Photo courtesy of FEMA
designed for children in grades 3-4, the
site eventually included sections that
covered Kindergarten to fourth grade
and is even used occasionally with
older children. The main goal of
the site is to educate children on what
disasters are, why they happen, and
what the children themselves can do
to prepare for and mitigate disasters.
From the moment one logs on, the
appeal to children is evident ranging
from Herman, the hermit crab in search
of a disaster proof shell, stories, a
section for games, and an opportunity
to become a Disaster Action Kid who
knows how to survive and prepare for
a disaster. The site even offers trading cards, modeled on baseball cards,
which display rescue dogs used in various parts of the country.
The site has more sobering aspects
as well, including a section of photographs of disaster damage containing
straight-forward captions that explain
what has occurred in plain, easy to
understand language, and an interactive map of the United States that
allows children to learn about possible
disasters in their areas. A conscious
decision was made to allow pictures
of destroyed homes and cities, but not
include injured or killed people or animals in any of the uploaded content.
According to Holly the site has gone
through several changes since its first
inception. Originally FEMA for Kids
was to be called FEMA for School.
This idea, however, was scrapped in
favor of the current name that refrains
from labeling the site as a purely
classroom resource. The site also led
to instructions pertaining to children
being included in press releases. The
need for this had always been evident
but it was not until FEMA for Kids
that it became easy to communicate
to children on an understandable level
during disasters.
Other changes included the addition
of terrorism to the FEMA for Kids site.
Before the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001, FEMA for Kids was focused
solely on natural disasters. After such
a prevalent attack however, it became
necessary to give terrorism a real presence on the site. Holly recalls how on
9/11 repeated footage of aircraft flying
into the twin towers caused children to
think that the event was being repeated
all over the country because they did
not understand that they were seeing
recurring footage. Although a request
from the government ended
the replaying within half
an hour, it was evident
that children, regrettably,
needed to be educated about
terrorism as well as natural
disasters.
Although the main goal
of the site was instruction
for children, there was a
second motivation behind
beginning FEMA for Kids.
Adults in the United States
seemed reluctant to heed
advice pertaining to disaster
mitigation, and it was hoped
that if children were well
versed in disaster preparedness they might convince
their parents. This was
envisioned as being similar
to the way in which children
sometimes remind their
parents to wear a seatbelt
or hound them to stop
smoking. The site could both educate
children and hopefully work towards
changing bad habits in their parents.
FEMA for Kids had to appeal to
all races and creeds across the nation,
and therefore the illustrations on the
site are either cartoon animals or
very ambiguous in terms of ethnicity.
Additionally it was understood that in
1996, when the site was released, many
families would not have internet access
at home. Therefore the site content
was distributed on CD, and the stories
contained therein were distributed in
book form as well.
Since its inception, FEMA for Kids
has been used in homes and classrooms
across the nation to educate children
and their families on disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery.
FEMA for Kids can be accessed at
http://www.fema.gov/kids/.
v
Adam Prestopnik is the assistant director of distance learning at Onondaga
Community College. He is also a graduate student at Elmira College studying emergency disaster preparedness
management. His undergraduate degree from St. John
Fisher College is in the field of military and diplomatic
history.
60 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL FALL 2009
