Why do we procrastinate leaving? The denial phase is a humbling one. It takes a while to come to terms with our miserable luck. Rowley puts it this way: 'Fires only happen to other people.' We have a tendency to believe that everything is OK because, well, it almost always has been before.
Amanda Ripley, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why
denial, disasters