抖阴旅行射

With the school year underway, hurricane season in full swing and the five-year anniversary of the historic Colorado floods approaching, 抖阴旅行射 Boulder sociology professor Lori Peek has a question for parents and school administrators:

How safe would your school be in the case of a natural disaster?

鈥淐hildren are required to show up to school, and if they don鈥檛 show up they get in trouble,鈥� said Peek, director of 抖阴旅行射 Boulder鈥檚 Natural Hazards Center. 鈥淚f we are going to require that someone show up somewhere, one would assume those buildings would be safe. But in reality, many of them are not.鈥�

Peek recently collaborated with some of the nation鈥檚 leading school safety experts to co-author the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) free guide, 鈥� 听On September 6, she鈥檒l offer the first in a series of to educate stakeholders nationwide on what they can do to help protect the 50 million children who enter public elementary and secondary school buildings each weekday.

While much attention has deservedly been paid to violence-prevention in the wake of a rash of school shootings, Peek says parents and policymakers often overlook the growing threat of natural hazards.

鈥淲e are experiencing more frequent and more intense climate-related disaster events, including severe storms and floods,鈥� she said. 鈥淵et many of our schools were built before modern codes existed or are in places where codes and land use planning standards are not rigorous.鈥�

Multiple threats

The guide听highlights risks posed to public K-12 school by a variety of potential disasters.

For instance, more than 6,400 schools serving 4 million students are highly vulnerable to flooding.

Thirty-nine out of 50 states are at significant earthquake risk, with Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington at 鈥渧ery high鈥� risk and regions of Colorado in the 鈥渕oderately high鈥� range.听

Across Washington State, about 386,000 students live in earthquake-prone areas and attend schools built before seismic construction standards were adopted statewide.

At least 190 schools on the west coast and Alaska and Hawaii are located in tsunami hazard zones, with many lacking access to safe ground that could be reached within the expected tsunami warning time.

Peek also notes that about 1,200 tornadoes occur annually in the United States, with peak season during the spring school semester. In Oklahoma, one of the most tornado-prone states with 56 schools damaged or destroyed in 2013 alone, fewer than half of public schools have a tornado shelter.

Meanwhile, the average age of public school buildings in the United States is 44 years and many are dilapidated and vulnerable.

Near misses and displaced kids

While tens of thousands of school children have been killed in natural hazard events in other countries, such deaths in the United States have been rare so far.

鈥淭here have been a lot of near misses,鈥� she says. For instance, if the deadly 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri听 鈥� which leveled several schools 鈥� had happened on a weekday, the death toll among children and school staff could have been catastrophic.

Numerous severe weather events, including floods in Louisiana and Colorado, have caused long-term closures of schools.

鈥淢ore than 300,000 school aged children were displaced in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And two years after the storm, 160,000 children were still dislocated. We don鈥檛 know how many dropped out entirely,鈥� says Peek, who co-authored a book, Children of Katrina, about the storm鈥檚 impact.

Some states have begun to enact stricter building codes or basic emergency preparedness regulations to protect children, and some districts have begun to retrofit old buildings, designate storm-safe rooms or take other measures.

鈥淲e have made progress, but just as society is marked by inequality, so are our schools,鈥� she says. 鈥淪chools with less funding and fewer resources have been less able to take recommended protective actions.鈥�

She encourages parents to ask who at their school is responsible for school safety, what they鈥檙e doing to assure or improve it and how the community can get involved. The new FEMA guidebook has more suggestions.

鈥淭he first step toward forward motion is to start thinking about this issue and start asking questions,鈥� Peek said.