"Lessons Learned" is a series of publications that are a brief recounting of actual school emergencies and crises. This "Lessons Learned" issue focuses on the response and recovery efforts to wildfires by the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) and its school and community partners. Natural disasters such as floods,…

Reactions to the trauma of an earthquake are likely to show up in children's behavior at school, and teachers can play an important role in the recovery of their students. By better understanding students' reactions, teachers can be prepared to provide appropriate support within the school setting. By being informed about trauma, teachers and…

Many people are invisible within and to the wider society. An adjunct aspect of that situation is that the marginalized are also invisible to one another. This "mutual invisibility" undermines the possibilities of cooperative transcommunal alliances. It is Cedric Sunray's ("Similarities between Tribes and the Ninth Ward,"…

The changing demographic landscape of the United States calls for a reassessment of the societal impacts and consequences of so called "natural" and technological disasters. An increasing trend towards greater demographic and socio-economic diversity (in part due to high rates of international immigration), combined with mounting…

A number of factors can contribute to youth's reactions to disasters. These factors can include characteristics of the event; the nature of youth's exposure; and individual, family, and social predictors. This article describes both outcomes and predictors in order to prepare professionals who might work with youth in post-disaster situations.…

This article provides a pre- and post-Katrina snapshot of issues in the human resource arena with emphasis on resilience, persistence, and the overwhelming need for effective planning.

Hurricane Katrina caused immense upheaval and disrupted many lives. Among those affected were pregnant women. A public service announcement, website content, and a fact sheet were developed to inform pregnant women about the issues that could potentially affect their health and that of their babies. The aim of these products was to provide health…

At the end of August 2005, Hurricane Katrina laid bare a wide swath of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The devastation left in the wake of this natural disaster and the all-too-slow governmental response to it shocked the nation. Hidden even deeper in the media aftermath of Katrina were the stories of the particularly harsh fury that the hurricane had…

A network approach to disaster preparedness in university settings is described. Basic network concepts relevant for disaster preparedness and methods for analyzing network data without complex mathematics are presented. A case study of campus mental health and academic units at a midwestern university is presented to illustrate the practical…

The overarching goal of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) is to build a safer, more secure, and more resilient America by preventing, deterring, neutralizing, or mitigating the effects of deliberate efforts by terrorists to destroy, incapacitate, or exploit elements of our Nation's critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR)…

During and following natural or man-made disasters, relief efforts have a long history of initially focusing on basic survival needs, then restoring community stability. Disaster mental health is a relatively new aspect of relief efforts, particularly in regard to children's needs. After reviewing objectives of major relief organizations and…

This paper reflects the experience of the authors working in the field of humanitarian education during the last two decades. Important changes have been witnessed since the Central American crises of the seventies, the refugee focus of the eighties and the new UN vision of the complex emergency crisis of the nineties resulting from the post Cold…

This article introduces the special section on child and adolescent mental health research in the context of Hurricane Katrina. We outline the purpose and intent of the special section and present an integrative perspective based on broad contextual theories of human development with which to think about the impact of disasters like Katrina. The…

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…

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…