FEMA director William Long said that Harvey was “probably the worst disaster the state of Texas has ever seen.”
Hurricane Harvey, the longest-named hurricane in history, sat on top of Texas and dumped over 50 inches of rain across southeastern Texas and parts of Louisiana. The category 4 hurricane made landfall on August 25, with wind speeds exceeding 130 miles per hour. Harvey downgraded to a tropical storm and still set records in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, and an unknown number of tornadoes were spawned all over the South.
At least 60 deaths have been reported, but that number is expected to rise after floods recede more. Texas Governor Greg Abbott estimated that the damage will add up to around $180 billion dollars. State and national guardsmen are aiding the relief effort.
With this significant storm, a number of health problems arise for public health officials. Sewage, chemicals, and human and animal waste pollute floodwaters and raise questions of whether or not an epidemic will arise. Diseases like e coli thrive in the contaminated waters.
Dr. Kerri L. Outlaw, an associate nursing professor and public health official. “Emergency responses always start as rescue and recovery, and they look for things that could cause epidemics, like unclean water and sanitation. The reason people freak out is because in a lot of developing countries, this is what happens. They don’t have the resources we do in this country. We most likely won’t see that here.”
She reassured that epidemics are not necessarily what public health officials are most worried about, since the United States is a health-forward nation with plenty of medicine and vaccinations. However, natural disaster-related health problems can sometimes be just as worrisome. For example, someone with a heart condition going through the stress of a hurricane could trigger a heart attack.
While it’s easy to get caught up in the prospect of physical disease, Dr. Outlaw mentions, mental health should also be taken into consideration. “People are seeing family members die, their homes destroyed; if they’re injured, they may now fall into a disability category. That is what we need to be very aware of.”
In the United States, there is already a stigma behind mental health, but physical and mental health are incredibly interconnected. “We will see people with PTSD, we will see people suffering from depression, and then we will see exacerbations of their health.”
Multiple chemical plants also flooded, causing compromise with temperature-sensitive chemicals. After power was knocked out, backup generators were flooded and the chemicals had to be moved to nine refrigerated trailers, where any chemicals that had not already exploded either caught fire or fizzled out. A mandatory evacuation for the areas around plants was issued before the explosions. The thick smoke posed a real health issue; some authorities’ eyes and throats were irritated by all the smoke from the plants, but those hospitalized were released on the same day.
Harvey also turned the world of oil upside down. Gas prices went up around 50 cents in Troy alone. Multiple refineries were taken out and fuel production halted in some part, with over 2 million barrels per day of oil refining capacity crippled.
In most large storms such as Harvey, cities are not prepared for a disaster. Voluntary and mandatory evacuation orders were left up to local officials, which caused confusion and traffic buildup going north. With unpreparedness on the rise, scientists are reminding lawmakers that storms will get bigger and stronger with climate change continuing. Higher temperatures in the air and water allow storms to gain more power.
Now, just as Texas recovers from this devastating blow, another threat seems imminent; Hurricane Irma is currently in the Atlantic Ocean and was just upgraded to a category 5 storm. Irma has sustained winds of over 185 mph, shattering the category scale we currently use. Its sights are set on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic at the moment, but it is likely that Irma will curve upwards and hit Florida. Some parts of the Florida Keys are ordering visitors to leave by Wednesday and will most likely issue a residential evacuation.
If you would like to donate to the relief effort, consider visiting Charity Navigator to find a credible charity to give to. GlobalGiving is trying to raise $2 million, first to distribute food and water and then to aid long-term recovery.