II: Disasters Compared in Six American Communities

Before reporting on our findings, I would like to describe the nature and purposes of the National Opinion Research Center Disaster Project. Since 1950, the Center has maintained a specially-trained disaster team to conduct field investigations of domestic disasters. The maintenance of rapid re-establishment of effective social organization in community disasters, either wartime or peacetime, is the central problem with which the project is concerned. Subsumed under this more general problem are many specific problems concerning human behavior in disasters—e.g., the nature of fear and panic reactions, crowd behavior, leadership, rumor and other forms of communication, the effectiveness of various rescue, relief, control, information and rehabilitation measures, and the changes in personality and social structure which are produced by disasters. The practical aim of the project is to develop findings which will aid the development of effective disaster preparedness and control measures.