Children and Megadisasters: Lessons Learned in the New Millennium

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Evacuation

During and after Hurricane Katrina, children were especially vulnerable to harm from the disorderly evacuation and chaos that followed in New Orleans after the levees broke and the city flooded. Estimates are that 80% of the population of the city relocated ahead of the storm, with approximately 25,000 using a “refuge of last resort,” the city's Louisiana Superdome [3]. Many rode the storm out in their homes. With an immense population on the move and the remainder in areas with conditions that

Summary

Many specific lessons were learned from recent megadisasters in the United States at the expense of children who suffered from a government and a citizenry that was desperately unprepared to respond to and recover from the disaster's short- and long-term effects. During the 9/11 attacks, the nation learned a new sense of vulnerability as the specter of terrorism was delivered repeatedly to our collective consciousness. As this article has emphasized, children experienced significant and

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Sarah Overholt at the Children's Health Fund for her assistance in the preparation of this document.

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