Many religious/spiritual (R/S) individuals receive meaning from R/S and utilize R/S to help them cope with stressful life events. However, natural disasters can disrupt the R/S meaning-making process (e.g., positive R/S coping strategies) because natural disasters can elicit cognitive dissonance between one's core R/S beliefs and personal disaster experience. R/S individuals suffering from a disaster experience could benefit from interventions that allow them to process their R/S experiences. The purpose of this dissertation is to fill a gap in the literature by exploring the effectiveness of a spiritually-oriented expressive writing intervention on positive psychological outcomes (e.g., meaning in life, satisfaction with life) in 132 R/S individuals that have experienced a natural disaster (i.e., survivors of the 2016 Baton Rouge, Louisiana flood). Quantitative results indicated the spiritually-oriented intervention was effective in promoting increased meaning in life but not life satisfaction. Survivors with lower pre-intervention positive attitudes toward God evidenced the strongest positive impact on their meaning in life. Qualitative analyses, using the constant comparative method from Corbin and Strauss's grounded theory approach, revealed six themes in the experimental group's written responses: (a) R/S growth, (b) R/S struggle, (c) R/S cognitive dissonance, (d) R/S reappraisals, (e) R/S proximity-seeking, and (f) spiritual support and cohesion. I conclude by discussing limitation, areas for future research, and implications for counseling.

Global warming, which is one of the most serious consequence of climate change, can be expected to have different effects on the atmosphere, the ocean, icebergs, etc. Global warming has also brought secondary consequences into nature and human society directly. The most negative effect among the several effects of global warming is the rising sea level related to the large typhoons which can cause flooding on low-level land, coastal invasion, sea water flow into rivers and underground water, rising river level, and fluctuation of sea tides. It is crucial to recognize surge level and its return period more accurately to prevent loss of human life and property damage caused by typhoons. This study researches two topics. The first purpose of this study is to develop a statistical model to predict the return period of the storm surge water related to typhoon Maemi, 2003 in South Korea. To estimate the return period of the typhoon, clustered separated peaks-over-threshold simulation (CSPS) has been used and Weibull distribution is used for the peak storm surge height’s fitting. The estimated return period of typhoon Maemi’s peak total water level is 389.11 years (95% confidence interval 342.27 - 476.2 years). The second aim is related to the fragility curves with the loss data caused by typhoons. Although previous studies have developed various methods to mitigate damages from typhoons, the extent of financial loss has not been investigated enough. In this research, an insurance company provides their loss data caused by the wind speed of typhoon Maemi in 2003. The loss data is very important in evaluating the extent of the damages. In this study, the damage ratio in the loss dataset has been used as the main indicator to investigate the extent of the damages. The damage ratio is calculated by dividing the direct loss by the insured amount. In addition, this study investigates the fragility curves of properties to estimate the damage from typhoon Maemi in 2003. The damage ratios and storm induced wind speeds are used as the main factor for constructing fragility curves to predict the levels of damage of the properties. The geographical information system (GIS) has been applied to produce properties’ spatial wind speeds from the typhoon. With the damage ratios, wind speeds and GIS spatial data, this study constructs the fragility curves with four different damage levels (Level I - Level IV). The findings and results of this study can be basic new references for governments, the engineering industry, and the insurance industry to develop new polices and strategies to cope with climate change.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. July 2014. / South Africa’s climate is highly variable, implying that the national agricultural sector should make provision to have early warning services in place in order to reduce the risks of disasters. More than 70% of natural disasters worldwide are caused by weather and climate or weather and climate related hazards. Reliable Seasonal Climate Forecasting (SCF) for South Africa would have the potential to be of great benefit to users in addressing disaster risk reduction. A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society, causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses, which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope when using their own resources. The negative impacts on agricultural production in South Africa due to natural disasters including disasters due to increasing climate variability and climate change are critical to the sector. The hypothesis assumed in the study is the improved early warning service and better SCF dissemination lead to more effective and better decision making for subsequent disaster risk reduction in the agricultural sector. The most important aspect of knowledge management in early warning operations is that of distributing the most useful service to the target group that needs it at the right time. This will not only ensure maximum performance of the entity responsible for issuing the early warnings, but will also ensure the maximum benefit to the target group. South Africa is becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters that are afflicted by localised incidents of seasonal droughts, floods and flash floods that have devastating impacts on agriculture and food security. Such disasters might affect agricultural production decisions, as well as agricultural productivity. Planting dates and plant selection are decisions that depend on reliable and accurate meteorological and climatological knowledge and services for agriculture. Early warning services that could be used to facilitate informed decision making includes advisories on iv future soil moisture conditions in order to determine estimated planting times, on future grazing capacity, on future water availability and on forecasts of the following season’s weather and climate, whenever that is possible. The involvement of government structures, obviously, is also critical in immediate responses and long term interventions. The importance of creating awareness, of offering training workshops on climate knowledge and SCF, and of creating effective early warning services dissemination channels is realized by government. This is essential in order to put effective early warning services in place as a disaster-risk coping tool. Early warning services, however, can only be successful if the end-users are aware of what early warning systems, structures and technologies are in place, and if they are willing that those issuing the early warning services become involved in the decision-making process. Integrated disaster-risk reduction initiatives in government programmes, effective dissemination structures, natural resource-management projects and communityparticipation programmes are only a few examples of actions that will contribute to the development of effective early warning services, and the subsequent response to and adoption of the advices/services strategies by the people most affected. The effective distribution of the most useful early warning services to the end-user, who needs it at the right time through the best governing structures, may significantly improve decision making in the agricultural, food security and other water-sensitive sectors. Developed disaster-risk policies for extension and farmers as well as other disaster prone sectors should encourage self-reliance and the sustainable use of natural resources, and will reduce the need for government intervention. The SCF producers (e.g. the South African Weather Service (SAWS)) have issued new knowledge to intermediaries for some years now, and it is important to determine whether this knowledge has been used in services, and if so whether these services were applied effectively in coping with disaster-risks and in disaster v reduction initiatives and programmes. This study for that reason also intends to do an evaluation of the knowledge communication processes between forecasters, and intermediaries at national and provincial government levels. It therefore, aims to assess and evaluate the current knowledge communication structures within the national agricultural sector, seeking to improve disaster-risk reduction through effective early warning services. A boundary organisation is an organization which crosses the boundary between science, politics and end-users as they draw on the interests and knowledge of agencies on both sides to facilitate evidence base and socially beneficial policies and programmes. Reducing uncertainty in SCF is potentially of enormous economic value especially to the rural communities. The potential for climate science to deliver reduction in total SCF uncertainty is associated entirely with the contributions from internal variability and model uncertainty. The understanding of the limitations of the SCFs as a result of uncertainties is very important for decision making and to end-users during planning. Disappointing, however, is that several studies have shown a fairly narrow group of potential users actually receive SCFs, with an even a smaller number that makes use of these forecasts In meeting the objectives of the study the methodology to be followed is based on knowledge communication. For that reason two types of questionnaires were drafted. Open and closed questionnaires comprehensively review the knowledge, understanding, interpretation of SCFs and in early warning services distribution channels. These questionnaires were administered among the SCF producers and intermediaries and results analysed. Lastly the availability of useful SCFs knowledge has important implications for agricultural production and food security. Reliable and accurate climate service, as one of the elements of early warning services, will be discussed since they may be used to improve agricultural practices such as crop diversification, time of planting vi and changes in cultivation practices. It was clear from the conclusions of the study that critical elements of early warning services need to receive focused attention such as the SCF knowledge feedback programme should be improved by both seasonal climate producers and intermediaries, together with established structures through which reliable, accurate and timely early warning services can be disseminated. Also the relevant dissemination channels of SCFs are critical to the success of effective implementation of early warning services including the educating and training of farming communities. The boundary organisation and early warning structures are important in effective implementation of risk reduction measures within the agricultural sector and thus need to be prioritised. Enhancing the understandability and interpretability of SCF knowledge by intermediaries will assist in improving action needed to respond to SCFs. Multiple media used by both SCF producers and intermediaries in disseminating of SCFs should be accessible by all users and end-users. The Government should ensure that farming communities are educated, trained and well equipped to respond to risks from natural hazards.

Thesis advisor: Hideo Konishi / My doctoral dissertation consists of three chapters on political economy and public economics. The first chapter discusses the effect of media bias on a voting competition. The second chapter focuses on how residents respond to increasing natural disaster risks in a multi-community framework. The third chapter investigates a coalition formation game with congestion effects. In chapter 1, I present a two-party election model with media noise. The media may provide polarized messages instead of those that explain the parties' actual policies. The rational voter relies on the media as an imperfect information source regarding a party's platform. Given this framework, I show that Downsian policy convergence is not valid. Moreover, when a party's ideology is relatively strong and the media bias is significant, one-sided polarization can occur: the party with more imprecise reports may adopt a more extreme strategy, whereas its opponent is more of a centrist in a perfect Bayesian equilibrium. This occurs when one party is misrepresented more often, causing the voter to think that the other party has more incentive to polarize. Therefore, the voter may favor the highly misrepresented party, which gives that party more room to polarize. I also show that parties never gain from these increasing misrepresentations, and a biased media environment can negatively affect the voter's welfare. My results suggest that the public should pursue a balanced media environment. Global warming and climate change have become increasingly important. In chapter 2, I investigate a local public goods economy using a new element: location-specific risks of disasters. Agents in this economy ``vote with their feet'' by choosing their favorite location as their residential base. In each location, all residents use majority rule to decide the local wealth tax rate and the amount of local public goods provision that can reduce the loss caused by disasters. I show that the equilibrium is wealth stratified if preferences are represented by a homothetic Stone-Geary utility function. Moreover, when disaster risks at a location increase, the population usually moves away from that location and the housing rents consequently decrease. Meanwhile, the housing rents and tax rates increase at the location the residents shift to. Moreover, I use this framework to numerically evaluate two policies: foreign donation and inter-jurisdiction transfer. If developed countries provides subsidies to a location with greater risks in a developing country, wealthier agents in the recipient country may move into the said location and force poorer agents to move out. This effect makes the wealthier the direct beneficiary of the foreign subsidy. Furthermore, I find that the inter-jurisdiction transfer may harm the poorer by rising housing rents. In chapter 3, I consider a coalition-formation problem, in which there is a set of feasible alternatives for each coalition and each player's payoff is affected by the coalition she belongs to and by its chosen alternative. In this chapter, I focus on ``congestion effects'': an agent's payoff goes down as an additional player joins the coalition other things being equal. The equilibrium notion considered is ``stability": a stable allocation (pairs of coalition structure and alternatives chosen by each coalition) is an allocation such that no coalition has an incentive to deviate from it. I find quite robust counterexamples to show that stability may fail to exist even under strong preference conditions such as the intermediate preference property and single peakedness. Nevertheless, I show a sufficient condition for the nonemptiness of stability: congruent-pair solvability. I also provide some results on the ``Nash-like" equilibrium notion. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

The aim of this diploma thesis was to analyze an influence of most important humanitarian actors and evaluate their cooperation and efficiency. The task of this thesis was too to show that humanitarian and development aid doesn't have to bring expectable results every time. Low effectiveness of humanitarian activities isn't only the consequence of an insufficient coordination of humanitarian organizations, but it particularly caused by features of a given country, its institutions, its rules and non-existing democracy. On the basis of this knowledge, the analysis of humanitarian aid in Haiti was conducted in this work, which became known to the public all over the world due to a devastating earthquake in January 2010, in spite of the fact that its economic situation has been for very poor for a long time before. The thesis also points on some mistakes of humanitarian organizations in the most important sectors and suggests its solution. I see the solution in a shift from a short-term and passive aid to the long-term and actively-received aid.

This study serves as a first step towards a comprehensive hazard assessment for the San Francisco volcanic field in northern Arizona, which can be applied to local response plans and educational initiatives. The primary goal of this thesis is to resolve the conditional probability that, given a lava flow effusing from a new vent in the San Francisco volcanic field, it will inundate the city limits of Flagstaff. The spatial distribution of vents within the San Francisco volcanic field was analyzed in order to execute a lava flow simulation to determine the inundation hazard to Flagstaff. The Gaussian kernel function for estimating spatial density showed that there is a 99% chance that a future vent will be located within a 3.6 x 109 m2 area about 20 kilometers north of Flagstaff. This area contains the location of the most recent eruption at Sunset Crater, suggesting that the model is a good predictor of future vent locations. A Monte Carlo analysis of potential vent locations (N = 7,769) showed that 3.5% of simulated vents generated lava flows that inundated Flagstaff, and 1.1% of simulated vents were located within the city limits. Based on the average recurrence rate of vents formed during the Brunhes chronozone, the aggregate probability of lava flow inundation in Flagstaff is 1.1 x 10-5 per year. This suggests that there is a need for the city to plan for lava flows and associated hazards, especially forest fires. Even though it is unlikely that the city will ever have to utilize such a plan, it is imperative that thorough mitigation and response plans are established now-- before the onset of renewed volcanic activity.

Hurricane Katrina of 2005 was responsible for at least 81 billion dollars of property damage. In planning for such emergencies, society must decide whether to invest in the ability to evacuate more speedily or in improved forecasting technology to better predict the timing and intensity of the critical event. To address this need, we use dynamic programming and Markov processes to model the interaction between the emergency response system and the emergency forecasting system. Simulating changes in the speed of evacuation and in the accuracy of forecasting allows the determination of an optimal mix of these two investments. The model shows that the evacuation improvement and the forecast improvement give different patterns of impact to their benefit. In addition, it shows that the optimal investment decision changes by the budget and the feasible range of improvement.

Uppsatsen söker visa på hur medierapporteringen av en nordamerikansk naturkatastrof ser ut och skiljer sig från varandra i tidningars internetupplagor från olika västerländska länder utifrån sex syftesfrågor; På vilket sätt har amerikanska och svenska nyhetsmedier rapporterat om katastrofen? Vilka huvudsakliga teman skriver tidningarna om? Vilka källor kommer till tals? Vilka händelser fokuserar tidningarna på? Hur har ländernas tidningar rapporterat om länder katastrofen drabbade innan den nådde USA? På vilka sätt skiljer sig ländernas tidningar från varandra? Länderna utvalda för att besvara frågan är USA och Sverige, och tidningarna från respektive land uppsatsen använder för att besvara frågan är Washington Post, Huffington Post, Svenska Dagbladet och Dagens Nyheter. Den nordamerikanska naturkatastrofen som uppsatsen ska undersöka är orkanen Sandy, som mellan dagarna 22 och 31 oktober 2012 färdades från Jamaica till USAs östkust där den skingrades efter att ha orsakat skador för miljarder efter hela sin resväg. För att analysera materialet så har kvantitativ innehållsanalys och kritisk diskursanalys tillämpas. Teorierna som uppsatsen tillämpar de två metoderna på är Entmans Framing-teori, nyhetsvärdering enligt bland andra, Henk Prakke. Teorier om agenda setting och journalistisk praktik tillämpas också för att påvisa hur tidningar kan påverka sitt innehåll på olika sätt. Det kvantitativa materialet består av sammanlagt 194 artiklar från de fyra olika tidningarna och det kvalitativa materialet av en artikel av speciellt intresse per tidning. Resultatet redovisas i två delar, en per metod. I undersökningen framkommer det att täckningen mellan länderna på en del punkter är mycket lika och på andra mycket olika. Täckningen av orkanen var mellan länderna lika i sitt stora fokus på USA i majoriteten av alla artiklar, likaså var tidningarnas täckning lika i frekvensen som artiklarnas innehåll var alarmerande eller neutrala förmedlare. Skillnader fanns dock mellan länderna i hur ländernas täckning av andra länder än USA sett ut, där de svenska tidningarna visade sig nästan uteslutande täcka Haitis situation, till stor del som en del i täckningen av landets många problem i stort, medan USA täckte Jamaica och Kuba, men endast i förbifarten och som en del av den allmänna rapporteringen om orkanens resväg. Uppsatsens slutsats är att skillnaderna som hittats, beror på det uppfattade kulturella avståndet mellan länderna som undersökts och länderna som drabbats. / This essay seeks to show how coverage of a North-American natural disaster looks and differs between the internet-edition of newspapers from western countries by way of six research questions: In what way has Swedish and American news media reported on the disaster? What main themes do the papers write about? Who can be seen making statements in the articles? What are the events focused on in the papers? How did the newspaper’s report on countries affected by the disaster before it arrived in the USA? In what ways do the countries differ from each other? The countries chosen for answering the question with, are the USA and Sweden, and the papers chosen from the respective country is Washington Post, Huffington Post, Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. The North-American disaster that will be examined is Hurricane Sandy that between the days 22 to 31 October 2012 traveled from Jamaica to the American east coast, causing billions worth of damage on its way there. To analyze the material two methods, quantitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis were chosen. The theories used to work the methods are the Framing-theory by Entman, News-evaluation by way of among others Henk Prakke. Agenda Setting theories and theories on journalistic practices is also employed to make the point and explain how newspapers are able to affect the content they produce. The quantitative material used is made up of 194 articles from the four papers as well as one article, chosen for its specific content, from each newspaper. The results are presented separately for each method. The contents of the essay show that the countries papers in some ways have covered the event quite similarly and in some ways very differently. The coverage was similar in that both countries focused mainly on covering the USA, as well as in the frequency of articles where the contents were covered in a neutral or alarming fashion. Differences sprung up in the choice of coverage of other affected countries aside from the U.S where Swedish newspapers mainly focused on reporting on the situation in Haiti, mainly as a part in their general coverage of the country`s previous disaster exposure, while the American newspapers mainly wrote about Jamaica and Cuba, but only however as part of the coverage given to the path the hurricane was taking. The conclusion made by the essay is that differences are created and occur due to perceived cultural distance to the different actors affected by Sandy held by the countries whose media coverage was researched.

Syftet med denna rapport har varit att analysera den reella återkopplingen och utvärderingar som gjorts vid takras vintern 2009/2010. Metoden är en kvalitativansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer samt analys av utvärderingar och insatsrapporter gjorda under vintern 2009/2010. Genom intervjuer på den sociotekniska individnivån söks svaren kring hur individen upplevt erfarenhetsåterföringen, tillsyn, och egenkontroll vid takras inom den kommunala verksamheten. Insatsrapporter, arbetsmaterial och andra genomförda utvärderingar har även legat till grund för analysen. Frågeställningar som väglett i arbetet har varit: Hur togs erfarenheter från takrasen tillvara i samhället? Hur uppfattar individen som varit aktörer vid händelsen att erfarenheten hanterats?  Urvalet är ett bekvämlighetsurval samt ett snöbollsurval. Avgränsningen sker tidsmässigt till vintern 2009/2010 och geografiskt inom tre mellansvenska kommuner där tak rasat in på kommunala byggnader. Gemensamt för respondenterna är att de alla arbetat många år inom sina yrkesområden, de är väl insatta i lagstiftning, befogenheter och ansvarsområden. Sammanfattningsvis ser respondenterna att återkopplingen till de högre hierarkierna i det sociotekniska systemet fallerar. De anser inte att deras erfarenheter genomsyrar den nya lagstiftningen kring byggnation eller i de förordningar som finns kring detta. Det är intressant att just återkopplingen syns vara den svagaste länken inom det hierarkiskt kopplade systemet. Förutsättningarna finns där för god återkoppling, dels genom insatsrapporter som internt fungerar som underlag för förbättringar, dels genom den nationella bas IDA (Indikationer Data och Analys) på MSB (Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap) som ska ge ett underlag för fler aktörer inom det sociotekniska systemet att ta del av och genomföra förändringar och förbättringar. En viss eftersläpning i den nationella basen kan förstås då alla insatsrapporter återrapporteras till MSB. Återkopplingen inom lagstiftningen och dess eftersläpning kan bero på att det ska tas hänsyn till många olika intressen. Respondenterna kritiserar den egenkontroll som fortgår inom byggsektorn, de ser samstämmigt egenkontrollen som orsak till de tak som rasade. Respondenterna menar även att den tillsynskontroll som kommunerna har är urvattnad då protokoll delges från byggherren, fel kan vara inbyggda utan att de syns via protokoll eller vid efterkontroll och slutbesiktning. Den nya lagstiftningen (SFS 2010:900) innebär inga förändringar vad gäller egenkontrollen. Tillit och tilltro till den enskilde är fortsatt stor - där den enskilde byggherren ser andras säkerhet och välmående som en del av sitt eget handlande.   Nyckelord: rapport, naturkatastrof, kommun, vinter, 2009/2010. / This reports aim has been analyzed the real feedback and evaluations of collapsed roofs at the winter 2009/2010. The method has been through semistructured interviews on socio-technical individual level has answers been sought about how the individual experienced the feedback, control, and self-control around collapsed roofs. Incident-reports and other completed evaluations have also been the basis for providing answers to my questions: How was real experience about caved roofs transfered back into the community; How did individuals who were participants at the event interpered their experience been handled? The sample is a convenience sample and a snowball sample. The respondents participating in the interview comes from the three municipalities located in ”mellan-Sverige” where the roof collapsed. Common to the respondents is that they all have worked many years in their professions, they are well versed in the laws, powers and responsibilities. To sum up the epitone of the response is that they see that feedback to the higher hierarchies of the socio-technical system fails. They do not believe that their experience permeates the new legislation surrounding the building or in the regulations that exist around this. It is interesting that the feedback seems to be the weakest link in the hierarchical interconnected system. The prerequisites are there for good feedback and through incident-reports, which serves as a basis for improvement at a locla level and within the work-group, and by the national base IDA (Indications Data and Analysis) to MSB (Federal Office for Civil Contingencies) to provide a basis for more players in the socio-technical system to share and implement changes and improvements. A lag in the national base can be understood as all incident reports reported back to the MSB. The feedback within the the socio-technical system may also taken other interests into account. Respondents criticize the self-monitoring is continuing in the construction industry, they see consistently self-control as the cause of the roof collapsed. Respondents also believe that regulatory control by municipalities is watered down when the protocol communicated by the client, errors can be built without being seen by protocol or by visual after controls. The new legislation (SFS 2010:900) does not change in terms of self-control. Trust and confidence in the individual remains high - where the individual client sees others' safety and wellbeing as part of their own actions.   Keywords: report, natural disaster, county, winter 2009/2010.

Samhällsstörningar i form av större olyckor, naturkatastrofer och liknande kriser har under senare år varit relativt frekvent förekommande i Västsverige. Denna kvalitativa studies övergripande syfte var därför att fördjupa kunskapen om vissa avgränsande faktorer som upplevdes som underlättande respektive försvårande med avseende på ledarskapet vid hanteringen av orkanen Gudrun samt vid raset av Europaväg 6 i Munkedals kommun. Ett delsyfte med studien var även att koppla studiens resultat mot Ronthys (2006) teori om ledarintelligens. Underlaget för studien utgjordes främst av hur personer i ledande ställning inom räddningsorganisationen upplevt dessa händelser, något som författaren fick ta del av genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer. Av de intervjuade var sex män och en kvinna, åldersfördelningen varierade mellan 40 till 65 år. Samtliga deltagare var väl erfarna inom krishanteringsområdet med minst tio års arbetslivserfarenhet. Insamlad data analyserades med tematisk analys. De styrkor med avseende på ledarskapet som framkom av studien var vikten av att ha ett gemensamt mål, väl definierade roller, erfarenhet, gemensam struktur, möjlighet att distansera sig, att organisationerna fanns samlade samt att avlösningar finns tillgängliga. Svårigheter med avseende på ledarskapet som påpekades, var att deltagarna ställdes inför ovana situationer, osäkerhetsfaktorer, konflikter, emotionell påverkan samt att det kunde vara problem med att kunna tillgodose basbehov. Resultatet visade även på de många krav som ställdes på ledarna, exempelvis sakkunskaper och sociala kompetenser som ödmjukhet och förmåga att inge lugn och förtroende hos sina medarbetare. Slutligen visade resultatet på vikten av fortsatta övningar och kompetensutvecklingsbehovet hos de ledare som har till uppgift att hantera krissituationer, vilket bör beaktas inför kommande händelser som ställer krav på ett långvarigt ledningsarbete. / Community disturbances in the form of major accidents, natural disasters and similar emergencies have in recent years been relatively frequent in western Sweden. This qualitative study’s overall aim was to expand the knowledge concerning some delimiting factors perceived as being facilitating or aggravating for the leadership in the handling of hurricane Gudrun and the collapse of the European Highway 6 in Munkedal. A lesser aim of the study was to connect this study's results to Ronthy’s (2006) theory of leadership intelligence. The basis for this study consisted mainly of how the management personnel in the rescue organization experienced these events, which the author got acquainted to through seven semi-structured interviews. Of those interviewed were six men and one woman, and the age distribution ranged from 40 to 65 years. All participants were well experienced in crisis management with at least ten years of work experience. Collected data were analyzed by thematic analysis. The strengths of leadership that emerged from the study was the importance of having a common objective, well-defined roles, experience, common structure, the opportunity to distance oneself, that the organizations were in place, and personnel replacing available. Difficulties with respect to leadership, as noted, was that the participants were faced with unfamiliar situations, uncertainties, conflicts, emotional impact, and that there could be problems to meet basic needs. The results also showed the many demands made on the leaders, such as expertise and social skills such as humility and ability to produce harmony and trust among employees. Finally, the results showed the importance of continued training and the professional development needs of the leaders who are working in crisis management organizations, which should be considered for future events that require a long-term management work.