Taking Action Helps Flood Victims Stay Afloat

When flood waters surged this spring and turned parts of North Dakota into an inland sea, the numbers of disaster victims mounted. What might help these victims of a watery invasion best cope?

A recent study of victims of the Midwest Great Flood of 1993 found an active coping style that identified positive actions to take rather than avoiding thinking about the disaster led to less psychological distress and less despondency. Personal religious beliefs also helped victims cope.

"In studies of persons suffering with serious physical illness, religious coping helps prevent depression," noted Dr. David Larson, president of the National Institute for Healthcare Research. "This study shows it helps victims of natural disasters cope as well."

The devastation of this flood like the recent one in North Dakota was far reaching. The 1993 flood submerged 15,600 square miles-- an area larger than Lake Ontario-- and robbed 70,000 people of homes and 30,000 of jobs. Fifty people died.

Dr. Bruce Smith of St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis investigated what factors helped persons deal more successfully with the flood's impact on their lives. He surveyed 131 flood victims several weeks after the flood had crested and then again seven months later. After controlling for severity of exposure to the flood, he discovered an active approach to dealing with the disaster worked best.

Active coping involves "identifying the possibilities for change, estimating the outcomes of various strategies, and ranking the strategies in order of preference," he explained. In addition, "If research continues to find active coping playing a positive role in events that seem largely uncontrollable, there may be some important implications for intervention."

Persons who tried to cope by such avoidance strategies as "keeping busy with other things to keep my mind off the problem," were more likely to experience heightened physical symptoms such as insomnia, headaches and indigestion, Dr. Bruce found.

What other factors helped? Persons who rated religion as personally important to them before the flood felt less drained and overwhelmingly distressed by the crisis, possibly helped by religious coping such as prayer.

"Disasters can break the human spirit or they can reveal its capacity to rise above adversity," Dr. Bruce noted. Research findings like those in this study can help "discover the ways this potential for resilience can be strengthened and nurtured."

Reference: Smith, Bruce W. (1996). "Coping as a Predictor of Outcomes Following the 1993 Midwest Flood." Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 11(2): 225-239.