OneWorld.net (U.S.)

OneWorld.net note: A children's aid organization is operating special programs for kids and assisting thousands of families currently living in shelters as Hurricane Gustav hit the U.S. Gulf Coast yesterday.

• A wind model of Hurricane Gustav from Aug. 31. © GISuser.comThe Gulf Coast "region is still in the early stages of a post-Katrina recovery expected to take at least 10 years. With tens of thousands of people still living in FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] trailers and just a fraction of the affordable housing in the region replaced, Hurricane Gustav or the next major hurricane to strike the coast is set to deal a crippling blow," said relief organization Oxfam America last week, as Hurricane Gustav made its way toward Louisiana and Mississippi.

• Nearly two million people -- predominantly from New Orleans and coastal Louisiana, but also from coastal Alabama, Mississippi, and southeastern Texas -- have fled their homes in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav. The Category 3 storm has now reduced to a tropical depression, but the threat of floods remains and forecasters are cautioning that another storm, Hurricane Hanna, may reach the Gulf Coast within the next few days.

• Save The Children, the group providing aid to families displaced by Gustav, is an international organization aimed at helping needy children in the United States and around the world.

USA: Save the Children assisting thousands of children and families forced from their homes by Hurricane Gustav

From: Save the Children

Westport, Conn. (September 1, 2008) - As Hurricane Gustav strikes the Gulf Coast of the United States today, Save the Children is assisting thousands of displaced children and families who have sought shelter at evacuation centers throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Gustav made landfall as a category 2 storm 85 miles southwest of New Orleans late this morning. Emergency officials remain concerned about storm surges and severe flooding.

Save the Children has been operating children-focused programs on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans three years ago.

Coordinating closely with the agency's Gulf Coast staff, Save the Children emergency experts, working in five teams, have been supplying evacuation centers in Alexandria, Pineville, Bunkie and Shreveport with items to make infants' and children's stays more comfortable, including diapers, baby wipes, cribs and other essential supplies.

In addition, staff members have set up safe spaces at about 20 shelters. Safe spaces are supervised areas designed to let children be children, even in the midst of a crowded emergency shelter, and include a supervised area filled with toys, art supplies, books and games.

At the major evacuation center at the satellite campus of Louisiana State University in Alexandria, Save the Children also provided 800 children's evacuation backpacks. To date, some 1,500 backpacks have been distributed to children.

"One of the mass shelters in Alexandria, Louisiana exceeded its capacity," says Jeanne-Aimee De Marrais, who is managing Save the Children's response to the emergency in the Gulf. "As the storm comes ashore and in the days immediately after, shelter officials are going to be challenged to meet the needs of children. We hope to provide the support and assistance they need."

Save the Children also plans to work to ensure that child-care centers can quickly re-establish services and schools can rebound so students do not fall behind in their education.

"Children are extremely vulnerable during an emergency and evacuation," said Mark Shriver, Save the Children's vice president for U.S. programs. "We know from experience that their needs are often overlooked during the confusion before, during and after a disaster. Save the Children is there to provide safe activities for children in shelters and to help them and their parents return to the normalcy once the danger has passed."

Save the Children - which assisted over 190,000 children and caregivers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama after Hurricane Katrina - continues to provide long-term education and nutrition programs in the Gulf region.

For more information on Hurricane Gustav relief efforts, visit Save the Children.