This article describes the testing of a model that proposes that people's beliefs regarding the effectiveness of hazard preparedness interact with social context factors (community participation, collective efficacy, empowerment and trust) to influence levels of hazard preparedness. Using data obtained from people living in coastal communities in Alaska and Oregon that are susceptible to experiencing tsunami, structural equation modelling analyses confirmed the ability of the model to help account for differences in levels of tsunami preparedness. Analysis revealed that community members and civic agencies influence preparedness in ways that are independent of the information provided per se. The model suggests that, to encourage people to prepare, outreach strategies must (a) encourage community members to discuss tsunami hazard issues and to identify the resources and information they need to deal with the consequences a tsunami would pose for them and (b) ensure that the community-agency relationship is complementary and empowering.

This article examines persistent social impacts of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) by focusing on the relationship between social capital and chronic individual stress and collective trauma, using Hobfoll's (1988) conservation of resources model of stress as an organizing framework. Data are based on in-depth personal interviews conducted 14 years after the disaster. Analyses focus on the ways in which stress-related behaviors associated with loss and threat of loss of various forms of resources have affected social capital in the renewable resource community of Cordova, Alaska. Findings reveal lower levels of trust, disruptions in associations, weakened social connections and networks, altered social discourses, diminished feelings of good will, and violations of norms of reciprocity. Behaviors associated with long-term stress related to the EVOS and to the associated protracted litigation are indicative of diminished social capital. This research highlights the critical importance of social capital as a collective resource and illustrates the ways in which decreased social capital can exacerbate individual stress and collective trauma.Within hours after the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground near the Port of Valdez on March 24, 1989, almost 11 million gallons of black crude oil bubbled into the once-pristine waters of Prince William Sound (PWS). Ultimately, despite local, regional, and state contingency plans, the spill contaminated 44,000 square kilometers including more than 1,900 km of coastline. More than 20 years later, environmental, economic, and social impacts of this technological disaster continue to upset the delicate balance of PWS's bioregion. As of May 2010, only 10 of 26 resources and species have recovered from the oil spill and none of the four 'human services' (commercial fishing, passive use, recreation and tourism, and subsistence) have recovered (EVOSTC 2010). Pacific herring-a key subsistence and commercial fishing resource-have yet to recover.Since 1989, community impacts of the EVOS have manifested themselves in the form of chronic individual stress and collective trauma 1 , post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and ongoing social disruption related to ecosystem resource losses, as well as the threat of resource loss (Arata et al. communities in PWS whose lives and culture are closely tied to ecosystem resources, these impacts persist. Protracted litigation associated with the spill, concluding with the 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision, has been an ongoing reminder of the disaster that resulted in secondary trauma and ongoing community disruption (Gill 2008;. Although the court ruled that Exxon was responsible for the spill, it further determined that punitive damages be reduced from $2.5 billion to $507 million, a fraction of the $5 billion that was originally awarded.This article presents results of a 2001-2004 qualitative study of long-term social impacts of the EVOS on the renewable resource community (RRC) of Cordova, Alaska. Using Hobfoll's (1988) conservation of resource...

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We address the research question: 'Did the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill have similar psychosocial impacts as the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill?' We answer this question by comparing survey results from a random sample of Cordova, Alaska, residents collected 18 months after the Exxon spill with a random sample of residents in the Alabama coastal counties of Baldwin and south Mobile 1 year after the BP disaster. Analysis revealed similarly high levels of psychological stress for survivors of both disasters. For residents of coastal Alabama, the strongest predictors of psychosocial stress were exposure to oil, ties to renewable resources, concerns about their economic future, worries about air quality, and safety issues regarding seafood harvests in oiled areas. Differences between south Mobile and Baldwin counties were related to the former community's economic ties to renewable resources and Baldwin County's dependence on tourism for economic sustainability.

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