What really happens when human societies are stressed by disaster?
Disasters are “characterized by a strong feeling of mutual suffering and in-group solidarity … most disasters produce a great increase in social solidarity among the stricken populace … Nations and communities typically demonstrate amazing toughness and resiliency in absorbing and coping with the disintegrative effects of disaster. And disaster-struck societies not only quickly rebound from disaster but often reconstruct and regenerate their social life with added increments of vitality and productivity … persons and institutions submerge their particular aims in a common effort. Old rivalries and conflicts are forgotten, or at least become subliminal, in the face of what seems to be an overwhelming task. Almost complete selflessness and great generosity are the emotional climate of this time … the crisis accompanying a disaster is a strongly integrating force in the community. It demands a redefinition of roles in which the divisions of status and culture give way to humanitarian or universalistic considerations … The breakdown of racial and minority group barriers, and the acceptance of minority group members into new social roles, has been noted in both historical and contemporary accounts of disaster.” — Charles E. Fritz