TABLE 1.

Acute Disasters and Chronic Contamination Affect Communities Differently

Acute Disasters (e.g., Hurricane, Terrorist Attack)	Chronic Contamination (e.g., Toxic Chemical in Drinking Water)
Have a before and after	Becomes a context of community life with no clear beginning and end
Immediate visible damage	Relatively invisible
Clear human health and safety impacts	Uncertain human health impacts
Promote action	Promote study of potential remedies
People cycle through stages of warning/threat/impact, response, recovery	Traps some people in warning/threat/impact stages without a clear path to recovery

Adapted from Couch and Coles (2011) and Sandifer and Walker (2018).