[Photo: From small children to the elderly, many people were displaced by the Northridge, Calif., earthquake in 1994. Courtesy of FEMA News Photo.]
More than one-third of parents reported that their children have experienced physical or mental distress as a result of the recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a survey of residents living within 10 miles of the Gulf. The survey was conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health after the Deepwater Horizon well was capped in July. It also found that one-quarter of the 1,200 respondents thought they might have to move away from the coast, and children of those parents were three times more likely to be experiencing stress. More than one-fifth of respondents said their children spent less time playing outdoors after the oil spill.
The survey follows a 2009 report by nonprofit Save the Children that examined the major disasters of the last 10 years and their impacts on children. The report also outlined four recommendations states could adopt to improve child welfare during disasters including: written evacuation and relocation plans; reunification plans and plans for special needs children at child-care facilities; and written multihazard plans at schools. Seven states met all four recommendations in 2009. Since then, five additional states — Mississippi, California, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Washington — have incorporated the group’s recommendations into their emergency planning.
Planning for Everyday Disasters
Officials in Mississippi began addressing the needs of children in disasters following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. In May 2006, Mississippi State University’s Early Childhood Institute conducted an assessment of the state’s child-care infrastructure in Katrina’s wake. “As a result of that, there were things that emerged, such as there were no licensing regulations in the state for when an emergency occurs and you have no building in town to house a facility for the care of kids,” said Cathy Grace, the institute’s director.
Building on planning efforts for disasters where there’s a degree of warning, such as hurricanes and tornadoes, Mississippi is developing plans to improve the resiliency of child-care facilities following sudden emergencies like chemical spills and broken water mains. “A lot of times we’ve found a lot of the child-care directors don’t necessarily plan for those types of disasters,” said Jill Dent, the director of the Office for Children and Youth at the Mississippi Department of Human Services. “So we’re going to offer that as a training to be able to give them specific documents that would tell them exactly what they needed when they walked out the door if they were never to come back again.”
Dent hoped to begin the training this fall.
The Office for Children and Youth also is encouraging an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 unlicensed in-home child-care providers to register for inclusion in a statewide database, which would help officials notify them if an evacuation is necessary.
She estimated that the state has registered 600 such providers so far.
States More Prepared Than They Appear?
At least one state believes it was closer to meeting recommendations than Save the Children reported in 2009. According Amy Blondin, communications manager for the Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL), the agency had met the nonprofit’s recommendations in 2009, but that was not reflected in the group’s report until 2010.
Bob McClellan, DEL’s assistant director for licensing oversight, said the state’s administrative code has contained requirements for evacuation and reunification of children in disasters since 2009.
Save the Children spokeswoman Erika Viltz said via e-mail that the company that conducted the survey drew its conclusions from a review of the state’s administrative law. That review showed Washington’s regulations governing child-care centers met the group’s recommendations in 2009, while family home day-care facility regulations did not. The 2010 review showed regulations for both sets of facilities were in line with the group’s recommendations, she said.
Any of the 38 states that have not met each of the group’s recommendations may be in a similar situation.
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