This article offers a meaning-centered approach to understanding Oklahomans' (and Americans') adaptation to the 19 April 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Adaptation to trauma is discussed in terms of the symbolism of trauma, especially the violation of the sense of place. Multiple, often competing, cultures of response and understandings of the crisis and of its solutions are explored. Key concepts discussed are sense of place, place symbolism, preparation, healing or recovery, timetable (closure), units of risk, units of community, heroism/heroes, crisis narrative (story line), therapeutic communities, cultural baseline, and emergent communities. In studying the relationship between incident, trauma, adaptation, narrative, and memory in a single disaster, this article contributes to a comparative framework of understanding disaster and recovery.
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