Teton Dam Claims: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental Relations of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, Sesond Session, on H.R. 14328, H.R. 14367, and S. 3542 ... June 30, 1976U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976 - 96 pages |
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administration agencies amended American Insurance Association amount anxiety associated Buffalo Creek disaster Buffalo Creek flood Buffalo Creek survivors Bureau of Reclamation caused Chairman claimant claims coal company collapse Committee compensation CONGRES THE LIBRARY CONGRESS THE LIBRARY damages death designee disaster area disaster relief dreams eastern Idaho effects experience Federal Government feel filed FLOWERS Gerald Stern guilt House human individual insurance company Interior interview irrigation JAFFE June 11 legislation Leo Ryan LIBRARY OF CONGRES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Lifton lives loss ment mental suffering million neurosis numbing pecuniary injuries personal injury projects proposal psychiatric psychic impairment psychic trauma Psychoanal psychological regulations represent require responsibility result Senate sense settlement SHATTUCK statement STEVE SYMMS subcommittee subrogation symptoms Teton Dam disaster Teton Dam failure Teton River third party TIDWELL tion traumatic neurosis U.S. Geological Survey United valley victims WALTER FLOWERS
Popular passages
Page 37 - The acceptance by the claimant of any such award, compromise, or settlement shall be final and conclusive on the claimant, and shall constitute a complete release of any claim against the United States and against the employee of the Government whose act or omission gave rise to the claim, by reason of the same subject matter.
Page 49 - I will be pleased to answer any questions that you or the Members of the Subcommittee may have.
Page 82 - Vol 18. Translated and edited by Strachey J. London, Hogarth Press, 1955, pp...
Page 69 - I mean a blow to the basic tissues of social life that damages the bonds attaching people together and impairs the prevailing sense of communality. The collective trauma works its way slowly and even insidiously into the awareness of those who suffer from it, so it does not have the quality of suddenness normally associated with "trauma.
Page 86 - People who have gone through this kind of experience are never quite able to forgive themselves for having survived. Another side of them, however, experiences relief and gratitude that it was they who had the good fortune to survive in contrast to the fate of those who died — a universal and all-too-human survivor reaction that in turn intensifies their guilt. Since the emotion is so painful, the sense of guilt may be suppressed and covered over by other emotions or patterns, such as rage or apathy....
Page 85 - I found with half its face torn off and the truck full of bodies. Sometimes in those dreams you're running, or trying to get hold of someone to help them out of the mud. Just last week I had that dream. I woke up pulling on my wife. After that you just can't go back to sleep. That was about 3:00 AM last Friday night. There's nothing you can do at that time of night until 7:00 or so in the morning when you see people out.
Page 58 - Our organization has worked with the American Mutual Insurance Alliance and the National Association of Independent Insurers...
Page 83 - ... didn't use to be that way but now I am. I'm afraid of thunder and lightning." Another woman (interviewed at the same time): "I have a real scary feeling when it rains — even though there's no danger up there." And still another, greatly troubled by insomnia and general anxiety: "If it rains I get a very uneasy feeling. The clouding up now makes me feel uncomfortable." A related symptom, also widespread, is a fear of crowds. Gatherings of large numbers of people become associated with the disaster....
Page 85 - ... they killed my wife." Psychologically the two emotions merge, and like other survivors of extreme situations, he inwardly experiences a certain amount of personal responsibility for having "killed her." Also involved is the survivor's characteristic feeling that his life was purchased at the cost of another's — that the other person's death permitted him to live, that had he died the other might have lived instead. These feelings, very widespread in Buffalo Creek, are inseparable from the death-related...
Page 83 - ... trips to Buffalo Creek between April 1973 and August 1974 and have conducted a total of 43 interviews involving 22 Buffalo Creek survivors. In addition we have talked with several ministers and volunteer workers in the area and read through the extensive documentation of the disaster compiled by a variety of observers and professional consultants working with the survivors. The psychological impact of the disaster has been so extensive that no one in Buffalo Creek has been unaffected.