Older people in a major earthquake: initial experiences and representations

Abstract

Research exploring how older people fare in environments affected by natural disasters is relatively limited, and is frequently an “afterthought” requiring retrospective methods, once the initial crisis has been addressed. In contrast, this paper arises from an unusual opportunity for researchers living in an urban centre hit by a major earthquake in late 2010, to review immediate impacts using qualitative and quantitative procedures, focussing on older people within the wider community. Two methods are used to document and interpret how older people in the city experienced and described the effects and responses in the period of the earthquake and the ensuing aftershocks. First, media representations in the public domain in these early weeks are reviewed and analysed, demonstrating a range of responses across the spectrum from vulnerability to resilience. In the second method, the responses to an addendum to a postal survey are analysed to explore the personal and environmental impacts within the first 6 weeks of the 7.1 magnitude quake, as part of an ongoing project exploring environmental influences on active ageing in the urban areas. Both of these research perspectives give further support to the ways that older people draw on their prior experiences of or exposure to adversity, in terms of accessing coping strategies and networks of support consistent with and formed by earlier experiences.