Tudor Vieru, Science Editor for Softpedia.com, wrote today of a series of studies that relates emotionally disturbed children in southeast Louisiana to Hurricane Katrina.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (which the article doesn’t cite directly but it is what it is) is often associated with war victims and soldiers. PTSD became a recognizably serious situation after the first Gulf War and since then the military has taken great steps in diagnosing and treating PTSD.
But, people don’t often associate PTSD with natural disaster victims. I remember hearing of one young man who survived Hurricane Andrew. Years later, the memories drove him to suicide. He’s not the only one.
I wish I knew exact numbers. I don’t think anyone knows. Officially, death records will only list “suicide” in most of these situations. It would take a detailed scientific study years to fully uncover anywhere close to the actual realities of what storm victims go through long after the storm is gone.
Just think about it for a second. If you’ve never been through a hurricane, imagine seeing bright neon-blue flashes all across the horizon. Imagine hearing the loud-pitched whistling of the wind blowing through power lines. Imagine the wind beating rain against your skin so hard it feels like needles.
That’s just from my own personal experience. I’ve never seen my home nor other family or friends homes get destroyed. I know people that have gone through it. I’ve talked to survivors. And you can tell in some place deep inside most of them there is a pain that lingers long after the winds calmed.
Imagine that pain lingering inside someone that has no clue what it is, where it came from, or how to control it; particularly, children. Kids remember more than we could ever imagine. When children go through significant events – and by significant it can be as simple as a house fire or watching a murder; doesn’t have to be a category five hurricane – they are traumatized to some extent. Adults must recognize this and immediately go into action by trying to get the child on the road to recovery through counseling and all other methods available.
It’s not just a United States problem, either. Dozens of hurricanes strike land every year.
That pain lingers inside. It doesn’t go away. It can and will last for years. To say Katrina killed 1500 is an understatement. How many others have died or will die due to effects suffered from that day?
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