Published: June 08, 2009 12:10 am         

Stress survey shows impact of flood on Valley residents

TERRE HAUTE — The strongest indication of just how much stress was produced by the massive flooding of June 7, 2008, probably lies in the high level of response to a stress survey by Indiana State University psychology students.

Nearly 400 people — about 40 percent of those contacted by telephone — agreed to talk about their post-flood experiences. Such volume is unusual.

Professor Virgil Sheets, chairman of the ISU psychology department, decided to use the real-life disaster of the local floods to give his Environmental Psychology students a real-life Survey Research Laboratory project. In March, about 30 of them, under the supervision of graduate assistant Ashlee Lochbaum, began contacting residents of areas hardest-hit by the floods: Riley, North Terre Haute, West Terre Haute and the Allendale/Honey Creek expanse just south of the city.

A remarkable 89 percent of the people who responded to the lengthy survey identified themselves as homeowners. All but 2 percent of survey participants lived in the Wabash Valley at the time of the floods. Ages ranged from 18 to 90.

Nearly half, 48.5 percent, of respondents said friends, neighbors or family suffered flood damage; 17.8 percent said they directly suffered damage but had restored their property; 7 percent still had restoration work to do.

The students’ aim was to discover how many classic signs of post-catastrophe stress remained in people more than six months after the floods. Symptoms included trouble sleeping, becoming easily annoyed, arguing with someone close to them, feeling down or blue, difficulty concentrating, an aversion to any company, and unexplained fear.

Not surprisingly, people whose homes had not been fully restored reported 60 percent more stress symptoms (3.21) than did people who did not live here during the floods (2.0) or who were untouched by them (2.18). People whose relatives or friends suffered flood damage exhibited 2.45 of the seven stress symptoms, while those who had directly suffered damage but restored their property showed 2.64 symptoms.

Compared to 50.8 percent of all respondents who said they had experienced trouble sleeping during the survey month, 70.4 percent of those with restoration work yet to do reported sleep problems. For people who had repaired all flood damage, sleep problems plagued more than 57 percent.

What did surprise Sheets and the student researchers was that the effects of the June 7 flooding were “now being overtaken by other factors” that caused even higher stress levels in people, said Sheets.

Nearly 28 percent of respondents said a loved one had died during the time period between the floods and the survey. Those people had 2.89 stress symptoms. Nearly 9 percent said they had lost their job (3.56 symptoms); 6.2 percent had experienced medical problems (3.29 symptoms), and 4.4 percent said they were troubled by financial difficulties, which produced 3.76 stress symptoms.

Sheets’ conclusion: There is evidence “of lingering stress tied to the degree of one’s own [flood] experience, but recent events, especially the economy, are having a greater impact on people.”