Kai T. Erikson studied the effects of the Buffalo Creek flood and interviewed the survivors left in the community. Erikson documented his research and his analysis in his ethnography Everything in its Path. The flood was unique in the way that it affected the community so drastically and the calamity that it caused in its wake. Buffalo Creek is a small mining community in rural West Virginia. The community has deep roots in the land and has always trusted the land to provide for them as well as trusting the company to treat them fairly. The community is made up of families that have been there for several generations and treats everyone in the community as a family member. Individuals in Buffalo Creek pride themselves on their hard work and …show more content…
They love the idea of something familiar and when it is gone, they have no idea what to do. After the flood, the Buffalo Creek inhabitants had lost their sense of belonging to their community. The flood destroyed everything in the community and displaced everyone. Community is not just a grouping of homes in one place, but it is a sense of belonging and family for Buffalo Creek. Every physical part of the community has a special meaning for these people. The roads that connect all of the towns is their “civic square” and it brings everyone together, but after the flood a highway was to be put in and the people remaining felt like it would destroy what little sense of community they had left (Erikson 1976, p. 153). A highway would symbolize the changing of their community in a more permanent way. However, many of the people affected by the lack of community did not realize what had happened to them. They just felt a “deep sense of loss, a nameless feeling that something had gone awry in the order of things..” (Erikson 1976, p. 156). It is an eerie feeling that they were missing a key part in their life, but could not realize what was missing. Erikson heard several say that their entire personalities changed after the flood and no one was the same. Another part of that came from everyone being relocated to different areas than they were used to. The absence of neighbors and family made them feel even more out of place. There was no sense of reliability or cohesiveness of the community after the flood. The people of Buffalo Creek turned to deviance as a coping mechanism to deal with the strange feelings they had. The older generations were fighting with their spouses and drinking a lot more than they admitted they should have. The teenagers were starting their bad habits for the first time. Promiscuity became an all too common way of life for the youth in the town. Why is that though? Erikson describes a home as a moral sphere and that
Case study: the flooding that occurred in Minden Hills in the spring of 2013, flooded the downtown core. The picturesque cottage town has the Gull River flowing through it. The river overflowed in April because of many reasons: a couple of days of rain, the third largest amount in over a century, but it also happened because the frost in the ground stopped the water from going into the Earth, the lakes and rivers being full from the spring thaw, and the rapid
In September 1954, he moved out of Northwood in Long Island onto the Northern State Parkway to see his new house in the countryside. He specifically said that Long Island had been one of the most beautiful places in the United States, and his house was one small reason it would not remain that way much longer. His new house lacked in exterior grandeur, but it made up for comfort inside and costs in all together $25,000. Kunstler got his first glimpse of what real American towns were like when he was sent away to a boys’ camp in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He visited his hometown Northwood when he became a teenager and saw how it has entered into a coma with so little for one to do there. Northwood had no public gathering places, so teens were stuck in their little holes who smoked pot and imitated rock and roll. For the teenagers there, the waiting transforming moment was when one became a licensed driver, as I can say the same about my town. Kunstler went to a state college in a small town, Brockport in western New York State. The college was the only thing that kept the town alive with healthy conditions where it was scaled to people, not cars. He ends the chapter by pointing out that this book is an attempt to discover how and why landscape of scary places, the geography of nowhere, has simply ceased to be a credible human habitat happened and what we might do about
A major flood on any river is both a long-term and a short-term event, particularly any river basin where human influence has exerted "control" over the ri...
The Jump-Off Creek introduces the reader to the unforgiving Blue Mountains and the harsh pioneer lifestyle with the tale of Lydia Sanderson, a widow who moves west from Pennsylvania to take up residence in a rundown homestead. She and other characters battle nature, finances, and even each other on occasion in a fight for survival in the harsh Oregon wilderness. Although the story is vividly expressed through the use of precise detail and 1800s slang, it failed to give me a reason to care because the characters are depicted as emotionally inhibited.
In conclusion, the flood at Buffalo Creek destroyed the inhabitant’s very social fabric. This in itself is not unique, but what was unique about Buffalo Creek is that there was no post disaster euphoria, where people who have survived the disaster are uplifted by the fact that the community is still present and viable. That was not the case in Buffalo Creek, mostly in part due to HUD’s internal policies but also due to the very devastation caused by the flood. The other thing that was unique about Buffalo Creek was that ninety-three percent of the survivors had diagnosable emotional disorders eighteen months after the disaster. Usually survivors of disasters are able to get over it and move on, but the survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster were not able to do this because of their total loss of “Gemeinschaft� or sense of community.
Small towns, quaint and charming, ideally picturesque for a small family to grow up in with a white picket fence paired up with the mother, father and the 2.5 children. What happens when that serene local town, exuberantly bustling with business, progressively loses the aspects that kept it alive? The youth, boisterous and effervescent, grew up surrounded by the local businesses, schools and practices, but as the years wear on, living in that small town years down the road slowly grew to be less appealing. In The Heartland and the Rural Youth Exodus by Patrick J. Carr and Maria Kefalas equally argue that “small towns play an unwitting part in their own decline (Carr and Kefalas 33) when they forget to remember the “untapped resource of the
to be a place to avoid. Few considered it a place to traverse, to spread
As a result, their lives changed, for better or for worse. They were inexperienced, and therefore made many mistakes, which made their life in Chicago very worrisome. However, their ideology and strong belief in determination and hard work kept them alive. In a land swarming with predators, this family of delicate prey found their place and made the best of it, despite the fact that America, a somewhat disarranged and hazardous jungle, was not the wholesome promise-land they had predicted it to be.
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
The loss of community was acutely felt by the former Buffalo Creek residents, who had previously been a very tight knit people. This was demonstrated by the fact that post-disaster euphoria was completely absent after the flood. Usually this euphoria arises when the survivors realize that the community is still existent and alive. However in Buffalo Creek there was not a shred of community left to cause celebration. This was due in part to HUD’s housing regulations that not only worsened the feeling of isolation, but also because of the massive destruction caused by the flood itself. After the sudden and violent incident the pain of the survivors would continue far into their future. The chronic pain and suffering resulting from the loss of community and the effects of it on would linger for years.
Growing up in a small community can be hard, I won’t be the only on to tell you that, but living in one in the 1800’s was tougher. This is especially true when there’s a murdering robber who wants revenge lurking about. But it’s got its good qualities too, I mean, there’s the picnics and the adventures and everybody knows everybody so no ones threatening anybody with their strange presence. This is why The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain display such a realistic life; it portrays both the Good and Evil in a little society.
The Colorado RIver is best known for being the principal river of the southern United States and Mexico, but it soon could lose that title. Running about 1,500 miles long, the river is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southern desert lands of North America. However over the past decade or so, the river has begun to deteriorate. There are many causes and solutions to the deterioration of the Colorado River.
A sense of community was a necessity for many Americans during the era of the Great Depression. With the drought in the Dust Bowl and other catastrophes, many were forced to relocate elsewhere in attempt to survive. The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, illustrates the importance of unity during privation through the idea that members of society must work in unison to achieve a common goal. Steinbeck demonstrates this theme through multiple aspects in the book. Being united in a group provides people the intrepidity to accomplish tasks they would not be able to as individuals. Unity is the utmost importance during a hopeless situation as it restores faith and optimism. Without the cohesion of individuals, families begin to stray from their intended purpose and sense of direction. In his novel, Steinbeck elaborates on the idea that unity is imperative because it is necessary for the survival of all, it restores faith when all hope is lost and grants a deliberate focus on an individual’s choices.
This community is built on the gathering of people coming from different backgrounds, while still embracing their differences. “We stood, all of us – those descended from settlers of Norwegian, German, or other European origins, and those descended from Anishinaabe or other Indian people.” Although having different cultural backgrounds, they were all able to join together to mourn the past lives of others. The author uses words like we or together symbolize the relationship of the community, “We stood together in a great ceremonial loop of our humanity, in our desire to immerse ourselves in their honor, to always carry those memories forward with us, to be ourselves somehow made holy by the rituals of those memories.” The gathering of the people was something natural even though they were facing the tensions within society they still were able to join together as one. “Together in a moment out of ordinary time, we paused in the little opening at the wooden grave houses, oblivious to the wood ticks, which must later be picked carefully from our clothes and our flesh, oblivious to the buzzing of mosquitoes or sand flies, oblivious as well to the more trivial tensions of contemporary politics.” The tensions of modern politics did not interfere with the way the community acted together. Being close together for this moment, but later on they would all eventually go back to their own families, “The men brought out drinks from the trunks of their cars, laughter and talk sprang up, picnic foods came out, and people would disperse again – to their own families.” A community together as one and then eventually separating into their own
The Hoover Dam is one of the biggest dams and power plants in the world. It was built during the Great depression and continues to be a source of energy for the area. Between 1930 and 1936, thousands of people worked on the dam and ninety-six workers died from accidents directly relating to the building of the dam. It was the first human-made structure to exceed the masonry mass to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza.