When we total the costs of natural disasters, we tend to focus on the short term: deaths in the immediate aftermath and the economic damage caused by a storm, for instance. But it turns out, major events like Hurricane Sandy can have significant health impacts that don’t show up for years afterwards. These knock-on impacts are often highest for older adults who have fewer financial resources, less flexibility in their lives, and are uniquely susceptible to the impact of natural disasters.
A new study by researchers from Weill Cornell has found that older adults living in flooded areas of New Jersey were 5% more likely to develop heart disease than similarly situated individuals in neighboring, but less damaged, areas. The rate of heart disease stayed elevated for up to five years after the storm, according to an analysis of Medicare data from more than 121,000 people over age 65 across New Jersey, New York City, and Connecticut. By comparing flooded ZIP codes with nearby ones that stayed dry, they tracked higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure among those who stayed put after Sandy.
The impact of this finding is significant, given the spread of major storms into areas not previously susceptible to them, and the increase in an older, aging-in-place populations. It suggests, as the authors of the study wrote, that we should contemplate a change from an emergency management framework that focuses almost exclusively on responding to short term health impacts of storms to longer-term health support for impacted populations.