Around 20,000 Children Suffering From Emotional Disorder Due To Hurricane Katrina

August 23rd, 2010 - 7:32 pm ICT by GD  

By Madhuri Dey
hurricaneAug 23, (THAINDIAN NEWS) A recent study published in the journal “Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness” points out to the serious emotional disturbance that is eating up the lives of thousands of children who had survived the devastating Hurricane Katrina five years ago. The study has pointed out that around 20,000 children who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina suffer from the behavioral disorder that needs psychological counseling and attention. The study has once again pointed fingers at the authorities of New Orleans and Louisiana who have still not been able to come up with some permanent housing solution for the families dislocated five years ago.

The study has found that most of the children who have survived the disaster are suffering from serious emotional disturbances which is often aggravated by lack of stable housing. The study holds that children who have been displaced by the 2005 storm, are almost five times more likely than the normal kids to get into a dungeon of emotional turmoil. However, there is very few things that the concerned authorities have done to ease the situation. According to the study, almost half of the children affected by Hurricane Katrina have received proper psychological help in the past five years. “A significant number of children are still living under dangerous and traumatic conditions of persistent displacement”, the director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, Irwin Redlener who had co-authored the present study pointed out. The study has also pointed at the mental and physical havoc that the British Petroleum oil leak has caused in the lives of children who are leaving in the coastal area.

Back in 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded around 80 percent of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. The storm that killed around 1,600 people caused damages worth $80 billion. Among 1.5 million people all around Louisiana and Mississippi who were displaced by the storm, 163000 were reportedly children who have since then been moving from one temporary residence to another.

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