Abstract
Interview, focus-group, & personal narrative data from 30 survivors of hurricane Andrew, which ravaged the southeast US in 1992, are used to assess the psychosocial impact of the hurricane & to understand how survivors reconstructed a meaningful world in the aftermath of the disaster. Five phases in the process by which survivors dealt with the disaster are identified. It is shown how their prehurricane taken-for-granted reality was radically transformed, & that the degree to which the period immediately after the storm represented a drastic break with everyday reality was directly related to the degree of damage experienced. It is concluded that the disaster pushed the natural environment to the forefront of awareness, making it an imposed relevance for those living in Dade County, FL. 15 References. W. Howard