By Lynda Majarian Article published March 1, 2004
Search and rescue crews, firefighters and police officers are first on the scene when disaster strikes, but it is not uncommon to find a sociologist in their midst. Last week, at a media briefing hosted by the National Science Foundation, UVM sociologist Alice Fothergill was among six of the nation’s top rapid-response disaster experts who discussed their experiences directly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the current state of disaster studies.
Rapid-response disaster experts quickly gain access to people and data in the immediate aftermath of hurricanes, floods and other catastrophes to gather information that not only helps uncover what went wrong with water systems, power grids, communication and other vital systems but also helps prepare for future events.
Fothergill, an assistant professor of sociology, studied the emergence of volunteerism after the terrorist attacks. She didn’t get to Ground Zero herself — she was seven months pregnant at the time — but she analyzed and interpreted information collected at the site by her colleague, Seana Lowe of the University of Colorado.
“Volunteers responded to the scene almost immediately,” Fothergill says. Most were New Yorkers, but many volunteers, such as firefighters and rescue workers, came from other states and even other countries to help. People who never had volunteered for anything in their lives suddenly found themselves at Ground Zero. According to the Red Cross, the outpouring of volunteer effort after the terrorist attacks was the largest response ever to a disaster.
“You can’t keep people away from a disaster site,” says Fothergill. “They’re like cells going to a wound.”
Healing by helping others
Fothergill’s research examines volunteers’ experiences, reactions, motivations and behaviors in order to more clearly understand why they want, and need, to participate. “One of our main findings is that volunteers heal themselves by helping others,” Fothergill says. “People personalized the terrorists attacks,” she explains. “They felt as if the events had actually happened to them.”
Although volunteers provide vital assistance, their presence can present challenges. After Sept. 11, the Red Cross had to process 15,000 volunteers — an undertaking that included mental health evaluations. Many volunteers donated blood, some organized supplies, others prepared and served food. About 300 of them went to work on computers to help organize the overall volunteer effort. Some who came to help and didn’t have specialized skills were frustrated they couldn’t do more. Fothergill wants to correct the common misconception that people panic during disasters. “People remain orderly and help each other,” she says, noting that the media “overplays incidences of panic and looting.”
In June, Fothergill and Lowe will revisit the people involved in their study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation through the National Hazards Institute in Boulder, Colo. They want to see how many of the volunteers who said they were committed to continue some sort of volunteer effort in their communities were true to their word and to understand the feelings and reasons behind those decisions.
“Sociologists have been studying the communal aspects of disaster behavior responses for at least 50 years,” Fothergill says. “Sept. 11 was a different type of disaster because it was a crime scene, but the behaviors of volunteers were the same ones we’ve observed after other catastrophes.”
The National Science Foundation currently is working out logistics to put the Feb. 23 media briefing on the Internet. In addition, the experiences of 20 researchers, including Fothergill, have been compiled in a book titled, Beyond September 11th: An Account of Post-Disaster Research.
Fothergill researches and teaches courses on work and family issues. Her book, Heads Above Water, will be published later this year by SUNY Press. A product of her visits to Grand Forks, N.D., before and after a 1997 flood, the book explores, among many issues, how women reacted to the loss of home and how the flood contributed to downward mobility.
