Sharon Beard of NIEHS speaks about the risk factors of hurricanes and storms, and addresses the communities at the greatest risk. The DERT program provides training to workers who respond to disaster relief to decrease those risk factors. The environmental career worker training program is specialized to train workers who live and work in communities with high environmental risk, natural disasters and pollution. The immediate risk factors on the ground are, entering unsafe and structurally damaged homes, mold contamination, electrical issues and water pollution.
Dr. Patrick Harris of The University of Queensland speaks specifically about the significant health impacts of storms and flooding. Great influx of melioidosis disease spikes after rainfall in tropical climates such as Australia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The presenting factors of melioidosis are septic shock, brain and liver abscesses, bone and joint problems, skin abscesses.
The direct impacts of floods according to Dr. Harris are drowning, debris injury, carbon monoxide poisoning. Infectious complications roll in a week to two weeks later, such as soft tissue infections, many of which are antibiotic resistant (opportunistic pathogens). There are huge spikes in gastroenteritis from contaminated drinking water. Last but not least, floods greatly impact mental health, prescriptions for antidepressants shoot up.