“It wasn't the flood, it was everything that happened after”: home disruption and reconstruction after a flood (Typhaine Leclerc, McGill University)

Media attention on extreme weather events such as floods tends to die down quickly after the initial shock has passed. But for many people affected by floods, the aftermath – characterized by displacements, uncertainty, and tedious and exhausting tasks – produces more stress and disruptions of daily life and sense of self than the event itself. Drawing from a doctoral dissertation focused on stories of women affected by floods in Beauce (Quebec) and on the ways through which these stories supported psychosocial recovery processes, this talk will focus first on the effects of post-flood displacement on the lives of these women. It will then propose a conceptualisation of psychosocial recovery as a process of reconstruction of home, both as a dwelling and as a feeling, anchored in phenomenological thought and narrative accounts of home.