The Unthinkable...

I recently finished a book called The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes---and Why by Amanda Ripley. Now you might be thinking, "What, why would you read such a horrible book! That just sounds morbid." And I'll admit, it was a little morbid, but it was also really fascinating. Ripley breaks down the individual experiences of survivors from major disasters like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. She also points out what those who didn't make it through the disaster had in common.

For example, and this took me by surprise, did you know that the largest demographic of those who died during Hurricane Katrina was not those paralyzed from leaving by poverty? The greatest number of people who died during Hurricane Katrina were older folks who had survived a previous category five storm during the 60's and thought that Katrina wouldn't be any different. Their own experience and willingness to take a risk was what in the end kept them in New Orleans even though they were ordered to evacuate. Interesting huh?

There were a lot of other interesting elements to what happens to a person psychologically and physiologically in the middle of extreme terror, but what the author continued to point out is that people tend to have a disaster personality. Some people freeze, others take control, most people say that time begins to do funny things, either speeding up or slowing down to the point that it is hard to know how much time has passed from the beginning of the disaster. A lot of people pee their pants. But the reason is not only fear, well ok, yes essentially it is fear, it is also a very physiological response to the environment. The reason a person loses control of their bowels is because the strength of other physical responses are actually increased so that those not essential to survival actually shut down. So instead of being able to hold in your need to pee, suddenly your hearing or your eye sight is strengthened. One man's eye sight became so strong on 9/11 that he didn't need to wear his glasses for three days after escaping the towers.

Anyways, it was a great book. You should read it if you're morbid like me. But here's the thing. There was one disaster personality that Ripley did not explore. What does a person's disaster personality look like if they are in a foreign country, surrounded by a language they do not speak and in the middle of circumstances they do not always understand and suddenly find themselves the casual observer of a disaster taking place in the early evening across a crowded street? Hmmm...

What would happen let's say if a person saw a large cloud of billowing smoke escaping a local restaurant they pass by each day. Would they just pull out their camera and start to take pictures? Or would they run as fast as they could to the nearby fire station employing any and every new vocabulary word they had learned in the short time they had lived abroad to try and communicate the situation. In the case of my disaster personality, I pulled out the camera. Sad but true...but in case you would like to view what a disaster looks like over here in East Asia, here it is, documented by yours truly.

There is a huge cloud of smoke coming from a local restaurant. Suddenly people begin running from the front door, at least five minutes after the smoke starts.



A waiter runs to the fire station, conveniently located just four doors down.



Unfortunately it takes the fire truck a while to make it to the restaurant because of the crowds.



Meanwhile the people sitting on the second and third floors notice the smoke and find out that the only way out is through the windows. They open the windows and begin to squeeze out. Sidenote: Until this point the fire was slightly comical, but when we saw that people were trapped inside the restaurant we all were struck by how scary this actually was. Another part of my disaster personality appeared and I started praying.



When the fire crew realizes they will need ladders they rush to the top of the fire truck only to discover it will take almost five precious minutes to untie the ladders from the truck.



Unfortunately the ladder is only tall enough to reach the second floor.



But don't worry...a ladder stretching from the second floor to the third is also a possible solution.



And what does the crowd of locals do while all this is happening? Well some as you can see stop to watch like us foreigners, others just keep walking by. Some stop to look at the foreigners because even during a very interesting fire foreigners are also still interesting.



My heart then lurches into my stomach when we realize on the third floor there is a grandpa and grandma who are trapped. How will they get down this crazy, unsteady ladder?



Don't worry, the fire department will strap them in and help lower them down.



In an interesting cultural side note. If you look careful you will see that behind grandpa and grandma are children and grandchildren. I wonder in American culture if we would choose the older generation to be rescued first or the younger? I'm not sure what I would do...that's a tough question. I don't even known if that choice displays any cultural values, but it's an interesting question.

In this case it also might be because after grandma and grandpa are finally down the ladder that the younger girl decides she's too petrified to actually go down the ladder and instead panics. The firefighters are forced to take her down through the smokey restaurant where the fire is now under control.



Sometime after the situation has gotten under control, the firefighters have decided that this would be an excellent time to get out the video camera, hop on up the ladder or maybe the smokey stairwell, to the second floor and start videotaping the rescue. Maybe a training video in the making? Or maybe they have a disaster personality similar to my own.



Ripley ends the book by inviting the reader to consider how what they have read can impact their own experience during a disaster. For the record, I actually saw this fire first and then read the book. But even without reading the book I know the single factor that determined my reaction during this fire was the fact that I am a foreigner here. In the states I would have at least called 911 or done something. At least I hope I would have done something, maybe the only thing that can be done when you are the observer of a disaster is to stop and pray, and look to see if there is a way that you really can help. As far as we know no one was hurt in this fire, thankfully! Now, just a few weeks later, the restaurant has reopened for business. I think I'll wait a little while to try it out though.