About phobias, we could try to adapt CoC rules for mental disorder to our game, but I dunno about the benefits
I'd like to add claustrophobia.
I also think we could choose better, not to mention roleplay better, if we first decided what kind of families we had, then we decide what kind of disaster can destroy a whole city leaving only a bunch of 8 yrs old children alive, and finally how we did react to the disaster.
My personal take on this question would be that we probably survived because we were doing something, or we were somewhere so what killed the others didn't touch us. E.G. we dared each other to enter the catacombs under the city. and we were there when the two battling dragons came and destroyed all. When we came out we found only smoking ashes. This could have lead some of us think "if I didn't go there, my mum would be still alive" and develop a major guilt complex.