Healthcare Management

Tornado in Worcester An Exploratory Study of Individual and Community Behavior In An Extreme Situation

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PREFACE
The Committee on Disaster Studies of the National Research
Council, during the spring and summer of 1953, undertook to carry on
a series of exploratory field studies of disaster. Some of these studies
were conducted by members of the Committee staff, some by persons
retained as consultants, some by organizations under contract. These
studies involved many aspects of disaster: evacuation experiences,
communications, rumor, panic, rescue and rehabilitation, etc.
Following the tornado which struck Worcester, Massachusetts,
on June 9, 1953, several organizations sent personnel to study various
phases of the disaster, particularly what happened during the rescue
and rehabilitation period. The Committee itself sponsored or facilitated:
a study of communications in Worcester and in Flint, Michigan
(struck by another tornado the day before) by Irving Rosow, a graduate
student at the Russian Research Center at Harvard; a study of the role
of the Catholic Church, in Worcester and Flint, by a team from the
Catholic University of America, including Carroll Brodsky, John
Muldoon, and Regina Flannery Herzfeld; two studies of medical care
following the disaster, one by the Massachusetts General Hospital, and
the other by Jeannette Rayner of the Committee's staff; a study of the
psychological and physiological effects of the stress of their tornado
experience on a group of previously studied Worcester firemen and
industrial employees; and a brief "horseback survey" by the writer
aimed at identifying spatial and emotional dimensions of the disaster
which would repay systematic analysis later in this or an analogous
situation. Other studies made by a variety of persons and organizations
are listed in the bibliography of this report.
These studies, and other sources of data, have been collated in
the preparation of this report, which is an attempt to analyze the
Worcester tornado disaster as an event, according to the categories of
the theoretical model developed in the introduction. It is avowedly
exploratory, as the sub-title indicates, in two senses: the conceptual
formulations (the time -space model, the disaster syndrome, the counter -
disaster syndrome, the isolation period, and the cornucopia theory)
are intended to stimulate thought rather than to make converts to a
system, and accordingly are not presented as a formal body of theory
nor as a set of hypotheses verified adequately by the available Worcester
materials; and the empirical data, almost entirely compiled by other
observers with a variety of interests, are evidently uneven in quality,
quantity, in representativeness, and in precision of reference to the
matters I have chosen to emphasize. Furthermore, such generalizations
as I have made or implied about disasters as types of event
obviously will require the assembling of much comparative materials,
both for general validation and for necessary qualification. With these
caveats in mind, it is hoped that both the empirical data on the Worcester
case, and the theoretical formulations which have been worked out
to organize these data, will be of some use to scholars and administrators
interested in disaster studies. The interpretations and opinions
expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
Committee on Disaster Studies.
I should like to make special acknowledgment to several persons
and organizations who have helped me greatly in preparing the Worcester
report: Harry B. Williams, Technical Director of the Committee on
Disaster Studies; W. N. Fenton, until recently the Secretary of the
Division of Anthropology and Psychology of the National Research
Council; Jeannette Rayner, staff associate of the Committee on Disaster
Studies, with whom I talked over at length the disaster syndrome formulation;
R. L. Polk & Co. , of Boston, who have kindly permitted reproductions
of the map of Worcester from their 1953 city directory; and the
Worcester Telegram and Gazette and radio station WTAG, who made
available tape recordings of their tornado broadcasts, and plates of all
photographs used in this report.
Anthony F. C. Wallace
University of Pennsylvania

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English

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56-60015

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