Storm surge and ponding explain mangrove dieback in southwest Florida following Hurricane Irma.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Lagomasino D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8238932 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ImportanceNursing home residents are at heightened risk for morbidity and mortality following an exposure to a disaster such as a hurricane or the COVID19 pandemic. Previous research has shown that nursing home resident mortality related to disasters is frequently underreported. There is a need to better understand the consequences of disasters on nursing home residents and to differentiate vulnerability based on patient characteristics.ObjectiveTo evaluate mortality and morbidity associated with exposure to Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 storm that made landfall on September 10, 2017, in Cudjoe Key, Florida, among short-stay (<90-day residence) and long-stay (≥90-day residence) residents of nursing homes.Design, setting, and participantsCohort study of Florida nursing home residents comparing residents exposed to Hurricane Irma in September 2017 to a control group of residents residing at the same nursing homes over the same time period in calendar year 2015. Data were analyzed from August 28, 2019, to July 22, 2020.ExposureResidents who experienced Hurricane Irma were considered exposed; those who did not were considered unexposed.Main outcome and measuresOutcome variables included 30-day and 90-day mortality and first hospitalizations after the storm in both the short term and the long term.ResultsA total of 61 564 residents who were present in 640 Florida nursing home facilities on September 7, 2017, were identified. A comparison cohort of 61 813 residents was evaluated in 2015. Both cohorts were mostly female (2015, 68%; 2017, 67%), mostly White (2015, 79%; 2017, 78%), and approximately 40% of the residents in each group were over the age of 85 years. Compared with the control group in 2015, an additional 262 more nursing home deaths were identified at 30 days and 433 more deaths at 90 days. The odds of a first hospitalization for those exposed (vs nonexposed) were 1.09 (95% CI, 1.05-1.13) within the first 30 days after the storm and 1.05 (95% CI, 1.02-1.08) at 90 days; the odds of mortality were 1.12 (95% CI, 1.05-1.18) at 30 days and 1.07 (95% CI, 1.03-1.11) at 90 days. Among long-stay residents, the odds of mortality for those exposed to Hurricane Irma were 1.18 (95% CI, 1.08-1.29) times those unexposed and the odds of hospitalization were 1.11 (95% CI, 1.04-1.18) times those unexposed in the post 30-day period.Conclusions and relevanceThe findings of this study suggest that nursing home residents are at considerable risk to the consequences of disasters. These risks may be underreported by state and federal agencies. Long-stay residents, those who have resided in a nursing home for 90 days or more, may be most vulnerable to the consequences of hurricane disasters.
| S-EPMC7539118 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The impacts of hurricane-related disasters in agricultural communities include extensive losses of fields, orchards, and livestock, the recovery of which could span many years. Agricultural Extension Agents (EAs) try to manage and mitigate these losses, while simultaneously overseeing emergency shelter operations. These non-professional emergency responders face numerous potential stressors, the outcomes of which are minimally known. This study examined the short- and long-term medical and behavioral outcome of 36 University of Florida Agricultural Extension Agents within two months and one year after Hurricane Irma, Florida, USA, taking into consideration personal/home and work-related hurricane impacts. Regression analyses indicated that combined home and work hurricane impacts were associated with greater anxiety, depression, and medical symptoms controlling for age and number of prior hurricane experiences within two months of landfall. One year later, depression symptoms increased as well as the use of negative disengagement coping strategies for which stability of the work environment was protective. The findings suggest that advanced training in emergency response, organization and time management skills, time off and temporary replacement for personally impacted EAs, and workplace stability, including enhanced continuity of operations plans, represent critical elements of health prevention and early intervention for this occupational group.
| S-EPMC7038044 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesNursing home residents are especially vulnerable to adverse outcomes after a hurricane. Prior research suggests that emergency department (ED) visits increase among community-residing older adults after natural disasters. However, little is known about the impact of hurricanes on the large population of older adults residing in assisted living (AL) settings, particularly the influence of storms on the rates and causes of ED visits. We examined whether rates of ED use for injuries and other medical reasons increased after Hurricane Irma in 2017 among AL residents in Florida.DesignRetrospective cohort study.Setting and participantsSamples of 30,358 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in 2016 and 28,922 beneficiaries in 2017 who resided in Florida AL communities.MeasuresThe number of injury-related and other medical visits per 1,000 person-days within 30 and 90 days of September 1 in 2016 and 2017. We adjusted for age, race, sex, and chronic conditions using linear regression with AL fixed effects. We compared the top 10 primary diagnoses resulting in an ED visit between 2016 and 2017.ResultsAdjusted rates of injury-related visits were 12.5% higher at 30 days but did not differ at 90 days. Other medical visits were 12% higher at 30 days in 2017 than in 2016 and 7.7% higher at 90 days. Heart failure was a leading cause of ED visits within 90 days of September 1 in 2017, unlike in 2016.Conclusions and implicationsIncreased attention should be paid to AL communities in disaster preparedness and response efforts given the increased likelihood of ED visits following a hurricane.
| S-EPMC8035167 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012 drove before it a storm surge that rose to 4.28 meters above mean lower low water at The Battery in lower Manhattan, and flooded the Hugh L. Carey automobile tunnel between Brooklyn and The Battery. This study examines the surge event in New York Harbor using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) atmospheric model and the Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave- Sediment Transport/Regional Ocean Modeling System (COAWST/ROMS). We present a new technique using directional analysis to calculate and display maps of a coastline's potential for storm surge; these maps are constructed from wind fields blowing from eight fixed compass directions. This analysis approximates the surge observed during Hurricane Sandy. The directional analysis is then applied to surge events at Charleston, South Carolina, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Tacloban City, the Philippines. Emergency managers could use these directional maps to prepare their cities for an approaching storm, on planning horizons from days to years.
| S-EPMC4425260 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent evidence indicates that climate change and intensification of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has increased variation in sea level. Although widespread impacts on intertidal ecosystems are anticipated to arise from the sea level seesaw associated with climate change, none have yet been demonstrated. Intertidal ecosystems, including mangrove forests are among those ecosystems that are highly vulnerable to sea level rise, but they may also be vulnerable to sea level variability and extreme low sea level events. During 16 years of monitoring of a mangrove forest in Mangrove Bay in north Western Australia, we documented two forest dieback events, the most recent one being coincident with the large-scale dieback of mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. Diebacks in Mangrove Bay were coincident with periods of very low sea level, which were associated with increased soil salinization of 20-30% above pre-event levels, leading to canopy loss, reduced Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and reduced recruitment. Our study indicates that an intensification of ENSO will have negative effects on some mangrove forests in parts of the Indo-Pacific that will exacerbate other pressures.
| S-EPMC5431776 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Differences in the structure of bacterial and archaeal communities including the functional group of ammonia oxidizers in soils beneath Rhizophora mangle and Avicennia germinans mangroves determined by tide?
| PRJEB22120 | ENA
Project description:Hurricane Irma was the most powerful Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, displacing 6 million and killing over 120 people in the state of Florida alone. Unpredictable disasters like Irma are associated with poor cognitive and health outcomes that can disproportionately impact children. This study examined the effects of Hurricane Irma on the hippocampus and memory processes previously related to unpredictable stress. We used an innovative application of an advanced diffusion-weighted imaging technique, restriction spectrum imaging (RSI), to characterize hippocampal microstructure (i.e., cell density) in 9- to 10-year-old children who were exposed to Hurricane Irma relative to a non-exposed control group (i.e., assessed the year before Hurricane Irma). We tested the hypotheses that the experience of Hurricane Irma would be associated with decreases in: (a) hippocampal cellularity (e.g., neurogenesis), based on known associations between unpredictable stress and hippocampal alterations; and (b) hippocampal-related memory function as indexed by delayed recall. We show an association between decreased hippocampal cellularity and delayed recall memory in children who experienced Hurricane Irma relative to those who did not. These findings suggest an important role of RSI for assessing subtle microstructural changes related to functionally significant changes in the developing brain in response to environmental events.
| S-EPMC8206237 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Characterizing the fragility, resistance, and resilience of marshes is critical for understanding their role in reducing storm damages and for helping to manage the recovery of these natural defenses. This study uses high-resolution aerial imagery to quantify the impacts of Hurricane Michael, a category 5 hurricane, on coastal salt marshes in the Florida Panhandle, USA. Marsh damage was classified into several categories, including deposition of sediment or wrack, fallen trees, vegetation loss, and conversion to open water. The marshes were highly resistant to storm damages even under extreme conditions; only 2% of the 173,259 km2 of marshes in the study area were damaged-a failure rate much lower than that of artificial defenses. Marshes may be more resistant than resilient to storm impacts; damaged marshes were slow to recover, and only 16% of damaged marshes had recovered 6 months after landfall. Marsh management mattered for resistance and resilience; marshes on publicly-managed lands were less likely to be damaged and more likely to recover quickly from storm impacts than marshes on private land, emphasizing the need to incentivize marsh management on private lands. These results directly inform policy and practice for hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, adaptation, and conservation, particularly given the potential for more intense hurricane landfalls as the climate changes.
| S-EPMC8516897 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Detection and attribution of past changes in cyclone activity are hampered by biased cyclone records due to changes in observational capabilities. Here, we relate a homogeneous record of Atlantic tropical cyclone activity based on storm surge statistics from tide gauges to changes in global temperature patterns. We examine 10 competing hypotheses using nonstationary generalized extreme value analysis with different predictors (North Atlantic Oscillation, Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Sahel rainfall, Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, radiative forcing, Main Development Region temperatures and its anomaly, global temperatures, and gridded temperatures). We find that gridded temperatures, Main Development Region, and global average temperature explain the observations best. The most extreme events are especially sensitive to temperature changes, and we estimate a doubling of Katrina magnitude events associated with the warming over the 20th century. The increased risk depends on the spatial distribution of the temperature rise with highest sensitivity from tropical Atlantic, Central America, and the Indian Ocean. Statistically downscaling 21st century warming patterns from six climate models results in a twofold to sevenfold increase in the frequency of Katrina magnitude events for a 1 °C rise in global temperature (using BNU-ESM, BCC-CSM-1.1, CanESM2, HadGEM2-ES, INM-CM4, and NorESM1-M).
| S-EPMC3619316 | biostudies-other
Project description:ObjectivesTo examine the effect of Hurricane Irma on staff-related financial expenditures and daily direct-care nurse staffing levels.DesignRetrospective cohort study.SettingSeptember 3-24, 2017 in the state of Florida, United States. Hurricane Irma made landfall on September 10, 2017.ParticipantsSix hundred and fifty-three nursing homes (NHs), 81 evacuated facilities, and 572 facilities that sheltered-in-place.MeasurementsThis study used data from Payroll-Based Journaling (PBJ), Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER), and Florida's health providers' emergency reporting system. PBJ provided estimates of daily direct-care nurse staffing levels for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certified nursing assistants. CASPER reported facility-level characteristics such as profit status, chain membership, and special care unit availability. Florida's emergency reporting system identified evacuation status during Hurricane Irma. Linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate the unique contribution of evacuation status on daily staffing increases over time from September 3 to 10.ResultsAmong all facilities, we found significant increases in staffing for licensed practical nurses (p = 0.02) and certified nursing assistants (p < 0.001), but not for registered nurses (p = 0.10) before Hurricane Irma made landfall. From 1 week before landfall to 2 weeks after landfall (September 3-24), an additional estimated $2.41 million was spent on direct-care nurse staffing. In comparison to facilities that sheltered-in-place, evacuated facilities increased staffing levels of all nurse types (all p < 0.001). At landfall, evacuated facilities spent an estimated $93.74 on nurse staffing per resident whereas facilities that sheltered-in-place spent $76.10 on nurse staffing per resident.ConclusionNHs face unprecedented challenges during hurricanes, including maintaining adequate direct-care nurse staffing levels to meet the needs of their residents. NHs that evacuated residents had an increase in direct-care nurse staffing that was greater than that seen in NHs that sheltered-in-place.
| S-EPMC8373745 | biostudies-literature