On March 23, 1913, the United States was reminded of the awesome power of Mother Nature, resulting in the great flood of 1913 (Williams, 2013). Though the rain would begin to fall on Easter Sunday, March 23, (And would fall for three days straight) by Monday – even after the local newspaper the Piqua Leader Dispatch reported the “Great Miami River will reach flood stage by nightfall” - those living in the lowest lying areas of the city would ignore the warnings.
Why?
Area historian and author Scott Trostel stated “crowds had gathered along the North Main Street levee in Piqua (Ohio) to observe the rising flood waters. Warnings were issued to residents of Rossville (To the north) to seek higher ground. Similar warnings were put out in East Piqua and Shawnee …show more content…
Perhaps it was the fact the city of Piqua had had a number of pre-cursor floods that had not culminated in wide-spread destruction? Even though those previous floods had taken out bridges and flooded some homesteads (Silver, 2013).
Had residents grown so accustomed to the cry of wolf warnings that they simply decided enough was enough? Assuming they would survive with little to no negative effects or perhaps the flooding would be a non-issue all together. A belief that a life-changing disaster either couldn’t happen again or happen at all. Also, today’s evaluation makes it easy to simplify what should have been done given the propensity of hindsight bias. We analyze and judge as we trace back through the events to determine what the sole cause was or ask is there someone we can ultimately blame (Gerstein, 2008, p. 100)?
According to the psychological stages of disaster denial may have played a significant part in the 1913 disaster. Denial would make sense when individuals living in the areas of impending disaster had gathered around a rising river, witnessing with their own eyes a rising watershed, and then choosing to go home with little other thought or consideration (FIT,
Why?
Area historian and author Scott Trostel stated “crowds had gathered along the North Main Street levee in Piqua (Ohio) to observe the rising flood waters. Warnings were issued to residents of Rossville (To the north) to seek higher ground. Similar warnings were put out in East Piqua and Shawnee …show more content…
Perhaps it was the fact the city of Piqua had had a number of pre-cursor floods that had not culminated in wide-spread destruction? Even though those previous floods had taken out bridges and flooded some homesteads (Silver, 2013).
Had residents grown so accustomed to the cry of wolf warnings that they simply decided enough was enough? Assuming they would survive with little to no negative effects or perhaps the flooding would be a non-issue all together. A belief that a life-changing disaster either couldn’t happen again or happen at all. Also, today’s evaluation makes it easy to simplify what should have been done given the propensity of hindsight bias. We analyze and judge as we trace back through the events to determine what the sole cause was or ask is there someone we can ultimately blame (Gerstein, 2008, p. 100)?
According to the psychological stages of disaster denial may have played a significant part in the 1913 disaster. Denial would make sense when individuals living in the areas of impending disaster had gathered around a rising river, witnessing with their own eyes a rising watershed, and then choosing to go home with little other thought or consideration (FIT,