title: Mitigating flood exposure: Reducing disaster risk and trauma signature.
abstract: Introduction.In 2011, following heavy winter snowfall, two cities bordering two rivers in North Dakota, USA faced major flood threats. Flooding was foreseeable and predictable although the extent of risk was uncertain. One community, Fargo, situated in a shallow river basin, successfully mitigated and prevented flooding. For the other community, Minot, located in a deep river valley, prevention was not possible and downtown businesses and one-quarter of the homes were inundated, in the city's worst flood on record. We aimed at contrasting the respective hazards, vulnerabilities, stressors, psychological risk factors, psychosocial consequences, and disaster risk reduction strategies under conditions where flood prevention was, and was not, possible.Methods. We applied the "trauma signature analysis" (TSIG) approach to compare the hazard profiles, identify salient disaster stressors, document the key components of disaster risk reduction response, and examine indicators of community resilience.Results. Two demographically-comparable communities, Fargo and Minot, faced challenging river flood threats and exhibited effective coordination across community sectors. We examined the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies in situations where coordinated citizen action was able to prevent disaster impact (hazard avoidance) compared to the more common scenario when unpreventable disaster strikes, causing destruction, harm, and distress. Across a range of indicators, it is clear that successful mitigation diminishes both physical and psychological impact, thereby reducing the trauma signature of the event.Conclusion. In contrast to experience of historic flooding in Minot, the city of Fargo succeeded in reducing the trauma signature by way of reducing risk through mitigation.
authors.affiliation: Center for Disaster & Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center); University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Miami, FL USA.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Shultz
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Health Sciences; University of North Dakota; Fargo, ND USA.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McLean
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology; Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress; Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences; Bethesda, MD USA.
authors.forename: Holly B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Herberman Mash
authors.affiliation: Center for Disaster & Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center); University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Miami, FL USA.
authors.forename: Alexa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.affiliation: Clinical & Health Psychology; University of Edinburgh; Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; College of Engineering; University of Miami; Miami, FL USA.
authors.forename: Helena M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Solo-Gabriele
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Management; North Dakota State University; Fargo, ND USA.
authors.forename: Georgia A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Youngs
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Management; North Dakota State University; Fargo, ND USA.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine; Universidad de Los Andes; Bogota, Colombia.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bernal
authors.affiliation: Trauma and PTSD Program; Department of Psychiatry & The New York State Psychiatric Institute; Columbia University; New York NY USA.
authors.forename: Yuval
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Neria
keywords: community resilience; disaster; flood; mental health; mitigation; psychological; psychosocial; resilience; trauma; trauma signature analysis