Hurricane Katrina caused widespread destruction and more than 1,800 deaths in 2005, much of it in New Orleans. Though a tragedy, psychologists recognized the storm and its aftermath provided an opportunity to better understand the impact such calamities have on children. One such study was conducted by Harvard researchers under lead author Katie McLaughlin, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, and senior author Ronald Kessler, Harvard Medical School’s McNeil Family Professor of Health Care Policy. It found that cases of serious emotional disturbance—such as anxiety, depression, or inappropriate behavior significant enough to negatively affect a child’s school performance and everyday life—were nearly triple pre-storm levels more than two years after Katrina.