Port during the storm

While hurricanes can be scary for adults, they can also be terrifying for children - though for very different reasons.

Jonathan Barnes, clinical director for Eastpointe, which covers Lenoir, Wayne, Duplin and Sampson counties, said the younger the child is the more likely he or she is to be "terrorized" by a hurricane. He said older children have usually been exposed to storms, lessening the emotional impact of a big one.

Still, parents play a huge role in determining how frightened their child gets.

"If the parent acts terrified and does things to reassure the child the parent doesn't normally do ... the child will become more frightened because it will be picking up the cues from the parents' behavior that something terrible is happening," he said.

Barnes advised parents to treat an impending storm like an "adventure."

"It's one of those things that is like being a cork on the waves," he said. "You really don't have much control over a hurricane, so I think it would be like a lot things out there that happen: You might want to enjoy it. ... Instead of making it a terrifying experience, you might want to make it an exciting experience."

Barnes said children have a couple different responses in a stressful situation.

The first response is what Barnes called an acute stress reaction.

"He's going to cry; he's going to be scared," he said. "That's normal, that's what should happen. What we always do when that happens if telling them, ‘You're going to be OK. You're going to be fine.'"

A more serious reaction is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, which can require psychological counseling to recover from.

"That's where the child has lingering fears from the trauma that lasts into the months," he said.

If that happens, Barnes said, parents shouldn't coddle the child. If the child develops a fear of all water, including showers, he said parents shouldn't allow their child not to bathe.

"If you protect him from showers for the rest of his life, you see you have a bigger problem," he said. "He needs to get comfortable with storms."

Five Steps to Keep Children Calm During a Storm

1. Inspire a journalist
   
   Give kids some paper and a pen and allow them to document everything that's happening. This will help quell their anxiety about what's happening.
   
2. Enlist a helper
   
   Give your child some kind of responsibility, like testing the batteries in flashlights, to help them feel more secure.
   
3. Satisfy a thirst for knowledge
   
   Help your kids read up on hurricanes, so they know what exactly one is. Make sure to select material that will entertain your child, not frighten him or her.
   
4. Ease the anxiety of an evacuation
   
   If authorities decide to evacuate your area, this will likely stress and frighten your child. Add to it the unfamiliarity of National Guard troops or other emergency personnel and the anxiety could be almost overwhelming. Let kids know authorities are trying to protect them from harm. Let them bring items they value, but make sure they know material items can be replaced, while family members cannot.
   
5. Prepare kids for the aftermath
   
   Whether you evacuated or you rode out the storm at home, children will want to assess the damage done to their home or neighborhood. Let them know things might look different for awhile because of the storm.

- Source: About.com

Vanessa Clarke can be reached at 252-559-1076 or vclarke@freedomenc.com. Check out Vanessa's blog at http://vclarke.encblogs.com.