In correspondence with a friend who is a therapist and someone I really respect and she put one of the aspects not often considered into perspective in the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Irene.  Having been on the counseling teams for disaster planning in several educational institutions I was aware of emotional aftermaths but did not put it in such accurate words.... and from someone who cares for the real well-being for those affected by disasters.  I grew up in Santa Monica/Malibu, California and had several friends who lost everything to fires and mud slides and their loss of memorabilia always made an impression on me...

Here's Laura's comments:

Even this morning I saw footage of numerous houses floating downstream!  Tons of them!!  What are these people going to do in the meantime while seeing what is to be done?!  A woman was interviewed by phone from a shelter and told the reported that although glad to be alive and at a shelter, she and the others were still in shock; in one second they lost their homes, memories, jobs, belongings, neighbors, and are currently trapped in this shelter that is now an island between flood waters.  They'd been there for 3 days and are going crazy.  Can't even go outside because it's too dangerous.  I live in Ohio and, even though I've enjoyed gorgeous weather during this whole thing, I've been dripping tears for the past week, oversleeping, can't really enjoy anything.  I'm wondering if the media is downplaying a lot of this now so the rest of the country doesn't get depressed like this?  If so, it may only serve to be turning Americans into seemingly cold-hearted, misinformed, arrogant jerks who judge what they don't even know about.  It really creates a nasty split within our own society.  The same thing happened when I returned from my military service.  I finally quit discussing the ills of the Army and my overseas experiences after so many friends and relatives responded that they'd never heard of the incidents I spoke of on the news, the military would NEVER do some things I mentioned to its own people, etc..  Now we see on an even larger scale how this happens in our society.  This would never occur in Japan.  I'm still much happier to be in the U.S. but "I'm just sayin'."


so please remember those who are still in shock, trying to figure out how to survive when it's all gone..... and to those who say it's no big deal.... consider those who lost it all in seconds.... there is nothing saying that it can't happen to you... fires, tornadoes, floods, mud slides can happen.