In the last two decades, cultural and historical approaches have gained more attention in the field of disaster studies. The underlying premise is that disasters are as much cultural events as natural ones, and that cultural discourses are key to understanding the social impact of disasters. In this article, we focus on three types of cultural media: news media, occasional poetry and visual sources. We argue that authors and visual artists appropriated disasters and mediated information according to their political, religious and moral convictions. In doing so, they contributed not only to local and national community building, but also to setting and demarcating borders within the larger community. ; In the last two decades, cultural and historical approaches have gained more attention in the field of disaster studies. The underlying premise is that disasters are as much cultural events as natural ones, and that cultural discourses are key to understanding the social impact of disasters. In this article, we focus on three types of cultural media: news media, occasional poetry and visual sources. We argue that authors and visual artists appropriated disasters and mediated information according to their political, religious and moral convictions. In doing so, they contributed not only to local and national community building, but also to setting and demarcating borders within the larger community.