The Katrina hurricane disaster created countless victims, and our hearts go out in a special way for children caught in the storm and its aftermath. While many in the Gulf Coast maelstrom lost homes, jobs and almost everything but the clothes on their backs, consider the terror and concern for the future of their youngsters.

One of the more dependable experiences for children over age 5 is going to school. Being in a familiar class setting provides stability that children come to depend on, even if their home lives are less than ideal. For most of the children of the storm, there are no homes, no schools and a vast absence of the structure that usually guides them.

Fortunately, many relocated families are finding that hundreds of schools, including those in the Lawrence area, are willing and eager to welcome their youngsters to their classrooms. Every community and every school along with the teachers who are doing that are to be commended highly.

Yet this venture needs to go far beyond just admitting youngsters and carrying them along with the more fortunate pupils at the desks. The newcomers need to be given warm welcomes and nurtured as much as possible, with great emphasis on not letting them feel like strangers or outsiders.

Most of us can relate to the trauma of going to a new school, entering an unfamiliar classroom and encountering new teachers and classmates. That happens to many in a traditional K-12 process because so many families move so often anymore.

But in the latter case, new pupils generally come from homes where they have their own clothes, often their own rooms, regular supplies and a continuity of habits. While familiarity may take some time to achieve, it generally happens productively.

Consider the transplanted kids from the storm region. Just about everything is new, including clothes, the faces they encounter, the surroundings – they know they have no school or home “back there” at least for the time being. They have a tremendous extra burden of adjustment, and everyone needs to help them out in every possible way for as long as they are on the scene.

Teachers and administrators have to pave the way and make sure that the established pupils go out of their way to smooth the pathways. But perhaps most important are the parents and guardians who must stress to their children how much they can help these relocated youngsters.

One need only look at a few pictures of the faces of uncertain storm-shifted youngsters as they apprehensively embrace their new educational environments. These disoriented children are facing challenges most of those already on the scene can’t begin to imagine.

So help ’em out, any way possible. These children are bearing terribly abnormal burdens.