Compare And Contrast The Psychological Stages Of Haiti Earthquake

The majority of people exposed to any type of a disaster do well and may have only mild transitory symptoms. However, some people develop specific psychological reactions which occur during the seven stages of a disaster. The extent of which the psychological mortality that manifests in people in the community is dependent upon the type of disaster, the experience, the disruption caused to the community, the amount of life threat and the extent of injury sustained (Ursano, Fullerton & Norwood, n.d.). This paper will briefly compare and contrast the seven psychological stages of a disaster in the 2010 Haiti earthquake (natural disaster), and the 1988 Lockerbie, Scotland crash of the NY bound Pan-Am Boeing 747 (terrorist disaster). The Haiti earthquake was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake which struck near Port au Prince where it is estimated that 86% of the people living there were living in deplorable conditions – mostly tightly packed in poorly built concrete buildings. Nearly 3.5 million people were affected by the quake with 220,000 estimated deaths and an additional 300,000 injured (Haiti Earthquake Facts, n.d.). In December 1988, a terrorist bomb destroyed Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which was enroute from London to New York. All 259 passengers and crew members were killed, as well as 11 people on …show more content…
The community continues to bond but optimism exists that everything will return to normal as soon as possible. Emotional exhaustion sets in, tempers may fray among survivors and rescuers. An emotional roller-coaster may be experienced by some. In the plane crash incident, emotions may have become steady at this stage because the potential danger may be perceived as being over. The earthquake scenario survivors may continue to feel anxious because of the threat of violent aftershocks thus, their emotional stabilization may require a longer period of time to