United States: Since Hurricane Helene it has been Herculean task to get clean water at Asheville’s Mission Hospital, the only trauma care hospital in western North Carolina.
Hospitals like Mission require water for health workers to wash equipment, clear wounds and clean their hands with soap. Planned Parenthood clinics in Asheville and birthing centers in the region also had to trim other critical health services because they could not access water, as reported by USA Today.
Community Health at Risk Due to Contaminated Water
The surrounding community has been combating Its been nearly one and half month after the historic deluge at the spot in the last of September whereby they are at the vulnerable edge of being exposed to the risk of sewage water, toxic industrial waste water and even being prone to be a victim of the mosquito menace.
But they admit that the shortage of water supply and sanitation is even a bigger problem in the area. Without it, residents cannot easily get the nutrition and cleanliness that they need and they are highly susceptible to disease and infections, as mentioned by Dr. Daniel Kuritzakes of the infectious disease division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.
With their hospitals flooded, overwhelmed healthcare were unable to attend to new and previous cases as they moved truckloads of water and drilled for new wells.
“You’re going to have patients that have short-term injuries that end up being chronic issues,” Marquita Lyons-Smith, director of North Carolina Central University’s nursing program, told USA TODAY. “Because they were not taken care of immediately, given the attention they deserve.”
Even prior to the storm, facility closures had become rampant in many rural areas, meaning care was already getting farther away, she said.
“Polluted water, sicknesses multiply.”
Every day, Mission Hospital offloads more than 30 trucks to pump more than 200,000 gallons of water into the hospital, as averred by Nancy Lindell, a public relations officer of the hospital. More wells are being proposed to be drilled to provide the HVAC units in the facility to continue controlling the temperatures inside.
Risks from Contaminated Water and Mosquitoes
The hospital and region cannot function because water pipes and supply are a mess: contaminated with sewage and chemical toxins, people are at risk of developing diarrheal diseases, fever, dehydration, and other diseases.
Other dangers lurk. Black mold from flowing water can develop and be a cause of respiratory problems. Kuritzkes said that the presentation of standing water promotes the breeding of mosquitoes that could cause dengue or West Nile virus. North and South America have had a record of high dengue infections in recent years, as climate changes and diseases causing mosquitoes are spreading into more regions in America.
‘The tip of the iceberg’
In addition to infectious diseases, North Carolina hospitals are also treating injuries occurred during storms.
This is also true in central Florida after Hurricane Milton and the Gulf Coast residents struggled with injuries that occurred during the flooding, winds, and tornadoes of this disaster. During blackouts in both storm-affected areas, folks used generators, which can cause carbon monoxide poisoning preserved in an enclosed area.
Once the flood, water kills people, and those who survive often develop complications of their underlying medical conditions, including heart diseases and diabetes, since they cannot access medical supplies. A chronically ill patient is defined as any individual with at least one DTC and a CC, and Florida has 3.8 million such citizens The percentage of the chronically ill patient in Florida would be 60 percent with at least one CC and 40 percent with more than one CC, based on the total population of 20.6 million people Florida’s population is aging rapidly; thus, the number of persons with CC is set to
For example, after the storm, the mortality count goes up because people cannot get their blood pressure drugs or dialysis, as Kuritzkes of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital appreciates. Disabled person also lack easy access to help in case of an emergency.
The Broader Impact of Extreme Weather
Some 230 persons perished after Helene, of which 189 in North Carolina and 17 perished due to Milton in Florida.
“These numbers, they’re very devastating, but also relatively low,” Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of Columbia Climate School’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, told USA TODAY. “We can’t forget that. Actually, that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.”
Greenhouse emissions warm oceans, leading to more powerful storms as well, and they can evolve from storms to hurricanes. This leaves the residents with very limited time to either prepare to be evacuated or be evacuated in the same way as during the storms Helene and Milton, as reported by USA Today.
According to Mallya, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, public health directors need responses faster, even if the threat of hurricane or flood appears negligible or far off.
Extreme events are increasing he said. ‘And public health has to be part of the planning and the response’.