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…

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…

The shadow of the Twin Towers will never again stretch across the streets of lower Manhattan, but the shadow of September 11 continues to loom large both in New York and around the globe. In many ways, the events of that day are directly responsible for the latest technical program offering at two high schools in Missouri's St. Louis County. In…

The imperative to provide education for communities affected by man-made or natural disaster has been strongly articulated. Since the mid 1990s, a growing body of literature and research has emerged in the fledgling field of "education and instability"; however, there is still a pressing need for high-quality, applicable research. The…

Recent advancements in the development of hardware/software configurations for delivering virtual reality (VR) environments to individuals with disabilities have included approaches for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This article describes a study comparing benefits of using VR to benefits of an integrated/visual treatment model…

Toddler toy play evolves in a predictable manner and provides a valid, nonverbal measure of cognitive function unbiased by social behaviors. Research on prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) indicates that exposure to stress in utero results in developmental deficits. We hypothesized that children exposed to high objective PNMS from a natural disaster…

This article concerns the tragedy of the misuse of power and the power of imagined inferiority. African Americans must lose misconceptions about the majority, heighten understanding about being Black in America and how that makes their children vulnerable to this nation's worst, stop fighting losing battles like affirmative action, and find and…

The recovery and long-range redevelopment of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region is a complex undertaking requiring simultaneous planning in a wide range of disciplines. There is a paramount need to create a planning infrastructure that will enhance collaboration and reduce duplication in all of the planning disciplines moving forward. To…