Book Review: When the Dust Settles - Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster by Lucy Easthope

This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way. It's all very well having a plan to repatriate bodies, strict timetables for witness statements, and a clinical approach to disposing of victims' personal effects - but there needs to be space for a humane response; not just a humanitarian response. People need space to grieve, they need a shower and cup of tea, they need to be allowed to fucking scream.

My chauvinistic biases were stopped in their tracks by the unrelenting assault of pure and righteous indignation.

Women in disaster planning and response are constantly accused of overreaction, of too much thinking and emotion. We ignore our instincts in an effort to fit in.

It is also a rallying cry against the national crime that was austerity. The hollowing out of the state's capacity to respond to trauma was a vicious and unnecessary attack on our future. Hoping that the worst never comes is in itself a recipe for disaster.

The book is necessarily grim - with occasional gallows humour - but never fails to be fascinating:

It seemed that pigeons and other birds were scooping up the smallest human bones, the finger bones or phalanges, that were still being uncovered

Every chapter contains at least one "big ooof" where you can see exactly how reality refuses to comply to with the best laid plans of disaster planners. Here's one about the difficulty in identifying people after a disaster:

[The victims] had the same kit on and, in an extra twist of fate, they had all dyed their hair canary yellow for the game.

As I said, it is a difficult and bloody book. Vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the why and the how of complex recovery efforts.