Disasters, Civil and Natural

Globally, disasters affect millions of individuals and families each year, with widespread, long-term, and pervasive effects across multiple ecological systems. This entry focuses on the life-span effects of natural disasters, including earthquakes, [Page 632]hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, and tsunamis, and civil disasters, such as nuclear accidents and oil spills. A life-span approach involves understanding how disasters affect individuals at different developmental stages and across time as development progresses. Within this entry, key issues related to risk and resilience in disasters are discussed, such as how disasters affect long-term vulnerability and recovery pathways, relate to dose–response gradients, and have differential effects depending on developmental stage of exposure. Intervention strategies are briefly described. Finally, an example illustrates the long-term effects of a high-impact disaster, Hurricane Katrina, on ...