Three Years After Katrina, Children On Gulf Coast Brace For Another Major Storm

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 01 Sep 2008 - 1:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Save the Children has dispatched an emergency response team to the Gulf Coast to expand its ability to assist children and families who might be displaced by Hurricane Gustav, which is bearing down on the Louisiana coast as a possible category-3 storm.

Save the Children has been operating children-focused programs on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans exactly three years ago today. Forecasters are predicting the new storm could strike New Orleans early next week.

Save the Children staff members are preparing to hand out 1,500 children's evacuation backpacks at the two mass shelters that are being set up in Louisiana in anticipation of a major evacuation of families from the Gulf Coast.

Save the Children is also prepared to establish safe spaces for children in shelters. The agency has pre-deployed kits to set up safe spaces in shelters established by the Red Cross, with whom Save the Children has partnered, to ensure the protection and well-being of children. Save the Children also plans to work to ensure that child-care centers can quickly re-establish services and schools can rebound so students do not fall behind in their education.

"Children are extremely vulnerable during an emergency and evacuation," said Mark Shriver, Save the Children's vice president for U.S. programs. "We know from experience that their needs are often overlooked during the confusion before, during and after a disaster. Save the Children will be there to provide safe activities for children in shelters and to help them and their parents return to the normalcy once the danger has passed."

Save the Children -- which assisted over 190,000 children and caregivers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama after Hurricane Katrina -- continues to provide long-term education and nutrition programs in the Gulf region.

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change for children in the United States and in more than 50 countries around the world.

Save the Children