Given the physical, social, cultural, and financial devastation of New Orleans, all aspects of life after Katrina irrevocably changed, as did the institutions that once served the legendary Crescent City. Yet scant reports provide an ethnographic-like view that documents the effects of Katrina on historically Black colleges and universities…

Disaster studies have made important progress in recognizing the unequally distributed consequences of disasters, but there has been less progress in analyzing social factors that help create "natural" disasters. Even well-known patterns of hazard-creation tend to be interpreted generically--as representing "economic development" or…

Faster and more efficient coverage on television and the Internet is increasingly exposing children to traumatic images of natural devastation both at home and abroad. Natural disasters, such as the wildfires in California or the trauma caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, have become commonplace. Catastrophic events like these serve as…

What is the impact of natural disasters on students' statewide assessment scores? To answer this question, Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores of 55,881 students in grades 4 through 10 were analyzed to determine if there were significant decreases after the 2004 hurricanes. Results reveal that there was statistical but no practical…

In this study, the authors investigated the fears of earthquake victim and nonvictim elementary school students and the effectiveness of an activity-based cognitive fear reduction (ABCF) procedure developed by the authors. To measure fear, the authors collected data from 266 participants using a modified version of the Fear Survey Schedule for…

This article describes several issues in the academic and student affairs areas faced by students and faculty in the post-Katrina destruction environment. Cases are used to illustrate the issues, and a call is made for increased disaster readiness plans.

Objectives: To determine whether traumatic experiences of children entering the child welfare system have an impact on their risk behaviors and whether these behaviors are moderated by children's strengths. Method: The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services administered the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) measure to…

Background: This evaluative study assesses the efficacy of a school-based secondary prevention program consisting of creative expression workshops for immigrant and refugee preschoolers in a predominantly South Asian multiethnic neighborhood. Coincidentally, the program began in the wake of the tsunami. Method: Pretest and posttest data were…

The current study examined mental health symptomology, substance use, and adaptive coping among 416 social work students following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Among participants, 47% scored at or above the clinical level for depression, with 6% of students showing clinical PTSD-like symptoms, and 16.9% reporting substance use. Two thirds (66.9%)…

The Akkaraipettai village of the Nagapatinam district of Tamilnadu, India, was one of the areas most affected by the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. This study was conducted to assess the psychological effect of the tsunami on adolescents. The impact of the trauma was both measured and examined from a cultural perspective.…

Play therapy is an effective means of responding to the mental health needs of young children and is widely accepted as a valuable and developmentally appropriate intervention. The authors discuss the importance of play in development, the therapeutic benefits of play, the rich history of play therapy, and recent research and current issues and…

Background: Psychosocial stress maintains cigarette use and precipitates relapse, but little is known about how natural disasters in particular affect smoking. Purpose: To determine the feasibility of recruiting victims soon after a natural disaster for a survey study, and to assess the types and determinants of changes in smoking behavior…

This study examined children's media use (i.e., amount of television and Internet usage) and relationships to children's perceptions of societal threat and personal vulnerability. The sample consisted of 90 community youth aged 7 to 13 years (M = 10.8; 52.2% male) from diverse economic backgrounds. Analyses found children's television use to be…

For at least the last quarter century, enterprises--including higher education institutions--have increasingly relied on Information Technology Services (ITS) for business functions. As a result, IT organizations have had to develop the discipline of production operations as well as recovery procedures to respond when those operations are…

This article draws from and builds on the experience of schools in San Diego County following the forest fires that wrought havoc on the area last October. Three teachers (Dana Riggs, Marcelina Madueno and Miriam Atlas) provide a moving account of the personal experiences of their students, who lived through the fires. Their recollections…