Grad Student Launches Study on Coping With Tragedy

Like most people in the Crestmoor neighborhood and around San Bruno, Jasmin Llamas was deeply affected by the 2010 PG&E pipeline explosion.

She was away at school when the pipeline ruptured, but the house she grew up in—and where her family still lives—was near the accident.

Now Llamas is using her academic studies to try to make sense of the issue that is still quite prevalent for the many survivors of the explosion: coping with the aftermath.

As a Ph.D. student in psychology at UC Santa Barbara, Llamas, 28, has launched a study for her dissertation to better understand how residents are coping with the aftermath of the disaster. She is looking for more residents to take an online survey to help her with her research.

“When I started talking to people, their main concern was, ‘What can I do to get over it?’ because this is something that they’re still dealing with,” Llamas said. “Yes, it’s been a few years. But now they’re trying to figure out the rebuilding process and how to get over—or if they ever get over—some of things they saw.”

The survey is open to all San Bruno residents and anyone who was living in the city at the time of the explosion.

According to Llamas, the survey takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Once the survey is completed, participants can further share their stories by doing interviews with Llamas.

If you choose to participate in the survey, you will also be entered into a raffle to win a $50 gift card.

To learn more about Llamas’ study, go to survey.ucsb.edu/sanbruno/. She can be reached at jllamas@education.ucsb.edu.

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