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4.2 Attitude to disasters

In responding to the question �What natural phenomena do you consider as a disaster?� people often needed some prompting from the interviewer, who would then read the list of disasters in the questionnaire. Many people did not regard the listed disasters (earthquake, outburst, flood, gale-strength winds, heavy thunderstorm with lightning, blizzard, snow slide, ice-covered ground, sudden opening up of ice bound rivers, droughts, forest fires) as disasters but rather as natural phenomena that are simply part of life. This was even the attitude of some of the people describing cases where human lives were lost.

A man from Esso who had grown up among the reindeer herds, said: �I grew up in this environment, and that�s why dry thunder-storms, droughts, floods, blizzards, and snow slides were common and natural for me�They were not to me a disaster.�

A Nenets man from Nel�min Nos (NAO) said: �In general we do not have disasters here, maybe only floods�We don�t have such big disasters here. And we are not in America, where there are tornados�. It became clear during the interview that the man and his reindeer herd were confronted a lot of times by the blizzards, ice-covered ground, and severe droughts. However, he knew how to cope with the situations and did not regard them as disasters.

A Kamchadal woman from the Klyuchi, located near the base of the active volcano Klyuchevskaya sopka in Kamchatka, said, �There is always good weather during the volcano�s eruption� When the eruption occurs we feel well and glad. We observe this beautiful lava and do not feel scared. If it doesn�t keep silent it is good. If the volcano breathes then nothing frightens us� But if it died out and did not produce any steam, and after that began be erupt, that is terrible � because it is not known how it will behave.�

The interviewers noted that, compared to the people living in the settlements, the city inhabitants defined the extreme weather events as disasters, although these people had fewer personal encounters with these weather types. A main conclusion from all the interviews is that settled inhabitants of big villages are more frightened of disasters and know less about survival strategies. Very often they answered: �you have to ask reindeer herders about this.�

The study showed that the great majority of the respondents had a personal encounter with at least one disaster or extreme weather event. Some respondents mentioned disasters additional to those listed in the questionnaire:

Additional disasters:	Number of respondents:
Sudden break-up of river ice	26
Climate change	10
Heavy snow fall	8
Hail	5
Extreme cold	4
Stone fall	3
Heat	3
Reindeer diseases	3
Rat plague	1
Little snow	1
Mosquito attacks on reindeer	1
Death of fish	1
Reindeer falling into clay	1