Maintains that the study of catastrophic events should be given temporary precedence over the normal curriculum in order to help students understand the causes, consequences, and recovery alternatives, deal with trauma, and allay fear of recurrence and feelings of helplessness. Uses the May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens to demonstrate how…

Compares fears of lightning-strike victims (N=29) with matched control children (N=58), using fear reports from children and their mothers. Differences between samples were most pronounced for child-reported fears. Correspondence between mothers' and children's reports of intense storm-related fears was markedly larger in the lightning sample than…

Discusses causes of library disasters and provides several examples of disasters. Emphasis is on the importance of awareness, insurance protection, a written disaster plan, cooperation with the fire marshall and insurance agent in planning, and staff training. Several elements of the written plan are listed. (22 references) (MES)

Based on the experience of the Los Angeles Unified School District (California), this article presents areas for school districts to scrutinize when planning for emergencies. These include written plans, duplicate home telephone listings, communications plans, staff identification cards, utility shutoff information, and food and shelter…

Reports the experiences of a continuing education group of geographers crossing the Indian Ocean by ship. Describes the bizarre weather conditions encountered and the lack of meteorological coverage of the area. Explains how knowledge of basic physical geography helped to avert a disaster when weather reports did not match the conditions being…

Addresses development and implementation of emergency procedures in school settings. The first step is to establish a school-safety committee that meets quarterly and a district safety committee that sets overall direction. Procedure manuals should specify staff responsibilities and should be written so that recovery processes may be switched…

Five weeks after Katrina landed in Louisiana, Bonnabel and 78 other Jefferson Parish schools were welcoming students back--and far sooner than many had expected. The worst damage in Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina did not come to Jefferson Parish. That distinction was reserved for portions of New Orleans, as well as St. Bernard Parish, where…

The U.S. Department of Education in early January of 2006 sent out the first installment--more than $250 million--in education aid to states affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, just days after President Bush signed the measure into law. The $1.6 billion relief package has drawn fire from some education groups because it provides aid not just…

Nearly four months after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to their hometown, Jonathan and Shelley Midura are packing up the family's van and heading back from this Washington suburb to New Orleans. They just have to figure out where their three children will go to school. In this article the family shares their thoughts and feelings on changing…

Experts have long suggested that re-establishing routines, particularly school routines, can be therapeutic for children who have experienced upheaval in their home lives. This article briefly describes an 8th grader's experience with this, after losing her home to Hurricane Katrina and having her life moved to suburban Washington.

As students have returned to Alice M. Harte Elementary School, they have found their old school far from the way they left it on the last school day before Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the city. The building may look much the same as it did on August 26, 2006 but half the faces here are new--from principals to teachers to students. The…

As federal aid for students uprooted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita begins making its way to cash-strapped school districts, many educators are worried that the money Congress allocated will fall well short of their costs. Since the hurricanes damaged hundreds of schools in the Gulf Coast region and initially dispersed nearly 375,000 students,…

This article describes how a teacher changed all his plans to teach the hurricane. When the Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, kids become naturally curious and seek answers in an event this big. The author suggests the use of tragedies to help them grow as students and as citizens.

Individuals and their communities experience trauma and loss during times of natural disaster. Using Hurricane Katrina as a context, the authors provide an overview of the phases of disaster coping and discuss the ambiguous losses that can occur during these traumatic and life-changing times. The use of rituals as a creative intervention is…

This publication discusses conditions that feed wildfires, how a building catches fire, determining the school's risk, creating a survivable space for the school, the importance of maintenance, the fire-resistant school, meeting code requirements, and related flood and mudslide risks. Much of this publication has been adapted for schools from the…