The teacher leaders and school administrators at Nipher Middle School in Kirkwood, Missouri, have recently embraced a new set of strategies for supporting learning for all students. During the weekly problem-solving conversations that are a part of their response-to-intervention model, it became evident that clusters of students with unique and…

This multiple-case qualitative study was conducted to examine the perceptions of community members, students, and staff regarding school crisis management following a 2006 tornado and 2010 bus accident in a small rural school district in Missouri. Online surveys were collected from 66 participants, and 10 follow-up interviews were completed with…

One of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in the history of the United States ripped through the southeast Missouri town of Joplin on May 22, 2011. As it traveled along a 13-mile path it claimed 161 lives and caused more than $151 million in damages. Ten schools were damaged or destroyed and Joplin High School was a total loss. Just 48…

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, forced the fall semester closure of Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the aftermath of this unprecedented storm, the Tulane leadership set forth a plan for renewal to secure the survival, recovery, and sustainability of the institution,…

Hazards are taught with the belief that knowing something about their occurrence might help us avoid their consequences. The integrative nature of hazards--physical and social systems bound together--is attractive to the student and the instructor alike. Answering why we teach hazards is fairly straightforward. A more pressing question at present…

The study used data from Project Ice Storm to determine the extent to which exposure to prenatal maternal stress due to a natural disaster can explain variance in the intellectual and language performance of offspring at age 5 1/2.

In this article, Kristen L. Buras examines educational policy formation in New Orleans and the racial, economic, and spatial dynamics shaping the city's reconstruction since 2005. More specifically, Buras draws on the critical theories of whiteness as property, accumulation by dispossession, and urban space economy to describe the strategic…

In a disaster, social service workers are often survivors themselves. This study examines whether somatic intervention using a brief (one to two session) stabilization model now called the Trauma Resiliency Model[TM] (TRM), which uses the skills of Somatic Experiencing[R] (SE), can reduce the postdisaster symptoms of social service workers…

This study examined the stability of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a predominantly ethnic minority sample of youth exposed to Hurricane Katrina. Youth (n = 191 grades 4th thru 8th) were screened for exposure to traumatic experiences and PTSD symptoms at 24 months (Time 1) and then again at 30 months (Time 2) post-disaster. PTSD…

Tornados damage and destroy schools every year, but many school designers and planners continue to propose new facilities that do not incorporate storm safety techniques. They often subscribe to the "it can't happen here" idea or argue that making schools safe is too expensive. On the heels of two violent storms that damaged schools in…

More than 100 public schools in New Orleans were flooded in the hours after the hurricane struck. The roughly two dozen schools that did not fill up with water suffered wind and rain damage. It was a devastating blow to old, already battered school buildings that were among the most rundown in the country. The devastation created an unprecedented…

This study investigated the role of maternal psychopathology in predicting children's psychological distress in a disaster-exposed sample. Participants consisted of 260 children (ages 8-16) recruited from public schools and their mothers. These families were displaced from New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Assessment took place 3…

Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke," provides an informative, enduring, and alternative presentation surrounding the human and man-made debacle associated with Hurricane Katrina. Levees centers the voices of survivors and others involved in the weeks during and after the hurricane, historicizes residents' understandings and…

The torrential rains from Hurricane Katrina, the breaking of the levees, and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans resulted in another Black Diaspora. This article focuses on Black children and families who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina but now reside in cities, towns, and suburbs outside of the Crescent City. Informed by the author's…

In this article, Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness describes disasters in relation to five phases that may serve as a helpful framework for planning disaster response: (1) before the disaster (pre-disaster); (2) during the disaster (intra-disaster); (3) immediately after the disaster (immediate…