Resources for Hurricane Season

The EIIC Disaster Domain seeks to support EMSC grantees and stakeholders to better prepare for disasters in a way that takes the specific needs of children into consideration. It offers a variety of resources and tools to facilitate disaster preparedness activities by healthcare providers, public health departments, schools, and family and caregivers.

Health care providers and community organizations preparing for and responding to disasters can find these pediatric resources particularly helpful:

Pediatric Preparedness Resource Kit helps pediatricians, public health leaders, and other pediatric care providers assess what is happening in their communities, and help determine what needs to be done before an emergency.
Preparedness Checklist for Pediatric Practices empowers pediatricians to be ready to provide care for their patients when normal operations are disrupted due to emergency events by having fundamental supplies to ensure self-sufficiency for at least 72 hours.
Local stakeholders working on pediatric emergency care issues can be found at the AAP Chapter Contacts for Disaster Preparedness and the EMSC State Partnership Contact List. (search for Grantee Type: State Partnership)
Providing Psychosocial Support to Children and Families in the Aftermath of Disasters and Crisesprovides pediatricians with practical suggestions on how to identify common adjustment difficulties in children in the aftermath of a disaster and to promote effective coping strategies to mitigate the impact of the disaster as well as any associated bereavement and secondary stressors.
Psychological First Aid for Children, Parents and Other Caregivers After Natural Disasters provides an approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of disaster and terrorism.
Coalition to Support Grieving Students website provides multiple resources on how to talk with children about loss.
Tracking and Reunification of Children in Disasters: A Lesson and Reference for Health Professionals is an online course offered by the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health on caring for unaccompanied children in a disaster. During this lesson, learners will absorb core material and apply their knowledge in three case studies.
Reunification resources from the National Mass Care Strategy offers multiple tools to support reunification efforts including reunification plan template, standards and procedures, and unaccompanied minor registry.
The newly formed Harvey Resiliency and Recovery Program (HRRP) at The Trauma and Grief Center at Texas Children's Hospital is a new mental health initiative designed to assist youth who have been negatively impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

Family Readiness Kit is a key resource to assist families to prepare for emergencies and disasters. This resource includes general guidelines for readiness that can be used in most situations.

The AAP Healthy Children Website offers resources that clinicians can share with families such as How to Prepare for Disasters, and the Family Disaster Supply List.

Emergency assistance is accessible by applying for FEMA assistance, finding a Disaster Recovery Center, or finding a Red Cross Shelter.

The safest food for an infant in a disaster is human milk. The AAP provides useful information through the Infant Feeding in Disasters and Emergencies Fact Sheet.

Tips for helping children cope with hurricanes, storms and their aftermath from the Trauma and Grief Center at Texas Children's Hospital

The newly formed Harvey Resiliency and Recovery Program (HRRP) at The Trauma and Grief Center at Texas Children's Hospital is a new mental health initiative designed to assist youth who have been negatively impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

Sesame Street in Communities-Traumatic Experiences, when a child endures a traumatic experience, the whole family feels the impact. But adults hold the power to help lessen its effects. Several factors can change the course of kids’ lives: feeling seen and heard by a caring adult, being patiently taught coping strategies and resilience-building techniques, and being with adults who know about the effects of such experiences. This resource offers ways to bring these factors to life.

Keeping Children Safe after Hurricane Harvey provider recommendations for parents and guardians to keep their children safe and at ease through the wait and cleanup associated with hurricanes. This resource is available in eight languages.

Harvey specific Disaster Lit© compiles multiple timely articles from the Disaster Information Management Research Center on Harvey response and recover. Additional resources on Harvey from Disaster Lit© can be found these updates on 8/24, 8/25, and 8/28.

Tips to help children deal with trauma following Hurricane Harvey from Baylor College of Medicine.

The 2017 hurricane season has run its course. Useful pediatric-specific information on Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Storms and Hurricane Response and Recovery are available from the AAP.

Saranya Srinivasan, M.D.
Program Director, Program Director, EMS for Children State Partnership, Texas
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine
Pediatric Emergency Medicine Attending, Texas Children's Hospital

"On Saturday August 26th, the city of Houston was hit by the worst flooding in the history of the city. In a period of 48 hours, the George R. Brown convention center went from being empty to housing nearly 10,000 evacuees, many of whom were children, as young as 1 week of age. I had the privilege of caring for the youngest of these evacuees through my work with the Houston Fire Department and Texas Children’s Hospital. My involvement in the Texas EMSC State Partnership program allowed me to emphasize the unique needs of children as we provided care in the shelter. The lessons learned through this experience can be used to help others improve the outcomes of disaster responses. In those first two days, the evacuees and providers faced many challenges. Essentials such as diapers, formula, and clothing were now considered luxuries. Medical necessities such as specialized formula, home medications, ventilators, and feeding pumps were left at home. By collaborating with the Houston Fire Department, the Houston Health Department, local hospitals such as Texas Children’s Hospital, and countless donors and relief organizations, we were able to meet both the social and medical needs of the youngest and most vulnerable patients of the George R. Brown Convention Center."