Durkheim's concept of social integration refers to social groups with well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals. These groups will differ in the degree to which individuals are part of the collective body, also to the extent to which the group is emphasized over the individual, and lastly the level to which the group is unified versus fragmented. Durkheim believed that two types of suicide, Egoistic and Altruistic, could stem from social integration. Egoistic suicide resulted from too little social integration. Those people who were not sufficiently bound to a social group would be left with little or no social support in times of crisis. This caused them to commit suicide more often. An example Durkheim discovered was that of unmarried people, especially males, who, with less to connect them to stable social groups, committed suicide at higher

I1, http://durkheim.itgo.com/suicide.html, Dunman, L. Joe "The Emile Durkheim ArchiveaE?, 1999

In conclusion, the flood at Buffalo Creek destroyed the inhabitant's very social fabric. This in itself is not unique, but what was unique about Buffalo Creek is that there was no post disaster euphoria, where people who have survived the disaster are uplifted by the fact that the community is still present and viable. That was not the case in Buffalo Creek, mostly in part due to HUD's internal policies but also due to the very devastation caused by the flood. The other thing that was unique about Buffalo Creek was that ninety-three percent of the survivors had diagnosable emotional disorders eighteen months after the disaster. Usually survivors of disasters are able to get over it and move on, but the survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster were not able to do this because of their total loss of "GemeinschaftaE? or sense of community.

Then the flood came, if it really could be called a "floodaE?. It was really more of a "churning maelstrom of liquid and mud and debris, curling around its own center and grinding its way relentlessly into Buffalo Creek.aE? (28) The levels of social integration and social regulation plummeted after the flood. The extended community that had once been in Buffalo Creek was gone, "the valley was little more than a long black gash, devastated beyond recognition.aE? (46) The majority of the inhabitants were still present though, but had little in the way of amenities. This is when the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) stepped in to assist, by providing mobile homes, rent-free for one year. They established thirteen camps and sheltered almost twenty-five hundred people. HUD's policies of first-come, first-served did not address the social integration and social regulation issues that were present prior to the flood. They took a tight-knit community which had been ripped apart by the seams, and made that "condition virtually permanent.aE? (47) This was a combination of individual and collective trauma, where the people found it hard to recover while their community remained in tatters.

In Durkheim's concept of social/moral regulation, society imposes limits on humans to regulate their passions, desires, expectations, ambitions and roles. When these limits or social regulations break down, the controlling authority the society once had no longer functions and people are left on their own to make their own plans. In societies that have low levels of social regulations, a state of Anomie, or normlessness, can occur and affect the whole society or just some of its groups. Anomic suicide was more prevalent in this type of society. Anomic suicide basically involves an imbalance of means and needs, where the means were unable to fulf

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1890
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)