Hurricane's impact on kids is far-reaching and hard. (Hurricane Andrew)(adapted from the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34,9:1185-1201, 1995)

Hurricane Andrew, which devastated Dade County, FL, in 1992, didn't only affect the children and adolescents directly exposed to the disaster, according to two separate studies of posttraumatic symptomatology. Children in a comparison group north of Miami, as well as adolescents who experienced common stressful events after the hurricane, also suffered from posttraumatic symptoms. While children in the immediate pathway of the storm had more severe symptoms, children at a Miami Beach elementary school in one study had the same prevalence of mild and moderate categories of posttraumatic symptomatology. In a study of adolescents, stressful events, such as changing schools, as a …