9321930 TOBIN Major disasters focus attention on the need for a better understanding of the ways that individuals and communities assess threats beforehand and react to events after catastrophic events. Geographers and other social scientists have been concerned with a variety of factors that affect underlying attitudes, reactions, and behaviors associated with living in a hazardous area and/or experiencing a catastophic event. This Small Grant for Exploratory Research will provide support for a team of experienced scientists to explore the psychological impact of the massive flooding in the Midwest during the summer of 1993 on residents of two different communities, one urban (Des Moines, Iowa) and the other rural (Hartsburg, Missouri). The researchers will be able to modify a survey form that has already proven successful in a similar investigation of elderly residents near the Trinity River in Texas, thus providing an excellent point of comparison. The questionnaire also includes key questions that were asked of Des Moines residents before the flooding. The study will focus on three levels of factors influencing stress: the primary level, including individual characteristics; the secondary level, focussing on the degree of homogeneity within the neighborhood; and the tertiary level, mainly the distinction between urban and rural communities. This project will provide new insights into the general principles governing human attitudes and behaviors in hazardous environments. It should prove especially useful to policy efforts that attempt to institute pre-event mitigation as well as those efforts designed to help victims cope after disastrous events. The research will clarify the special roles which might be played by the different types of communities in shaping the attitudes of residents towards the hazard potential and in responding to specific disasters. ***
