Page 151 - Essencials of Sociology

In addition to the inquiring sociologist,
television teams also were interviewing
survivors and photographing the damage.
This was the second time in just three years
that a tornado had hit this neighborhood.

Formal organizations
also help the survivors of
natural disasters recover.
In this neighborhood, I saw
representatives of insurance
companies, the police,
the fi re department, and
an electrical co-op. The
Salvation Army brought
meals to the neighborhood.

No building or social institution
escapes a tornado as it follows its
path of destruction. Just the night
before, members of this church had
held evening worship service. After
the tornado, someone mounted a U.S.
fl ag on top of the cross, symbolic of
the church members’ patriotism and
religiosity—and of their enduring hope.

The owners of this house invited me
inside to see what the tornado had
done to their home. In what had been
her dining room, this woman is trying
to salvage whatever she can from the
rubble. She and her family survived by
taking refuge in the bathroom. They Like electricity and gas,
had been there only fi ve seconds, she communications need to be
said, when the tornado struck. restored as soon as possible.