But just 8 percent of residents affected by Harvey reported getting mental health services to cope. Ten months after Hurricane Harvey, 31 percent of storm survivors surveyed from 24 Texas counties reported unhealthy coping behaviors, new prescription medication, or other mental health problems.
Three weeks after Hurricane Harvey, a small study of Houston-area residents found probable PTSD in close to half of participants. Unmet Mental Health Needsįlooding can affect mental health and well-being in myriad ways, and unfortunately mental health services to assist with coping may not be readily accessible after a flood-particularly in rural and lower-income communities. The long-term health implications are so far unknown. Houston-area residents complained of nausea, eye irritation, and other issues related to industrial pollution in the immediate aftermath of Harvey. Between August 23 and September 30, 2017, flood damage to industrial equipment and storm-related changes in facility operation led to the release of an estimated 8.3 million pounds of air pollutants-including benzene, a carcinogenic component of pesticides, detergents and other common products. Today I talked with this new mom who mops her floors twice a day in hopes of killing mold that’s been growing since #HurricaneHarvey 😔 /NKQwIUvij0- Marina Starleaf Riker July 28, 2018Īnother possible cause of breathing problems is exposure to chemicals. Bacterial contamination of flood waters also has the potential to cause eye, ear, and gastrointestinal infections.
#CORSAIR HARPOON MOUSE DPI ADJUSTMENT SKIN#
The sewage and other contamination in the water may have caused the observed uptick of skin infections in area residents at least one woman died of a “ flesh-eating” bacterial infection. Six months after the storm, at least three bayous near Houston showed higher-than-normal levels of fecal bacteria. Six to 10 days after Harvey moved away from Houston, tests of stagnant water inside homes showed more fecal bacteria than outdoor floodwaters did. And this is a conservative estimate 20 percent of the treatment plants didn’t report on the amount of wastewater they spilled. Hurricane Harvey damaged or disrupted operations at 40 wastewater treatment plants that serve nearly 169,000 people, which caused at least 25,000 gallons of sewage-tainted water to flood streets and waterways. Here’s a peek at what we do know about Harvey’s impacts on human health, and how communities need to better prepare and protect themselves before the next storm hits. health system to prepare for future disasters. Case in point: Health researchers in Louisiana are still trying to understand Hurricane Katrina’s impacts on human health 13 years after that monster storm inundated south Louisiana and Mississippi.Īnd meanwhile, pollution from fossil fuels keeps driving up global temperatures-intensifying the risk of more dangerous floods and making it harder for the U.S. Floods present a complex array of threats to mental and physical well-being, and it will take years to unravel them all in Texas. That tragic death toll is only part of the public health story of Hurricane Harvey. At least 65 people drowned in the resulting flooding and another 28 died from other storm-related causes. Hurricane Harvey dumped a record 275 trillion pounds of rain on the Houston area in 2017.
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