This book analyzes educators' reactions to the floods that destroyed the towns of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks in South Dakota. It is based on a planning grant that had four primary goals: (1) create a curriculum to help students understand their flood experience; (2) perform a child-observation study; (3) script and possibly produce a flood-related puppet show for young children; and (4) establish a mentoring program that would bring teenage minority men into the classroom to interact with young children. Each of these practices was designed for use after any natural disaster as a way to help teachers and students regain their academic footing. The book describes the two communities and the widespread destruction they endured in April 1997. It details how the University of North Dakota's College of Education was awarded a 1-year planning grant to help educators create programs and conduct studies that would help other professionals, students, and families affected by natural disasters. The text describes the primary site for the grant and discusses the mentoring program, the flood's impact on the children, the development of a curriculum of developmentally appropriate practices, and the production of a puppet show to help young children understand what had happened. Five appendices provide further information, such as lists of child-centered activities. (RJM)