The Hurricane Exposure, Adversity, and Recovery Tool (HEART): Developing and Validating a Risk Screening Instrument for Youth Exposed to Hurricane Harvey

Given the increasing regularity with which severe (named) hurricanes arise, there is a need for valid, practically useful measures that facilitate child-centered post-hurricane situation analysis and needs assessment. Measures that accurately assess the most potent hurricane-related risk factors are essential to identifying youth at risk for developing posttraumatic stress reactions and providing them with effective post-disaster support. With feedback from community stakeholders (e.g., school personnel, physicians and hospital staff, community clinicians), we developed the Hurricane Exposure, Adversity, and Recovery Tool (HEART), a 29-item self-report measure of hurricane risk factors. Test development procedures included: (1) Reviewing the literature regarding hurricane exposure-related risk factors in youth; (2) Generating a developmentally-informed test item pool; (3) Conducting interviews with clinicians, as well as youth impacted by Hurricane Harvey, to evaluate the comprehensibility and acceptability of candidate items; and (4) evaluating endorsement rates for hurricane exposure-related risk factors among (N = 107) youth in an outpatient clinic specializing in the treatment of childhood trauma and loss. Disaster-related exposure, pre-existing indicators of risk, and ongoing post-disaster adversities were correlated with posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms. These results provide support for an integrative approach to post-hurricane screening for both hurricane-specific (e.g., witnessing injuries) and non-specific (e.g., prior trauma) factors

Missed Treatments of Hemodialysis Patients after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico

The consequences of a natural event such as a hurricane can especially have a negative impact on vulnerable patients such as hemodialysis patients. In former incidences such as Hurricane Katrina, factors such as living relocations disrupted hemodialysis patients’ ability to adhere to their thrice-weekly treatments (Anderson et al, 2009). In this study, 44% of the 386 hemodialysis patients who experienced Hurricane Katrina reported missing one or more dialysis sessions. Thus, the hurricane had significant negative influence on patients’ attendance at the dialysis clinic. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico suffered extensive road blockages, electricity shortages, and lacking natural resources. Recovery procedures such as clearing of roads were not completed until several months afterward. By October, there was still a significant portion of people without sufficient resources. The primary objectives of this study are to assess the percentage of hemodialysis patients who missed dialysis sessions in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and the social factors influencing their missed sessions. From a total of 16 facilities, three dialysis clinics in cities most highly impacted by the hurricane will be selected to participate. Data will be collected through patient interviews, surveys, and charts, to examine potential demographic characteristics and social factors that may have affected the patients’ attendance to these dialysis facilities. If there is a significant correlation between the social factors and missed treatments, then management strategies can be suggested to help hemodialysis patients adjust to post-disaster conditions and help develop planning strategies in case of future natural disasters

Florida hurricanes and tropical storms: 1871-1993, an historical review

In recent times, from 1871-1993, nearly 1,0OO tropical cyclones of tropical storm or hurricane intensity have s cur red in the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico. Of this total, about 180 have reached Florida, with 75 of these known to have hurricane force winds (wind speed 2 74 mph) and 105 with tropical storm force winds (39 mph - 73 mph). While early records are fragmentary and incomplete, the following is a discussion of the more formidable Florida hurricanes. For convenience and to provide readable hurricane tracks, the discussion examines hurricanes occurring within 30-year periods, divided into 10-year sections. When possible the SaffirISirnpson Scale (Table 1) describes the hurricane category for both past hurricanes (before the scale was developed), and recent hurricanes. (157pp.

Social and Emotional Support for Children and their Caregivers Post-Disasters

The purpose of this paper is to share Save the Children’s responses to Hurricane Harvey in Texas, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and Hurricane Irma in Florida in 2017. Save the Children’s response and recovery efforts in the aftermath of these disasters consisted of a wide range of services for the affected children and their caregivers, including assistance to childcare centers and organizations, and providing child-focused services, such as psychosocial support. This paper will particularly focus on the psychosocial support element of the responses

Katrina\u27s Animal Legacy: The PETS Act

This article discusses issues related to the federal Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006 (PETS Act), which was signed into law in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Issues discussed in this article include: Various problems concerning animal evacuations and sheltering that Hurricane Katrina brought to light; Provisions of the PETS Act and related laws and policies which were developed in response to the tragedies brought about by Hurricane Katrina; and Strengths and weaknesses of the PETS Act and recommends next steps to improve implementation of the PETS Act

The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement

Despite the dangers associated with tropical cyclones and their rainfall, the origins of storm moisture remains unclear. Existing studies have focused on the region 40-400 km from the cyclone center. It is known that the rainfall within this area cannot be explained by local processes alone but requires imported moisture. Nonetheless, the dynamics of this imported moisture appears unknown. Here, considering a region up to three thousand kilometers from storm center, we analyze precipitation, atmospheric moisture and movement velocities for North Atlantic hurricanes. Our findings indicate that even over such large areas a hurricane's rainfall cannot be accounted for by concurrent evaporation. We propose instead that a hurricane consumes pre-existing atmospheric water vapor as it moves. The propagation velocity of the cyclone, i.e. the difference between its movement velocity and the mean velocity of the surrounding air (steering flow), determines the water vapor budget. Water vapor available to the hurricane through its movement makes the hurricane self-sufficient at about 700 km from the hurricane center obviating the need to concentrate moisture from greater distances. Such hurricanes leave a dry wake, whereby rainfall is suppressed by up to 40 per cent compared to its long-term mean. The inner radius of this dry footprint approximately coincides with the radius of hurricane self-sufficiency with respect to water vapor. We discuss how Carnot efficiency considerations do not constrain the power of such open systems that deplete the pre-existing moisture. Our findings emphasize the incompletely understood role and importance of atmospheric moisture supplies, condensation and precipitation in hurricane dynamics.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, 1 Table; extended analyses: available E/P ratios reviewed and explained (Table 1); rainfall and moisture distributions 3 days before and after hurricanes, propagation velocity and its relationship to radial velocity; efficiency for non-steady hurricanes; hurricane motion and rainfall asymmetries discusse