OKLAHOMA-CITY - THE STORYING OF A DISASTER

The bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 was a massive assault o n the meaning-making of survivors and community members. Utilizing a s ocial constructionist perspective, this article explores the evolution of the community's social narrative as it shifted in the immediate wa ke of the blast to a new framework for understanding the event three m onths later. It is speculated that the community's storying of the bom bing was initially centered on issues of action and recovery in order to restore civil order. Only after the departure of the Red Cross, whi ch contributed to the formation of this communal narrative, did tradit ional crisis notions concerning phases of grief begin to appear in the local Oklahoma City newspaper. In addition, individual stories that d id not conform to the larger understanding of events were conferred le ss authority than those in accordance with the dominant narrative.