Missed Prescriptions, Cuts In Dirty Water, Rotten Food: How Public Health Threats Go Beyond Wind And Rain During Storms
CDC emergency response teams know what patterns to look for, but it's still a monumental task keeping those in the path of a hurricane healthy. Meanwhile, the death toll from Hurricane Florence continues to climb.
Los Angeles Times:
How The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Responds To A Hurricane Like Florence
For all the political chatter about the human toll of hurricanes, one lesson of past monster storms is clear and increasingly urgent: Hurricanes claim lives and erode health before, during and after the water, wind and rain hit. To reduce the short-term and long-term health consequences of these ever more frequent storms, emergency planners need to anticipate how the threats unfold — and get ahead of them. They may even use such disasters as opportunities to boost communities’ health after a storm has passed. (Healy, 9/14)
The Associated Press:
Florence Death Toll At 17, Including 3-Month-Old
The death toll attributed to Florence stands at 17, including 11 in North Carolina and six in South Carolina. (9/17)
Meanwhile, a look at the difference between the congressional response to Hurricanes Maria and Katrina —
Politico:
Trump Gets Pass From Congress On Puerto Rico Deaths
After Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress sprang into action. Seventeen days after the storm made landfall, the Republican-led House created a bipartisan select committee to investigate the Bush administration’s response to the storm. In the Senate, the committee with oversight over the Federal Emergency Management Agency held 22 hearings in six months. Within eight months, both committees had released 500-plus-page investigations into the Bush administration’s handling of the crisis with dozens of recommendations for reform. (Vinik, 9/16)
