Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress
CSTS | Department of Psychiatry | Uniformed Services University | 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799 | www.CSTSonline.org

Leadership in Disasters
Tis document is a selection of‘ground zero,’ no one was unafected.
Inaworld
wheredisasters,
fromexcerpts from an excellent article
Solemnly and gently we talked
about leadership in the wake ofabout
our 12 fallen American
airplane accidents to terrorist attacks,
disaster by Prudence Bushnell, the US
colleagues as the vital, threeare increasingly part of our reality,
Ambassador to Kenya in 1998. Te
dimensional friends they were. Te
understanding how ordinary people react
author’s intent is to provide leadersrituals were important, not just towith a framework for understanding
honor and show respect but also
to extraordinary events becomes more
expectable group responses to humanto begin resurrecting a community
importanttoefectiveleadership.
made disaster, in order to promote
from the remains of what had
efective leadership and management
been blown apart. No matterfor victims of such tragedies.
what relationships had existed with former colleagues,
From: Leadership in the wake of disaster — Salient
each death created a void that lef us incomplete. Coming
lessons from the Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy Bombing,
together again, even in mourning, was an essential step in1998 — Prudence Bushnell, in Terrorism and Disaster:
re-creating ourselves.”
Individual and Community Mental Health, Ed R Ursano, CSFullerton, AE Norwood, Cambridge University Press, 2003
The Post-Rescue Period:“In a few weeks, the rescue workers lef. Reminders ofIn a world where disasters, from airplane accidents
failure surrounded us.
to terrorist attacks, are increasingly part of our reality,
We dearly missed former colleagues, and even though
understanding how ordinary people react to extraordinary
we greatly appreciated the people who joined us fromevents becomes more important for efective leadership.
diferent parts of the world, it was still difcult to integratethem into the community of bomb victims and survivors.
In the Immediate Aftermath:
Having initially acted with courage and solidarity,“Our large and experienced staf needed only minimal
the bomb’s victims moved into another phase. Anger
direction to put their skills to work in the those frst hours.
permeated the culture, inside the embassy and out.”
Doing so -doing something, doing anything provided
a necessary comfort from feelings of helplessness andFear, Anger, and Sorrow:despair.”“Te security cordon we had set up immediately aferthe explosion was seen as an act of hostility, and our focus
Help can be Resented:
on saving people in the embassy as a sign of indiference“In those long hours afer the bombing, the victimsto Kenyan needs. My efort to explain some of our actions
turned-rescuers had become a tight, protective, and insular
by noting the presence of looters in our building enraged
community. As utterly exhausted as we were, we would notKenyans even further. Some truths, I learned painfully, arerelinquish control of what we thought of as ‘our’ tragedy.
best not told. A lingering sense of vulnerability added fear
Former colleagues who had transferred from the embassy
to other emotions. A bomb threat a few weeks afer theto new assignments only weeks earlier returned to help andattack reignited the terror that had already lef an imprint
found themselves treated as outsiders. A phenomenon ofon many of us.”
‘We-who-had-endured-the-unthinkable’ and ‘Tey-whocould not-understand’ emerged as a part of our culture. As
Avoiding the Label—Stigma of Mental Healthdamaged as we were, the need to get back on our feet andImplications:take care of our own was insurmountable.”“A few people took advantage of counseling, but mostdid not. Anything that smacked of mental health assistance
Memorials:
ofended many -Kenyans and Americans. We did not like
“No matter how close or how far we had been frombeing considered ‘sick,’ and we shunned labels as vigorously
Continued

as we rebelled against the thought of references tocounseling ending up in our personnel fles. Our medical
staf, once they saw that people would not be coaxed into
coming to them, took to ofce corridors to reach people
where they worked.”
Commemorating the Loss:“Preparing awards for the traditional biannual
ceremony should have been easy, however, Pandora’s box
opened. How could we pat ourselves on the back for actsthat stemmed from terrible tragedy? How could one action,injury, or sacrifce be compared to another? We fnallydecided to establish arbitrary, defensible criteria to theselections, to forego any remuneration, and to focus theaward ceremony on a dedication of the memorial fountainat my residence. As people in Oklahoma City have noted,
there is no closure. Tere is, however, a possibility to moveon as time helps knit memories and afer-efects into one’slife.”

Taking Care of Our People in Nairobi Taught Me theFollowing:■ “Remember you are dealing with a process, not anevent;■ Recreate normalcy, even if an illusion, and tolerate
diminished results;■ Redirect priorities, set and celebrate achievable goals,
however small;■ Use rituals to allow individuals a chance to heal within
the embrace of community; Resurrect community,
carefully integrating those who replace absent
colleagues and tending to the families of those whowere lost;■ Beware the ‘we’ and ‘they’ phenomenon and try not toget sucked in;■ Pay attention to behavioral cues and reach out;
■ Hold yourself to the tone and behaviors you seek inothers;■ Listen, if you want to be heard;■ Take care of yourself, if you want to take care of yourpeople.”

Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress
Department of Psychiatry
Uniformed Services University
4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799
www.CSTSonline.org