Climate change is intensifying both hurricanes and everyday storms, making flooding events both more common and more severe.
When heavy rain falls, it can overwhelm streams and streets with little to no warning, both along the coast and inland. All it takes is six inches of fast-moving water to knock over an adult, according to the National Weather Service, and most cars can be swept away in as little as a foot of water.
Beyond the risk of drowning, floodwaters are often full of sewage, medical waste, industrial chemicals and more. And even after the storm is over, many hazards can remain.
What’s in the water?
Floodwaters are “a toxic brew of pesticides, toxins, petroleum, anything and everything that you can imagine,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Hundreds of types of bacteria and viruses can contaminate the waters, he added, making them dangerous to play in or simply walk through.
This is especially true in the first 24 hours of a storm, when heavy rains wash out waste and trigger the “first rush of pathogens,” said Natalie Exum, an environmental health scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Potential consequences include gastrointestinal illnesses such as E. coli, respiratory illnesses like Legionnaires’ disease and skin infections including necrotizing fasciitis, known as flesh-eating disease.
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