Epicentre to Aftermath makes both empirical and conceptual contributions to the growing body of disaster studies literature by providing an analysis of a disaster aftermath that is steeped in the political and cultural complexities of its social and historical context. Drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines, the book highlights the political, historical, cultural, artistic, emotional, temporal, embodied and material dynamics at play in the earthquake aftermath. Crucially, it shows that the experience and meaning of a disaster are not given or inevitable, but are the outcome of situated human agency. The book suggests a whole new epistemology of disaster consequences and their meanings, and dramatically expands the field of knowledge relevant to understanding disasters and their outcomes.

Analyses the impact of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes and the need to understand disasters in their cultural and political context.

An examination of how changing public information infrastructures shaped people's experience of earthquakes in Northern California in 1868, 1906, and 1989. When an earthquake happens in California today, residents may look to the United States Geological Survey for online maps that show the quake's epicenter, turn to Twitter for government bulletins and the latest news, check Facebook for updates from friends and family, and count on help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). One hundred and fifty years ago, however, FEMA and other government agencies did not exist, and information came by telegraph and newspaper. In Documenting Aftermath, Megan Finn explores changing public information infrastructures and how they shaped people's experience of disaster, examining postearthquake information and communication practices in three Northern California earthquakes: the 1868 Hayward Fault earthquake, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. She then analyzes the institutions, policies, and technologies that shape today's postdisaster information landscape. Finn argues that information orders—complex constellations of institutions, technologies, and practices—influence how we act in, experience, and document events. What Finn terms event epistemologies, constituted both by historical documents and by researchers who study them, explain how information orders facilitate particular possibilities for knowledge. After the 1868 earthquake, the Chamber of Commerce telegraphed reassurances to out-of-state investors while local newspapers ran sensational earthquake narratives; in 1906, families and institutions used innovative techniques for locating people; and in 1989, government institutions and the media developed a symbiotic relationship in information dissemination. Today, government disaster response plans and new media platforms imagine different sources of informational authority yet work together shaping disaster narratives.

Considerations of the effect of trauma on heritage sites.

At 11,239 feet Mt. Hood is the tallest Mountain in the state of Oregon. Mt. Hood is also a mountain that is part of the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur, It is horseshoe shaped and is large at 40,000 km. It has 452 volcanoes and 81% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. A major earthquake triggers the eruption of Mt. Hood and the eruption completely destroys 9 towns in the State of Oregon. 25,000 families are left homeless by the event and most families lost everything they owned. Nora Noitall, the Governor of Oregon is faced with the monumental challenge of what to do in the aftermath. The Governors Chief of Staff, Sandy Lightfoot is charged with the responsibility of directly dealing with the crisis and developing a creative solution to deal with the issues presented.

A nation unprepared : surviving the aftermath of a blackout where tens of millions of people over several states are affected.