Foreword Mireille Kingma and Marvin Birnbaum; 1. Introduction to disasters and disaster nursing Robert Powers; 2. Healthcare facility preparedness Knox Andress; 3. Community response Tricia Wachtendorf; 4. First response Dario Gonzalez; 5. Disaster triage Jamie Ranse and Kathryn Zeitz; 6. Hospital impact: acute care Peggy McMahon; 7. Hospital impact: immediate issues Andy Robertson, Hazel Harley, Bronwen Kelly, Muriel Leclercq, Wayne Snell and Robert Stewart; 8. Hospital impact: long term issues Roberta Lavin; 9. Hospital impact: internal disasters Theo Ligthelm; 10. Incident command systems Craig Deatley; 11. Chemical preparedness/response Yukiya Hakozaki; 12. Biological preparedness/response Adrian Crowe; 13. Radiation/nuclear preparedness/response Steven Becker, Doran Christensen, Robert Whitcomb, Jr., W. Mark Hart and Steve Sugarman; 14. Explosive event preparedness/response Angelo Agostini; 15. Decontamination Robert Powers; 16. Populations with vulnerabilities and special needs Kelly Burkholder-Allen; 17. Pediatric care in disaster Karen Olness (vignette contribution from Jonathon Mould); 18. Regional planning Douglas Havro; 19. US federal resources/response Bennet Waters, Alan Cohn, Lynn Piacentini and Michael Zanker; 20. International response Susan Briggs; 21. Japan disaster response Satoko Mitani; 22. Israeli disaster response Bruria Adini, Robert Cohen and Daniel Laor; 23. Public health response Jane Richter; 24. Pandemic planning Lynne Slepski; 25. Health issues in humanitarian emergencies Mary Lou Fisher and Daksha Brahmbhatt; 26. Mental health in disasters Margaret Grigg and Frances Hughes; 27. Disaster ethics Leila Toiviainen; 28. Disaster recovery Gerry Fitzgerald, Peter Aitken and Elinor Davis; 29. The Southeast Asian Tsunami-response overview Elaine Daily; 30. U.S. Hurricane Katrina-response review Anne Hutton; 31. Disaster nursing educational competencies Lynn Slepski and Marguerite T. Littleton-Kearney; 32. Disaster nursing research Dean Whitehead and Paul Arbon; 33. Disaster research framework Elaine Daily.