At a glance: United States of America
Reports from the disaster zone
 |
| © Reuters/Galbraith |
| A young boy is hoisted to safety by the U.S. Coastguard in New Orleans |
BILOXI, Mississippi/LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, 7 September 2005 – Families who escaped Hurricane Katrina with their children are still trying to rebuild their lives more than a week after the devastating storm.
Thousands of families are living in temporary shelters with little to do, reports UNICEF Correspondent Thomas Nybo, who met with children and parents in Biloxi, one of the towns hardest hit by the disaster.
One family he spoke to said they fled to a relative's house in the early hours of the storm but had to escape out of a window and swim to safety after their new refuge was engulfed by the flood waters.
In Little Rock, 10-year-old David, who had recently arrived there from New Orleans, says that he, along with his parents and three brothers, were among the last people to leave the city.
“You couldn’t live there anymore,” he said. “There were no stores or nothing and people were looting and there was nowhere to go. It was just like a big island and everywhere else was surrounded by water.”
David’s family has rented a house for a few weeks, while they try to enrol their children in school and get back on their feet.
Some families in Biloxi say they have heard reports on the radio that local schools will open soon, giving them hope of finding some kind of normalcy.
UNICEF is concerned that traumatised children receive the care they need following the hurricane. Counselling, and a quick return to school can help children regain a sense of stability in the aftermath of a disaster.
The U.S. government has accepted an offer from the United Nations to assist with the aid effort. UNICEF is one of several UN agencies providing assistance to U.S. federal authorities and has deployed emergency teams to Atlanta, Little Rock and Denton, Texas.
UNICEF keeps a range of pre-packed emergency supplies for disaster relief and has forwarded information on this to U.S. officials.
What's this
Digg, Del.icio.us, and Newsvine are web services enabling you to share stories on the Internet.
The blog this article feature enables you to generate a short summary of this article, ready to be pasted in a blog post.
Digg and Newsvine are social news sites, where the top news stories are selected not by an editor but by its collective users. Explore Digg and Newsvine for yourself.
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website where you can tag and share your favourite web pages, rather than bookmarking them in the traditional way inside your web browser. Try out Del.icio.us
ShareThis is a tool that helps you share articles across multiple platforms.
Blog this article
Post this article to your blog. The story’s headline, main picture and summary will be displayed on your page as in the preview below.
Writing the rest of the blog post will be up to you!
Click in the area below, then copy the code and paste it in your blog page:
Preview :
Audio
7 September 2005:
10-year-old David talks about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on him and his family. 
7 September 2005:
UNICEF Correspondent Thomas Nybo reports from Biloxi, Mississippi.
7 September 2005:
UNICEF Correspondent J.B. Silvers reports from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Related links
Frontline diary
UNICEF's Allison Hickling is working as a volunteer in Texas. Read her account of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Wednesday 7 September – Searching for loved ones
Tuesday 6 September – Evacuees at the Reliant Center
Monday 5 September - Volunteering to help in Katrina’s aftermath
