When a disaster strikes, volunteers from the affected area respond immediately in heroic ways. When a section of Interstate Highway 880 collapsed in the 1989 earthquake in northern California, the residents of Oakland risked their own lives rescuing victims trapped by fallen slabs of concrete. This rescue work went on even in the midst of repeated aftershocks. In a crisis, the adrenaline flows. Then reality begins to set in.
People begin to realize what has happened.
They begin to understand what the losses will mean to them. It takes only a few short days for the signs of grief to appear. The early post-disaster euphoria begins to turn into a time of denial, followed by frustration, disillusionment, and anger, and ending in depression. When people become victims of a disaster, they suffer from the realization that they have lost control. People who pride themselves on having made their own way in the world suddenly find themselves dependent on others for their most basic needs.