The Resilience of a Small Town in Kansas

An EF5 tornado struck Greensburg, Kansas, destroying about 95% of the town and taking about a dozen lives. Sirens sounded about 15 minutes before impact, but no mechanism existed to prevent the disaster. After such an event, individuals, businesses, governments, and communities face the challenge of rebuilding plans and daily life. Social support refers to perceptions of being loved and cared for. Social support mitigates the impact of traumatic events, is associated with lower post-traumatic stress disorder, and supports faster, more robust recovery. Improving social support after natural disasters can reduce harm and strengthen recovery.

"Social support is a vital cushion to mitigate the impact of traumatic events. Social support is associated with lower levels of post-traumatic stress disorder and typically contributes to faster and more robust recovery after exposure to trauma (Evans, 2012). We can do much as a society to mitigate the loss of life, and perhaps there is also more we can do to improve social support in the wake of natural disasters."

"The importance of social support in the wake of such a traumatic event cannot be understated. The term "social support" refers to a broadly defined construct encompassing individuals' perceptions of being loved and cared for. Social support is a vital cushion to mitigate the impact of traumatic events."

"Put yourself in the shoes of the residents of Greensburg: What do you do when your plans and your way of life and everything you know is destroyed overnight? What do you do as an individual, a business, a government, or a community? The sirens went off approximately 15 minutes before the tornado hit, but there was no mechanism to prevent the disaster."

"Greensburg wasn't the first small town in Kansas to be devastated by a tornado. In 1955, there was an EF5 tornado that destroyed Udall, Kansas, a town of about 500 people, killing 80 and injuring 250. Udall lost about 16 percent of its population (about 50 percent were injured), and Greensburg lost less than 1 percent."

Read at Psychology Today