Positive consequences of the experience of disaster

Wroclaw and Opole were the two biggest Polish cities afflicted by the huge flood of 1997. Research conducted 9 months and 3 years after this disaster (Wroclaw and Opole, respectively), compares the opinions of people who lived in (a) flooded areas, (b) places threatened with flooding which avoided the calamity thanks to inhabitants and rescue teams' heroic struggle, and (c) areas under no threat of flooding due to their location. The research analyzed whether the place of residence influenced perceptions of varied advantages which research participants could perceive as consequences of the flood. Quite surprisingly, it turned out that the perception of interpersonal relations was better in places where the inhabitants struggled against the disaster than in those not threatened by the flood.