Student Reactions to Disaster

Abstract

miles long across the south side the city. Property damage estimates exceed 750 million dollars. Forty-four persons died in the first 24 hours, and three persons died subsequently of injuries, making the total Wichita Falls's death count 47. However, before the storm struck the city, a medical disaster team was being prepared for dispatch to Vernon, Texas, 50 miles away, which had suffered tornadic damage two hours earlier. This had mobilized many employees at the Wichita Falls hospitals. I, an instructor in medical-surgical nursing at Midwestern University and a part-time emergency room nurse, had been called to the emergency room at Wichita General Hospital. Thus with all medical and nursing personnel, including students, in the community alerted, and with additional storm warnings being broadcast, many of us were either in the hospital or on the way to the hospital when the tornado actually struck Wichita Falls. Others were with their families. One student nurse, a mother of three, tells, The children and I were standing in our front yard looking at the black sky. Just as it started to sound like a jet airplane landing in our yard, a neighbor waved at us to come into her house.