Children describe life after Hurricane Andrew.

Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the south Florida coast in August 1992, left over 250,000 people homeless with multiple health and social problems. This nursing study explored the experiences of 17 children, ages 5 through 12, who lived in the geographic area of storm damage. Common experiences described by the children included remembering the storm, dealing with after-effects, and reestablishing a new life. In general, children described a sense of strangeness, articulated as "life is weird" after the hurricane. In addition to stressful responses, many positive reactions were described by children in the study, revealing that the disaster also had a maturing effect.