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CULTURALLY EFFECTIVE DISASTER RESPONSE
Ecological Impact
The natural disaster that I will use for this discussion is the volcanic eruption in Hawaii. On April 30, the Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater on Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, suddenly collapsed. It was the starting point for the volcano’s months long eruption, which went on to produce 320,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of lava that transformed the landscape and ultimately forced over 1700 people to evacuate their homes and destroyed over 700 homes, deeming it the volcano’s most destructive eruption in recorded history (Andrews, 2018).
According to Kerr (2018), in Puna, the area of Hawaii island that was hardest hit by the Kilauea volcano eruption, large swaths of formerly verdant forest have been replaced by rough and barren volcanic terrain. Before the eruptions, the area was probably the best forest left in the state of Hawaii as there were areas of the forest that extended right up to the ocean, something that is not seen in the rest of Hawaii, and now it is all covered with 20 to 30ft of lava (Kerr, 2018). In addition to the over 700 homes that were destroyed along with other structures across the area from Leilani Estates to Vacationland Hawaii, the lava entirely filled in Kapoho Bay, and covered part of Highway 132 (Kerr, 2018). In addition to people losing their homes and having to relocate and rebuild, the marine life was also affected as rivers of lava flowed into nearby Kapoho Bay, destroying hundreds of homes and paving over the turquoise, coral-filled bay and a series of rare, protected tide pools that had teemed with marine life (Kerr, 2018). Additionally, the air was polluted by all the carbon dioxide that was released into the air during the eruption and although the carbon monoxide levels have since decreased, there is no telling how effect has been done to the people who breathed in the polluted air for several days (Andrews, 2018).
Based on the damage that was caused by the Kilauea volcano eruption, a crisis intervention strategy that I would use to respond to the survivors is the Ecosystemic crisis intervention. According to James and Gilliland (2017), the major aim of ecological contextual crisis intervention is to support individuals, groups, and communities in the creation of an environment in which their own actions and developmental potential can help stabilize the trauma of a large-scale or mega crisis and restore a reasonable degree of equilibrium to the clientele of the system. The Island of Hawaii as a whole suffered a great deal from the volcano eruption as they lost a great part of their beautiful island. Additionally, because there is a great deal of rebuilding to be done, there are economic impacts that will be felt for a long time. Teaching the survivors and the rest of Hawaii to rebuild as a community rather than as individuals will make the recovery process faster and better for everyone rather than if the do it individually. Additionally, recovery is easier with a support system in any form, be it informational or emotional. This intervention strategy emphasizes urgency and collaboration between individuals, communities and organizations to ensure that all aspects needed for recovery are met (James and Gilliland, 2017).
References:
Andrews, R. G. (2018). America’s Most Hazardous Volcano Erupted This Year. Then It Erupted and Erupted. Science. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/science/kilauea…
James, R. K., & Gilliland, B. E. (2017). Crisis intervention strategies (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Kerr, B. (2018). The entire habitat is gone. Hawaii’s natural wonders claimed by lava. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/20/ha…
