Precautions to take before, what to do if outdoors or indoors during, and inspecting for damage after thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. Sidebars discuss emergency supplies to keep on hand, calculating distance from thunderstorms, and the Fujita tornado rating scale. (TD)

Surveys areas of vulnerability for library databases, provides guidelines to minimize the threat of disasters, and outlines recovery procedures. Topics covered include planning for natural catastrophes, designing physical and data environments, prevention of computer failure, vendor failure, and steps for developing a disaster prevention and…

Finds that 44 urban Virginia and rural West Virginia ministers faced similar challenges following 1985's severe floods, but differed in available resources, varieties of disaster relief roles they took, extent of posttraumatic stress symptoms, and strategies used to meet community needs. Contains 14 references and the interview instrument. (SV)

After tornado leveled Grand Prairie Elementary School (Joliet, Illinois), concerted effort by architects and the school community paid off when new school was opened two years later. Hallways in new building are staggered throughout school to avoid the creation of wind tunnels in event of another tornado. Guidelines for disaster preparations…

Presents the rationale and purposes behind the phenomenon known as storm chasing, as well as the contributions that tornado chasers have made to both scientific knowledge and public safety. Provides statistical information on tornado frequencies and locations and contact addresses for storm chasers. (JJK)

The typical administrator certification program does not devote specific attention to shootings, suicide, terminal illness, and natural disasters. A crisis of major proportion calls for enlightened leadership: a take-charge manner, combined with effective teamwork and delegation of vital operations. Crisis teams should exist at regional, district,…

Relates the author's experiences of salvaging items following the Grand Forks (North Dakota) flood of 1997. Highlights include restoring home movies, paper documents, and photographs; setting realistic recovery goals; and preserving document copies in other locations. A sidebar describes experiences of the public library in Elba (Alabama) after…

Discusses crisis-management planning for college and university campuses that can contribute to effective and rapid response and wise decision making during not only natural disasters, but also those that are manmade. Crisis-management tips are highlighted. (GR)

Although emergency preparedness is a high priority for administrators, training staff can be challenging. A scenarios approach involves all staff members. Changing scenarios every year relieves boredom. Customizing scenarios to specific building and program characteristics makes training more realistic for participants. Sample scenarios are…

This document's primary focus is on a subset of the population of mobile children--infants, preschoolers, children and youth with disabilities and their families who are highly mobile. First, a background section provides information about policies and practices developed for mobile children at the federal level under the McKinney-Vento Program.…

This article describes the independent study project of a student who was a graduate assistant in a child development laboratory preschool when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast area. Through her experiences with "Project Katrina" she deepens her understanding of developmentally appropriate practices as she learns firsthand about…

After a state take-over of most local schools, the fate of public education in New Orleans has been clouded by uncertainty. However, many problems are already clear. The community has expressed outrage on numerous occasions about the management, conditions, policies, and practices of the RSD schools. One fundamental concern has been about the lack…

The 7th edition of this publication provides updated projections of high school graduates for each year and each state (plus the District of Columbia) through 2022. The profile breaks down the projections by major racial and ethnic groups: (1) American Indian/Alaska Native; (2) Asian/Pacific Islander; (3) Black, non-Hispanic; (4) Hispanic; and (5)…

The 2006 National Resiliency Response Initiative for Katrina's Kids is a systematic approach to providing resiliency support to the over 200,000 children victimized by one of the worst natural disasters in American history. From the Gulf States region, children suffered trauma during and after Hurricane Katrina as they became displaced young…

This report presents findings on crime and violence in regular public schools in the United States, using data from the 2003--04 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2004). First administered in the 1999--2000 school year, SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of school administrators. Developed by…