When a natural or man-made disaster strikes, there is usually little time for citizens to prepare and protect themselves. In September 2003, the U.S. Department of Homeland Defense implemented a National Response Plan dealing with many forms of disaster. However, when a disaster hits, not all citizens are equally prepared or protected. A sample of…

Using the diary of Kim Stasny, superintendent of the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School District in Mississippi, and accounts from other superintendents from areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, the author describes the grim situation faced by schools in the days and weeks after the storm struck. He then discusses the importance of getting students…

Two-dozen students from the University of Virginia in January 2006 took part in a program that brings college students from around the US to help rebuild New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The program was part of an interdisciplinary two-week course that examined the impact of the hurricane through such diverse topics as…

Problem-based learning experiences that extend at least two weeks provide an opportunity for students to investigate a real-world problem while learning science content and skills in an exciting way. In this article, students are challenged by the president of the United States to serve as employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to…

Scientists have associated the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon with extreme climate events such as flooding in California, droughts in Australia, fires in Indonesia, and increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean. The popular media is constantly attributing individual storms to the ENSO phenomenon. The reality is that a…

Humanitarian psychological support as an organized field is relatively young. Pioneers in the field were involved primarily in providing psychological support to refugees and internally displaced persons in conflict and nonconflict situations. This article describes basic principles for the design of psychological support programs and…

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the district temporarily lost 100% of its students and did not reopen a single school for more than two months. As it became apparent that the district was not prepared to bring the schools back from such a devastating blow, educators began to see a silver lining in Katrina's dark clouds. State School Board…

Adolescents possess numerous strengths and vulnerabilities based on their unique stage of development. When youth experience a disaster, whether natural or human-caused, there are certain considerations to be taken into account when providing them with support. This article describes common adolescent reactions to the impact phase of disasters as…

Disturbance-generated biomass results from endogenous and exogenous natural and cultural disturbances that affect the health and productivity of forest ecosystems. These disturbances can create large quantities of plant biomass on predictable cycles. A systems analysis model has been developed to quantify aspects of system capacities (harvest,…

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…

In this essay, the author suggests that worldwide disasters are providing the means for business to accumulate profit. From the Asian tsunami of 2005 that allowed corporations to seize coveted shoreline properties for resort development to the multi-billion dollar no-bid reconstruction contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, from the privatization of…

It is essential that the traditional emergency management structure be used as a framework for higher education emergency planning. The four phases of emergency management should be reflected in the architecture of all planning efforts. These include "preparedness," "response," "mitigation," and "recovery."…

On the basis of theory and previous research, it was hypothesized that predisaster child trait anxiety would predict disaster-related posttraumatic stress symptoms and generalized anxiety disorder symptoms, even after controlling for the number of hurricane exposure events. Results support this hypothesis and further indicate that predisaster…