Traumatic Events, Painful Effects
For many other victims of Hurricane Katrina, the trauma they've experienced may haunt them for years. CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports that the lessons of past disasters shows that the most innocent of all are at greatest risk: the children.
When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia last December, the Firmage family of Mill Valley, California was almost swallowed up by the wall of water.
"Everyone started running and screaming and a woman pointed at my sister and said run and we all started running," said 11-year-old Caitlin Firmage.
When they arrived home eight months ago, they were grateful for their lives and their home. But they quickly learned the healing process was just beginning. There were nightmares -- tsunami dreams.
"Sometimes there were warnings, sometimes there weren't," Caitlin said.
Caitlin decided she needed to write about it; and did so for a children's paper.
"I will always remember screaming for my mom," she wrote.
Now, Hurricane Katrina has brought back those painful memories.
"She started to not want to hear it and she started having flashbacks" said Vivian Firmage, Caitlin's mother.
Psychologists say that's normal after a traumatic event. Facing the worst American disaster they've ever tackled, dozens of mental health experts dispatched by the Red Cross have arrived on the ground in the hurricane zone – ready to help the thousands of people who face months of emotional healing.
Hardest hit are the children displaced from home and schools, whose lives have literally been turned upside down.
"You may see thumb sucking, bed wetting, clingy behavior," said Rosemary Schwartzbard of the American Psychology Association.
And in some cases – complete break-downs.
Shell-shocked parents may not realize what impact losing control in front of their children has on little ones.
"If parents are out of control, we can expect children to be out of control," said Schwartzbard.
The experts say the littlest victims of this disaster need to talk, draw and be allowed to express with teachers and family all that they've endured. And only then will the real healing begin.