Schools play a unique role in communities when disaster strikes. They serve as shelter for evacuees and first responders; they are a trusted source of information; and once danger has passed, the district, as employer and community center, often serves as a foundation for recovery. Technology plays a key role in a school district's ability to…

The greater New Orleans area--Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes--has yet to fully recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. As a result of the hurricane and its aftermath, many children experienced psychological trauma, which can have long-lasting effects. Experts have previously identified barriers to providing and…

Describes a successful approach to integrating inquiry into college non-laboratory science courses for nonmajors by building on students' innate curiosity about natural disasters. (SAH)

Provides a brief overview of events that have contributed to the development of what currently constitutes disaster-crisis mental health counseling, an area of counseling that has gained increased clinical attention and empirical focus within the field of mental health counseling. (Author)

What's the worst thing that can happen to a computer? Worse than a hard disk crash, virus infection, spare assault, denial-of-service attack, hacker take-over, fire, flood or some other human, mechanical or natural disaster is a faulty backup when it is really needed. If the computer blows up, as long as the data is backed up securely, it can be…

Classmates at Reservoir High School sometimes call Dalyn Jones and Anthea Fields the "Katrina chicks." Left homeless by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, both teenagers migrated from the New Orleans area to Maryland in September of 2006. They met for the first time here when they showed up on the same day to register for 9th…

The number of natural disasters and the number of people affected by them has been increasing worldwide over the past century, according to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. Natural disasters cannot be prevented, but understanding how they occur can help education institutions design facilities that minimize damage. In this…

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina brought devastation and confusion to the Mississippi Gulf Coast region on August 29, 2005. A desperate need for leadership, collaboration, and coordination of relief and recovery efforts was revealed during a March 2007 strategic planning session involving 96 organizations, groups, agencies, and researchers…

This case study investigates the media discourse from Houma and Pointe-au-Chien tribal leaders in Louisiana on their experiences with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One section briefly engages the discourse as discernable from the reports found in Native American and non-Native American news media. Included is a brief yet close examination of these…

Hurricane Katrina traumatized the city of New Orleans and the Gulf South. It filled most Americans and global citizens with grief and rage in the late summer of 2005. As the world watched, feeling powerless to help the many thousands of suffering people, at first stunned and then furious over the ineptitude of government response to this…

In June 2004, the American national media spent a considerable amount of airtime revisiting the events of June 1964 when three civil rights workers were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi. On the fortieth anniversary of the murders. National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" devoted airtime to a story, "Truth and Reconciliation in…

This study examined posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and comorbid disorders in 70 preschool children (ages 3-6) and their caregivers following Hurricane Katrina. Children's rate of PTSD was 50.0% using age-modified criteria. The rate of PTSD was 62.5% for those who stayed in the city and 43.5% in those who evacuated. Of those with PTSD, 88.6%…

This study advances a conceptual framework for understanding the transformation of places into recovery machines after major hurricanes. This framework contends that in the years following such disasters, pro-growth coalitions take advantage of new sources of material and symbolic capital to promote further demographic growth. It also contends…

Tornadoes and other natural disasters can lead to anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children. This study provides further validity for the Oklahoma State University Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale-Child Form (OSU PTSDS-CF) by comparing it to the Behavior Assessment System for Children Self-Report of Personality (BASC-SRP).…

Information about the psychological status of children following a natural disaster is rare. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to create a psychosocial profile of relocated Hurricane Katrina youth (N = 83, ages 13 to 17) and integrate the findings into a growing body of literature on the psychological effects of disaster. Data were…