Language Arts

After reading the article,

 

“The Storm After the Storm” (Links to an external site.)

, answer the 5 questions in the text box below using the R.A.C.E. Strategy.

Restate the question, answer all parts of the question, cite textual evidence, explain your answer.

 

1. What effect did Hurricane Andrew (1992) have on Maria and her family? 

2. What is PTSD? What symptoms do people with PTSD experience?

3. Besides Hurricane Andrew, name 2 other natural disasters listed in the article and when they took place.

4. In the last section of the article, “Moving On”, what do experts suggest people do to help them cope with loss after a disaster? 

5. THINK about how experiencing a natural disaster can affect someone’s mental health. What do you think the title: “The Storm After the Storm” means? Hint: What two storms are they talking about? EXPLAIN.

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“The Storm After the Storm”

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1/25/22, 9:45 PM The Storm After the Storm: Disaster’s Mental Toll

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20170921/the-storm-after-the-storm-disasters-mental-toll 1/5

Mental Health  News

By Kathleen Doheny

 Medically Reviewed by Neha Pathak, MD
on September 21, 2017

WEBMD HEALTH NEWS

The Storm After The Storm: Disaster’s Mental Toll

FROM THE WEBMD ARCHIVES

Sept. 21, 2017 — When the evacuation order came as Hurricane Irma was bearing down on Florida, Maria Mendez followed steps

she knew well.

“We got the house ready,” says Mendez, a 68-year-old English professor from Cutler Bay, about 30 miles south of downtown

Miami. The family put up the hurricane shutters, wrapped paintings and other valuables, and moved the patio furniture inside.

Suddenly, however, Maria ran out of the house.

“I opened the gate and started running,” she says.

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https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/default.htm

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/default.htm

https://www.webmd.com/kathleen-doheny

https://www.webmd.com/neha-pathak-md

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Her husband, Alfredo, and daughter Ana led her back to the house, calmed her down, and the family safely evacuated.

In hindsight, Maria knows what was behind her need to escape. Irma had triggered a reliving of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, when

they lost their house, cars, and boat. During that storm, the family had holed up in the house, terrified as the bathroom ceiling

collapsed and the roof blew away.

“We were sure we were going to die,” she remembers. The psychologist who diagnosed her posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

after Hurricane Andrew had said to expect unusual reactions when disaster strikes.

With seemingly endless recent disasters — hurricanes in Texas, Florida, and the Caribbean; wildfires out West; and now, major

earthquakes in Mexico — the immediate concern of the ones affected is survival: eating, drinking, and finding a place to sleep .

But soon after, the mental health fallout can start.

What’s ‘Normal’ After Disaster?

Experts notice a pattern of mental health symptoms after disasters, says Yuval Neria, PhD, professor of medical psychology and

director of the PTSD treatment and research program at Columbia University Medical Center. “Usually what we see first is the

anxiety, fear, the difficulty in concentrating and functioning,” he says.

If that’s not addressed, substance abuse from self-medicating is a danger. PTSD is also a concern, he says.

We were sure we were going to die.
Maria Mendez of Cutler, FL.

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https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/guide-to-psychiatry-and-counseling

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder

https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-habits-assessment

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/default.htm

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-are-treatments-for-posttraumatic-stress-disorder

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“PTSD is a combination of anxiety and depressive symptoms,” Neria says. It also includes hyperarousal, or feeling jittery, always

alert, and on the lookout for danger, even when none is present.

It’s also marked by nightmares, flashbacks, and avoiding situations or places that bring back the terror.

The anxiety can be fueled by the uncertainty of where you will go when disaster strikes, and even where you will sleep that

night, as Daisy Gonzalez, a medical student at the University of Miami, knows.

She had to evacuate her apartment, about 15 minutes north of South Beach. When the hurricane looked imminent, she and her

boyfriend, Peter Talesnik, both recent transplants from New York, were in a quandary. He couldn’t drive, and she had just learned

to drive. So they headed for the airport, hoping to catch a standby flight.

With no available flights after 7 hours, Daisy’s dad called and said he would fly from New York to Miami and drive them back.

They got out safely, but Daisy remembers the sinking feeling: “I honestly had no idea what we were going to do.”

That fear of the unknown, along with the unusually long lead time before Irma struck, is difficult to deal with emotionally, says

Arlene Wright, a family nurse practitioner in Fort Myers, FL, who worked to reassure patients before the storm that she would

help them get medications.

Most callers just wanted reassurance. “It’s an emotional roller coaster. There’s so much hype before. You are sitting around, and

it’s like waiting for a death sentence.”

When to Seek Help

People who have life-threatening exposure to a disaster, such as being in a building that shakes violently during an earthquake or

being trapped in a flooded house during a hurricane, are more likely to develop PTSD, says James Shultz, PhD, director of the

Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

https://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/default.htm

https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/nightmares-in-adults

https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/rm-quiz-stress-anxiety

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Knowing when to get professional mental health help is key, Neria says. “If you can’t sleep well, if you cannot concentrate, if you

become angry and have emotional difficulty dealing with the daily routine, you must get help, and the sooner the better.”

What Research Has Found

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, researchers documented changes in mental and physical health among 392 low-income parents.

They found that nearly half likely had PTSD. Their health effects continued for a year or more.

After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Neria and Shultz reviewed published studies about disaster-related PTSD and found that PTSD

risk is usually lower after natural disasters, compared with human-made and technological disasters, where human error or

computer malfunction cause catastrophe.

If trauma-related symptoms such as PTSD persist, they say, you should get help that addresses the main issues. These symptoms

may include:

Intrusive thoughts

Sleep problems

Nightmares

A heightened startle reaction (when something surprises or scares you)

Avoidant behaviors, or avoiding certain situation

Although symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event, they can also happen months or years later.

Symptoms of trauma lasting more than 3 days could be acute stress disorder, or ASD. If they last more than 4 weeks, or are

disruptive or distressing, PTSD is probable, experts say.

Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, also called talk therapy, can help survivors process the trauma, and medication could also

be a treatment.

A counselor, such as a psychologist or other mental health professional trained in PTSD treatment, can also teach how to change

the upsetting feelings and thoughts related to the trauma.

These three things are most important for the immediate mental health recovery of disaster survivors, according to the National

Center:

Focus on positive ways of coping

Connect with social supports

Get needed services.

Moving On

Coping with loss is a major challenge after a disaster, Neria says. “It’s really a marathon in which you are tested again and again

to cope with loss — loss of property, sometimes loss of lives, sometimes you lose your home base, or you lost your educational

If you can’t sleep well … if you become angry and have emotional di�iculty dealing with the
daily routine, you must get help, and the sooner the better.

Yuval Neria, PhD, Columbia University Medical Center

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system.”

Despite the obstacles, Neria says, most people will do well in the long term. People who have been through previous disasters

and handled them well are likely to be more resilient, Neria says. He often finds younger people and the elderly struggle most.

Initially, rebuilding sounds romantic, full of energy and hope, Neria says. “But you need to overcome bureaucracy, change

priorities, and sometimes you don’t have the resources to do it.”

Experts say getting back to a normal routine as quickly as possible is good for your mental health. Even if the routine is not quite

back to normal, it can help, says Mendez, the Florida resident who fled Hurricane Irma.

Soon after the worst was over, her family, dripping from the high humidity, found a Denny’s that was open. It isn’t their favorite

restaurant, she says. But they lingered as long as they could over that breakfast. And while the menu wasn’t their favorite, the

one hour they sat in air conditioning and ate breakfast felt great.

Show Sources
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry: “The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mental and Physical Health of Low-Income Parents in New Orleans.”

JAMA: “Mental Health E�ects of Hurricane Sandy.”

Maria Mendez, Cutler Bay, FL.

Yuval Neria, PhD, professor of medical psychology and director of the PTSD treatment and research program, Columbia University Medical Center.

James Shultz, PhD, director of the Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Daisy Gonzalez, medical student, University of Miami.

Arlene Wright, family nurse practitioner, Fort Myers, FL.

© 2017 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.