at a magnitude of 6.4. This seismic activity is causing destruction on land and forcing thousands of Puerto Ricans to flee their homes for the "safety" of cars, streets, and tent cities. Locations far from the southwestern region are experiencing tremors, aftershocks, and power outages. This new disaster comes at a time when we are not yet anywhere near a recovery from the catastrophic hurricane season of 2017. The abysmal lack of government relief in the aftermaths of María has spawned population-wide anxiety, as many know all too well that we cannot rely upon local or national government [End Page 144] agencies for response, relief, or rebuilding. The layers of disaster are numerous and remain interwoven in our life stories—no matter how much time passes from the event—while the ways we narrate, disseminate, and receive life stories of disaster and its aftermaths are complex, nuanced, and endless. The invitation to contribute to an annual "International Year in Review" of narrated lives is especially helpful when it comes to noting patterns that signify phases of processing collective trauma. In the piece that I contributed to last year's feature, I explored narratives wrought in the urgency of the immediate aftermath of disaster. In this year's contribution, I will discuss briefly the production, circulation, and reception of Puerto Rican auto/biographical narratives over the past year in the contexts of what I call mass-listening projects. I define mass-listening projects as those that collect several life narratives related to a single issue or event for the purpose of curating multivoiced assemblages—in any modality or genre—for public dissemination. In other words, they are narrative transactions that have site-specific points for multiple speakers to conduct exchanges with multiple listeners.2 The reading witness or the act of receiving a disaster narrative is paramount to its function, as these life stories by their nature request forms of response, the most desired of which is action. In order to discuss a shift in diasporic identity constructions that I have observed since the hurricane, I will first examine a post on a Facebook page that I position as exemplary of this type of digital mass-listening project and then comment briefly upon three print anthologies as a means of extending my analysis of some of the ways this form of auto/biographical undertaking reshapes communal identity constructions that integrate home-space (experienced or imagined) with lived-space. I will focus on specific projects within digital and print publications to make larger arguments related to critical disaster studies, including the functions of diasporic communities, modes of narration, and listeners as witnesses to collective trauma. In the...

Socialization through stories of disaster in engineering laboratories.

The initiation of novices into research communities relies on the communication of tacit knowledge, behavioral norms and moral values. Much of this instruction happens informally, as messages subtly embedded in everyday interactions. Through participant-observation and interviews, I investigate how engineers socialize future engineers. Specifically, I study how undergraduate students who work in an engineering laboratory learn their research community's social and technical norms. I found that a key method of conveying knowledge about social behavior and technical practices is the narration of the experience of mistakes and failures. As a powerful tool of socialization, these 'disaster stories' contain messages of self-deprecation, humility, teamwork and mutual learning. They are most often told by the principal investigator or a graduate student to an undergraduate student, thus generously offering novices the opportunity to learn vicariously through more experienced engineers' errors. Disaster stories can reduce hierarchy, normalize learning through mistakes and build relationships among workers through the sharing of humbling personal struggles. The stories promote collaboration, a sense of belonging and the value of continuous learning for all the community's members. They demonstrate the power of storytelling in the acquisition of tacit social and technical knowledge.