ABSTRACT
Disaster is a mark of our time, whether natural disaster, as with a tornado or flood, or man-made disaster, such as a school or mall shooting or airline crash. Disaster that results in catastrophic loss can strike any community at any time. Persons who are responsible for planning community and national-disaster response are realizing that another essential part of a community's— or the nation's— survival of disaster is emotional and spiritual survival. There also need to be spiritual and emotional first responders to provide spiritual and emotional first aid when disaster strikes. This chapter focuses on the period that the disaster itself is occurring and on the hours and perhaps a day or two after the disaster. It provides emotional and spiritual care of children while the disaster is underway and for a short time following the disaster. Children and adolescents, will attempt to piece together truth out of the fragments of what they hear and experience.
