By Sarah Ferguson, Forbes, August 29, 2019
In times of emergency, children are always the most vulnerable. Hurricane Harvey was no exception. Four days after the slow-moving Category 4 storm made landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, on August 25, 2017, heavy rainfall and winds up to 130 miles per hour had caused billions of dollars in damage and left approximately 13 million people — including 3 million children — in Texas and Louisiana reeling in its wake.
"Trauma is trauma regardless of your zip code or status, but for those who don't have insurance or relatives with space for them to stay, or money to replace necessities, life after Hurricane Harvey is devastating," Lisa Szarkowski, UNICEF USA Vice President, Humanitarian Emergencies and Executive Communications wrote in a dispatch from Texas three months after the storm hit.
"Though largely invisible, trauma is as destructive as the floodwater; it can freeze a child's brain and keep him/her locked in survival mode for life, stunting brain growth in key areas of functioning. Left untreated, trauma causes lower scores on standardized achievement tests and substantial decreases in IQ, reading achievement and language skills. Traumatized children are 2.5 times more likely to be held back a grade and more likely to be suspended or expelled from school. The correlation between trauma and the school-to-prison pipeline is direct and well-documented."
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