Over recent decades, hurricanes and other tropical cyclones in the US were associated with up to 33.4% higher death rates from several major causes in subsequent months, according to a recent study that exemplifies how far-reaching and varied the hidden costs to life could be from climate-related disasters and climate change.

After collecting 33.6 million US death records from 1988 to 2018, the researchers used a statistical model to calculate how death rates changed after tropical cyclones and hurricanes (a subset of the strongest tropical cyclones) when compared to equivalent periods in other years.

Injuries had the largest overall increase in the month of hurricanes for injuries (33.4%); in the month after tropical cyclones, increases in death rates were due to injuries (3.7%), infectious and parasitic diseases (1.8%), respiratory diseases (1.3%), cardiovascular diseases (1.2%), and neuropsychiatric conditions (1.2%).

Residents of 1,206 counties, covering half of the entire US population, experienced at least one tropical cyclone during the study period, most frequently in eastern and south-eastern coastal counties.

“Recent tropical cyclone seasons—which have yielded stronger, more active, and longer-lasting tropical cyclones than previously recorded—indicate that tropical cyclones will remain an important public health concern,” said first author Robbie Parks, PhD, of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. “Our results show that tropical cyclones in the US were associated with increases in deaths for several major causes of death, speaking to the ‘hidden burden’ of climate-related exposures and climate change."

An outsized proportion of low-income and historically-disadvantaged communities in the US reside in tropical cyclone-affected areas, according to the authors. Female injury death rate increases (46.5%) were higher than males (27.6%) in the month of hurricanes. Death rate increases were higher for those ages 65 years or older in the month after tropical cyclones (6.4%) when compared with younger ages (2.7%).

The findings could provide “an essential foundation for improving resilience to climate-related disasters across the days, weeks, months, and years after they wreak destruction,” said senior author Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, ScD.

To read the abstract of the JAMA study, click here

 

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