Contaminated water, polluted lakes, and growing mold pose lasting threats to populations that lack resources to overcome the damage and get access to care. Universities and hospitals are exploring solutions.
Hurricane Maria was the deadliest storm to ever strike Puerto Rico, claiming nearly 3,000 lives on the island after striking in September 2017. But most of those deaths did not occur during the storm; they occurred over the following months, as hospitals and clinics closed or provided minimal services, roads to hospitals remained cut off, and loss of electricity rendered many at-home medical devices inoperable.
“One-third of the deaths were attributed to delayed or interrupted health care,” according to a 2018 New England Journal of Medicine study that estimated post-hurricane deaths based on surveys of residents. In addition, the most frequently reported health care problems (not related only to deaths) were lack of access to needed medications (cited by 14.4% of households); loss of electricity for respiratory equipment (9.5%); closed medical facilities (8.6%); and fewer doctors (6.1%).
Hurricane Maria illustrates the particular health risks that climate change poses to people in coastal areas. Storms, floods, excessive heat, and higher tides cause immediate health risks, including illness from water contaminated by pathogens, drowning, getting hit by falling debris, and heat stroke. But a growing challenge in coastal areas is the longer-term impact, particularly on low-income and marginalized populations that lack the financial resources and other supports to overcome the obstacles of contaminated homes and water supplies, crippled transportation systems, and damaged health care systems.
“A hurricane lasts 24 to 40 hours,” says Cecilia Sorensen, MD, director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University in New York. “The [increased] mortality and impacts on physical and mental health lasts for months, if not years.”
About 128 million people (40% of the U.S. population) live in counties along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Gulf of Mexico, or Great Lakes, according to the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Those counties are more racially and ethnically diverse than the rest of the country; groups other than non-Hispanic White accounted for 52% of the population in coastal counties in 2017 (the most recent year for which the U.S. Census Bureau released data), compared with 34% in counties not along coastlines.
In addition, coastal communities are more distressed and vulnerable than inland counties, according to economic and social support data analyzed by the U.S. Census Bureau. As reported by the bureau, the data — on such factors as standard of living, health, housing conditions, and transportation — are “important indicators of an area’s ability to withstand disasters and other challenges.”
University-based scientists and physicians are studying the risks and working with communities to explore ways to mitigate the damage and help residents adapt to the changing environment.