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 “Since people are often displaced from home and live in different
places for many months, services in areas not directly affected by
flooding should be alert to this increased risk and offer support as
necessary,” Dr. Angie Bone, the head of Public Health England (PHE)’s
Extreme Events team told Reuters Health.
“A warning of at least 12 hours prior to flooding may reduce risks
and is why we encourage everyone to sign up to the Environment
Agency’s free flood warning service” (http://bit.ly/1sL3t67), Bone
said by email.
Heavy rainfall across southern England in the winter of 2013-2014
washed away railroad tracks, wiped out power in many areas and
forced thousands out of their homes, Bone and her colleagues write
in Lancet Planetary Health. The episode was just one of eight major
flooding events in England since 2000, they note in their report.
Seven studies done after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina showed severe
mental health effects in people displaced by flooding, the
researchers point out. To better understand flooding’s long-term
effects on mental health and wellbeing, PHE established the National
Study of Flooding and Health.
The study previously showed that people living in areas flooded
during 2013-2014 were six to seven times more likely to have
depression, anxiety or PTSD one year later than those in non-flooded
areas.
In the new study, Bone’s team looked at whether being evacuated from
home during the 2013-2014 flooding influenced the risk of subsequent
mental health problems. Displacement nearly doubled depression risk,
they found, while anxiety and PTSD were about 1.7 times as common
among those who left their homes.
Among those who were displaced, people who had received more than 12
hours warning before flooding were less likely to have depression or
PTSD one year later than those given no warning.
In the United States, the National Weather Service of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issues flood watches and
warnings.
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“As climate change progresses, flooding events are expected to
increase in frequency and intensity due to rising sea levels and
more frequent and extreme precipitation events. Increased
urbanization will expose more people to flooding events and impacts
of flooding will likely increase over the coming decades,” Shilu
Tong of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and Queensland
University in Brisbane, Australia, said by email.
Tong, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, noted that the
Australian government is taking steps to put early flood warnings in
place.
“Enhanced early warning systems for floods are urgently needed
because climate change will probably cause more frequent and severe
flooding events,” he told Reuters Health. “Affordable, good quality
accommodations are necessary for individuals displaced after
flooding; local authorities should identify people who are displaced
after flooding who are susceptible to mental health problems, and
resources directed to those people as needed; and flooded residents
should be encouraged to remain at home where possible and basic
services (including mental health clinics) should be put in place to
enable them to do so.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2uCf2AY and http://bit.ly/2v01GRn Lancet
Planetary Health, online June 19, 2017.
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