Katrina's Children Struggle With Fears

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Each time the 3-year-old gets in the bathtub, she thinks she's going to drown. Monica whimpers when her grandmother turns on the faucet, sobbing softly at first, then wailing as the tub begins to fill. ''She cries and cries. 'Don't be crying,' I tell her. 'I gotta wash your hair,''' says her exasperated grandmother, Ruth May Smith.

There's no use telling her she won't drown; the word isn't yet part of the toddler's vocabulary. And it won't do much good to tell her that grandma will take care of her, either; Monica learned the hard way that those she loves can't always protect her. There were seven children inside the family's Gulf Coast home on Aug. 29 when the 30-foot wave, unleashed by Hurricane Katrina, crashed down upon it. As the walls began to crumble, the older children swam out. Monica, the littlest, was still inside with her grandmother and two aunts. None could swim.

The toddler went under. She would have drowned if not for a family friend who dove in, fished her out and placed her inside a floating cooler. In her plastic ark, the girl bobbed to safety -- but the storm's high water mark is still imprinted inside her, as it is in thousands of others who survived the storm. Some 1.2 million children under 18 were living in counties rendered disaster zones by Katrina. As many as 8 percent, or 100,000, are expected to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, according to one assessment.

Most experts say the toll is likely far higher. Of the first 1,000 children screened by the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 27 percent displayed symptoms of trauma, including nightmares, flashbacks, heightened anxiety and bedwetting, says Dr. Joy Osofsky, a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at LSU's Harris Center for Infant Mental Health.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Katrinas-Children.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I can so relate to this!

I almost drowned when I was 2. I was in a boat with my dad. No lifejacket - it was 1955. I fell out of the boat into the lake and my dad jumped in and said miraculously, the first thing he grabbed underwater was my leg.

I do not remember this at all. But I grew up scared to death of water. My dad told me about my near drowning when I was older and I was determined to conquer my fear. I became a very good swimmer and was even on the swim team as a kid.

But I am still scared to death of drowning. Whenever there is a drowning scene in a movie, I can't watch it.