WATER CONTAMINATION
FLOODWATERS contain bacteria, viruses, and toxic chemicals which can cause INFECTIONS, RASHES DIARRHEA, VIRAL HEPATITIS, POISONING, and CANCER. SEVERE STORMS damage sewage and water treatment plants and contaminate water supplies. LEPTOSPIROSIS is an infection of animals (rats, livestock, wild mammal, domestic pets) which causes LIVER AND KIDNEY FAILURE in people who come in contact with flood waters containing runoff with the urine of infected animals.
DISPLACED PEOPLE
Extreme weather displaces twice as many people worldwide as war. Since 2005 over seven million Americans have been evacuated due to EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS. About 30% of people affected by extreme weather events develop symptoms of POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER. Displacement causes EXACERBATIONS OF CHRONIC DISEASES like asthma, heart failure, diabetes, and mental illness when patients run out of medications and are separated from their usual source of care. VULNERABLE POPULATIONS like the elderly and hospital and nursing home patients fare poorly. OUTBREAKS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE are common in shelters where people live in close quarters. Climate refugees from developing countries emigrate to the US bringing communicable diseases like HEPATITIS and MULTIPLE DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS.
CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING
SATELLITE VIEW: NY DARK AFTER HURRICANE SANDY
SEVERE STORMS cause power outages that affect wide areas. It can take weeks for electric service to be restored. Use of generators and camp stoves without proper ventilation causes increased rates of CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING. After Hurricane Sandy reports of cases to Poison Control increased tenfold.