Hurricane Helene: Psychological Impacts and Resilience

We can work together to heal from this catastrophic storm.

Reviewed by Tyler Woods

Key points

• Building safety and meeting critical needs is a crucial part of recovery.
• In the face of catastrophe, long-term support and resiliency are needed.
• Awareness of trauma symptoms can help with destigmatization and healing.

Even before Hurricane Helene, many people were feeling uncertain. We are facing several crises and calamities: wars, acts of terror, violent attacks in public places (schools, shopping centers, places of worship), and natural disasters made stronger and more unpredictable due to climate change. With the horrific impacts of Hurricane Helene on Western North Carolina, we are seeing devastation not witnessed from a storm since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

In the wake of traumas, it can seem that there is little that can be done for long-term healing and resilience. Fred Rogers’ famous quote, “Look for the helpers,” comes to mind in the immediate wake of an event. In the initial days, weeks, and sometimes months after a catastrophe, many people do what they can to assist. We see this now in the various food and supply drives that have cropped up around the country to support Western North Carolina. Therapists have contacted the American Red Cross to provide trauma therapy virtually and on-site when able. This is the best of our human spirit coming through.

Strengthening community safety nets during and after rebuilding should be a priority. Housing, food, clean water, and access to health care ought to be the foundation for creating resiliency and recreating a vibrant community. These foundational aspects, much like in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, allow for individuals to have the feeling of safety that they need to psychologically recover and regain a sense of peace in their lives. With the sheer number of concerns that the typical American has in their day-to-day life it can be difficult to build volunteer networks for the aspects of long-lasting support.

As therapists, we can do something about this. I specialize in trauma and teach trauma issues and trauma interventions to students and colleagues. A growing understanding of the impacts of trauma and how to alleviate those symptoms will be increasingly important in a turbulent world. Grounding techniques, processing of traumatic memories, and meaning-making in the post-trauma phase can help people create a “new normal” for themselves and find ways to move forward.

Elevating awareness that it is common to have disruptive sleep, changes in appetite, increased startle response, hypervigilance, and other trauma-related symptoms after a catastrophic event can normalize these symptoms for trauma survivors. It may allow individuals to speak more freely about these struggles and to seek assistance in finding relief. Working with the survivor’s guilt for those who witnessed injury and death and allowing a safe space to process the moral injury of this experience can help people to recover.

Post-traumatic growth is possible and people may find a new direction in life after experiencing or witnessing a catastrophic event. The quote, “Action is the antidote to despair,” is often attributed to the singer and activist Joan Baez and has proved true for many people. As the communities impacted by Hurricane Helene recover, people may find themselves drawn to how they can help others recover from other catastrophic events and, perhaps, how to help prevent such catastrophes in the future by working together to understand the causes of these events and what can be done to decrease their frequency. We are certainly all in this together.