Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Helene-ravaged areas will feel health effects for years: ‘It’s unprecedented’
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Melody Schreiber
Sun 6 Oct 2024 07.00 EDT
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The immediate health concerns in the wake of the disaster have included complications from injuries, a lack of clean water and safe food, and challenges accessing medical supplies and treatments like insulin, oxygen and dialysis, especially given power outages and closed roads.
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Rescuers have delivered truckloads of drinking water, but in areas like western North Carolina, where water lines were washed away, McNeely believes it may be months before the region has running water again.
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That raises concerns for sanitation, including the spread of viruses like hepatitis A and stomach bugs, particularly if people don’t have enough water to wash their hands regularly and don’t have access to functioning toilets.
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The pharmaceutical company Baxter has closed its plant in Marion, North Carolina – the largest manufacturer of IV and dialysis solutions in the nation – following floods and damaged infrastructure, leading to nationwide shortages of IV fluids.
In the longer term, the region will probably suffer from worst access to medical care and the lingering effects of stress and trauma, according to new research published in Nature on Wednesday.
“The mortality impacts of hurricanes extend way beyond the immediate aftermath of the storm, and we find that it actually persists for up to 15 years,” said Rachel Young, an environmental economist at University of California, Berkeley, and one of the authors of the study.
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“We’re looking at a 10-, 15-, 20-year recovery here, easily, for the communities that were most significantly impacted.”
Making sure attention stays on these communities – and resources continue flowing in – will be critical to the recovery of the region and the people who call it home, Montano said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/06/helene-damaged-infrastructure-health-effects
...
Melody Schreiber
Sun 6 Oct 2024 07.00 EDT
...
The immediate health concerns in the wake of the disaster have included complications from injuries, a lack of clean water and safe food, and challenges accessing medical supplies and treatments like insulin, oxygen and dialysis, especially given power outages and closed roads.
...
Rescuers have delivered truckloads of drinking water, but in areas like western North Carolina, where water lines were washed away, McNeely believes it may be months before the region has running water again.
...
That raises concerns for sanitation, including the spread of viruses like hepatitis A and stomach bugs, particularly if people don’t have enough water to wash their hands regularly and don’t have access to functioning toilets.
...
The pharmaceutical company Baxter has closed its plant in Marion, North Carolina – the largest manufacturer of IV and dialysis solutions in the nation – following floods and damaged infrastructure, leading to nationwide shortages of IV fluids.
In the longer term, the region will probably suffer from worst access to medical care and the lingering effects of stress and trauma, according to new research published in Nature on Wednesday.
“The mortality impacts of hurricanes extend way beyond the immediate aftermath of the storm, and we find that it actually persists for up to 15 years,” said Rachel Young, an environmental economist at University of California, Berkeley, and one of the authors of the study.
...
“We’re looking at a 10-, 15-, 20-year recovery here, easily, for the communities that were most significantly impacted.”
Making sure attention stays on these communities – and resources continue flowing in – will be critical to the recovery of the region and the people who call it home, Montano said.
...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/06/helene-damaged-infrastructure-health-effects
#BREAKING: Over 10,000 flower bulbs donated by Dutch Grown, a floral company in the Netherlands, have started to bloom in a once-destroyed park in Swannanoa NC.