Ready or not, here I come!

On this day, August 31, in 1886, America recorded its first major earthquake, in Charleston, South Carolina. The magnitude 7.6 quake that began at 9:50PM was felt in New York City, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cuba, while buildings in Alabama and Ohio were damaged.  Estimates that between 41-100 people were killed, with economic loss estimates of about $6 million in era value, today’s value over $120 million. Through the next 30 years, over 400 aftershocks were felt, which further intensified existing damage. Its cause was a mystery for many years, until scientists discovered

How prevalent is psychiatric disorder following natural disasters?

What implications does this have for survivors of Hurricane Katrina, California Wildfires, Earthquakes, the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on the World Trade Center, or any other disaster?

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Psychiatric Disorders And Suicidal Tendencies In Survivors Of Natural Calamities

The Lancet Psychiatry
September 10, 2015

Survivors Of Natural Calamities Require Early Interventions To Alleviate Psychiatric Disorders

Background
Survivors of natural disasters are thought to be at an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, however the extent of this risk, and whether it is linked to pre-existing psychopathology, is not known. We aimed to establish whether Swedish survivors of tsunamis from the 2004 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake had increased risks of psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts 5 years after repatriation.

Methods
We identified Swedish survivors repatriated from southeast Asia (8762 adults and 3742 children) and 864 088 unexposed adults and 320 828 unexposed children matched for

Blogging from Japan – updated 3/13/11

As many are now discovering, Japan has been rocked with an 8.9 magnitude earthquake – the largest the nation has ever experienced – and subsequent tsunami. Underwater shock waves reportedly traveled at 500mph – the speed of a jet airliner – and have reached Hawaii, and will have reached the Pacific West Coast by press time. The initial waves are always the smallest, so mandatory evacuations in Hawaii have occurred already, and evacuation warnings along Oregon and Washington have been issued, and may authorities may extend warnings into the California coastline.

A high school friend of mine is an airline pilot, and is now in Tokyo, Japan as I write. He had earlier written on Mon 12:30 PM on his FaceBook page that

“More permanent temporary…”

“Tonight, aid organizations are finalizing plans to move people into