Well-being, life satisfaction and capabilities of flood disaster victims

The individual well-being of flood disaster victims is examined making use of two concepts: life satisfaction and perceived capabilities in life. These concepts are compared in two samples: a representative sample of Flemish respondents and a specific sample of people that have been the victim of a pluvial flood. Well-being as life satisfaction is found not to be related to past or expected future flooding, whereas well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to both past and expected future flooding. •Well-being as life satisfaction is not related to past or expected future flooding.•Well-being as capabilities in life is negatively related to flooding.•A disaster can scare people for the future because of the scars that it provokes.•Assess the impact of a disaster not only by monetary damage and life satisfaction.