Category Archives: Flooding

14Mar / 2022

Prep Your Health for Floods

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March 14–20 is Flood Safety Awareness Week

Floods are the most widespread of all weather-related natural disasters. They happen in every U.S. state and territory.(1) Floodwater can be dangerous. It can contain different hazards that can harm your health and the health of others.

Here are some ways you can prepare for and respond to flooding.flood warnings

Know Your Risk

Flooding can happen year-round anywhere it rains.(1) If you live in a flood-prone area, you should prepare.

Use FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center to find your official flood map. You can also contact your local emergency management agency.

Use the information you gather to make an informed decision about how best to protect your finances and property.(2) Homeowners’ insurance policies do not cover flooding. A flood insurance policy typically takes up to 30 days to go into effect.

Prepare Yourself or Your Household

Planning for an emergency can give you and your family peace of mind. If the entire process seems too big, you can take small steps throughout the year.

  • Collect emergency supplies, including
    • personal items such as water, medications, and supplies for pets
    • personal protective equipment, including
      • an N-95 respirator
      • long pants or waders
      • rubber boots
      • rubber gloves
      • goggles (i.e., safety glasses)
    • insect repellent
    • cleaning supplies (Unscented household bleach can be used to disinfect surfaces, canned goods, and even water if bottled water is not available.)
  • Collect, check, and protect important paperwork, including homeowners or renters and flood insurance policy documents.
  • Stay informed of weather updates. Follow trusted sources of information on social media like your local National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office.

Along with preparing yourself for a flood, you should also take steps to get your home ready for a flood. This includes learning practical skills like how to turn off the utilities in case you must evacuate.

Protect Your Health

Floodwater can be dangerous. It can contain things that may harm health. We don’t know exactly what is in floodwater at any given point in time. Protect yourself and others from possible contaminants, chemical hazards, and objects.

  • Stay out of floodwater. Exposure to contaminated floodwater can cause wound infections, skin rash, gastrointestinal illness, tetanus, and other health problems. If you must enter floodwater, wear rubber boots, rubber gloves, and goggles.(3)
  • Don’t drive into flooded areas—turn around, don’t drown! Have an evacuation plan that gives you options in case a path is flooded.(3) A few inches of water can sweep a car away.
  • Prevent injuries. If you happen to have an open wound during a flood, make sure to avoid floodwater by keeping wounds clean and covered. (3)

Going home after a flood can present challenges, too. Here are some practical steps to take when you first reenter your home.

  • Throw out any food, including emergency supplies, that may have come into contact with floodwater. Discard canned foods that are bulging open, or damaged. Food in undamaged cans can be saved if properly cleaned.
  • Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents to protect yourself from mosquito bites. Immediately following a hurricane, flooding occurs. Mosquito eggs laid in the soil by floodwater mosquitoes during previous floods hatch. This results in very large populations of floodwater mosquitoes. Most of these mosquitoes are considered nuisance mosquitoes. In general, nuisance mosquitoes do not spread viruses that make people sick.(4)
  • Dry out your home to prevent mold. When returning to a home that has been flooded, be aware that mold growth may be present. Mold can be a health risk for your family. If possible, air out your house by opening doors and windows. Use fans to dry wet areas. Position fans to blow air out doors or windows. Use proper protective gear such as safety glasses, gloves, and N95 respirator when removing mold.(5)

Visit the CDC website for more information on what to do when reentering a flooded home.

References

  1. https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/floods/
  2. https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps
  3. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/floods/floodsafety.html
  4. https://www.cdc.gov/mosquitoes/mosquito-control/community/mosquitoes-and-hurricanes.html
  5. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/mold

Resources

 

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info/index.html) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.

Posted by in #prepyourhealth, flood insurance, Flooding, General, mold, Natural Disasters, personal health, Preparedness, public health, Response, Vectorborne

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17Jan / 2018

Educating Children After Hurricane Maria

In September 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria roared through the Caribbean just 12 days apart. The schools on St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) did not re-open until October 24. Teachers talked about how many of the books and materials in their classrooms were moldy and how teachers and staff had to help the janitorial staff clean up classrooms. Parents shared stories of their children coming home from school with mosquito bites all over their arms and legs. Schools could not always run the air-conditioning because they were operating using generators.

Finding a natural fit

As a team lead in the Division of Adolescent and School Health, I have expertise in how health departments and federal agencies should work with schools. So when I was deployed to support health communication activities in the US Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria, I offered to support the USVI Department of Health doing health communication outreach to schools. We worked quickly to connect with schools and distribute materials to students and their families about how to stay safe and healthy after a hurricane.

Making a vision a realityChildren are the key to primary prevention because they are the drivers of the health behaviors we hope to change. -Malaika Washington

I worked with Director of Public Relations, Nykole Tyson, at the USVI Department of Health and the USVI Department of Education to determine how many children were enrolled on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John and which educational materials from CDC to distribute. With support from the CDC Foundation, we printed and distributed flyer packets for over 16,000 K-12 students on the three islands to take home to their families. The packets contained CDC-developed materials about how to stay safe after a hurricane, including tips for food and water safety, how to prevent mosquito bites, the health risks from mold, how to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, and mental health. Since 35% of the children on St. Croix speak Spanish, we made the messages available in both English and Spanish.

Each child was also given a copy of the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold Activity Book as part of the flyer packet. Ready Wrigley is a series of CDC-developed activity books for children 5-9 years old and their families to help them talk about and prepare for emergencies. There are nine Ready Wrigley books that provide tips, activities and a story about disaster preparedness. The flooding and mold activity book talks specifically about safe mold clean-up after a flood and how kids should never touch mold and always tell a grown-up if they see mold.

Giving children a voice

Malaika Washington reading the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold activity book to students in USVI.
Sharing the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold activity book with students in USVI.

American Education Week takes place every November. The USVI Department of Education contacted Director Tyson and asked her to read to elementary school students on St. Croix. She asked me if I would like to join her visits to kindergarten and first grade classrooms. I jumped at the chance to interact with students in-person and suggested we read the Ready Wrigley Flooding and Mold Activity Book. I even colored the pictures in the book and completed the activities so the children could follow along. We shared the Ready Wrigley books with the teachers at each school we visited, giving teachers enough copies of the book for every student to take one home.

All of the students really wanted their stories heard. One first grader recounted how his mother and grandparents told him to stay far away from the cleaning products while they cleaned up the mold in their home. Another little girl shared how she was personally impacted by mold. She had to sleep on the sofa in her home because there was mold all over her bed and the other furniture in her bedroom. Several other children described the mold they found on the front door of their homes after the hurricane.

Fulfilling a passion

Working with school-aged children is so rewarding. This deployment experience was the best I could have hoped for. The time I spent in the USVI made me realize my personal and professional goal to provide public health education materials to children and their families. I have always believed that public health prevention work should begin with school-aged youth and it is my lifelong public health mission to ensure that they have a voice.

Malaika Washington has been a Commissioned Corps Officer in the United Stated Public Health Service since October 2009. She is a team lead in the Division of Adolescent and School Health, the only division at CDC that funds education agencies directly. Her deployment to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the 2017 HHS Hurricane Response was the first time she deployed for a public health emergency.

Posted by in children, Environmental Health, Flooding, hurricane, Hurricane Maria, mold, Natural Disasters, public health, Ready Wrigley, Response, US Virgin Islands, USVI

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14May / 2014

An Unpredictable Spring

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“In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.” – Mark Twain

While spring officially sprung in late March, it’s only been in the last few weeks that we’ve seen the characteristically unpredictable weather that ushers in the fun-in-the-sun summer. During spring, temperatures can swing back and forth between balmy (high 80s in Georgia this week) and frigid (in the 40s in Wyoming). Sunny days may be followed by a week of stormy weather; sometimes extreme weather changes can occur even within the same day.

Below are the most common types of severe spring weather:

  • Be Ready for Tornadoes InfographicThunderstorms cause most of the severe spring weather. They can bring lightning, tornadoes and flooding. Whenever warm, moist air collides with cool, dry air, thunderstorms can occur. For much of the world, this happens in spring and summer.
  • Tornadoes, often called twisters, are rapidly rotating columns of air that are connected to both the ground and the cloud.  Tornado Alley – the Great Plains region of the United States – is most active this time of year.  Already in 2014, there have been more than 30 deaths due to tornadoes.
  • Flooding, which is most common in and near mountainous areas due to snow melt, is another condition of spring.  As are mudslides, like the one in Oso, Washington, in late March.  Mudslides happen when heavy rainfall, snowmelt, or high amounts of ground water cause soil to be uprooted.   
  • Wildfires are most common in the Western United States and wildfire season usually starts in May and runs through August.  According to the National Interagency Fire Center, this year’s wildfire season could be dangerous.

Because spring weather can be so unpredictable, you may be unprepared when severe weather hits—especially if you live in a region that does not often experience these types of events. And when severe weather hits unexpectedly, the risk of injury and death increases. So planning ahead makes sense; prepare for storms, floods, and tornadoes as if you know in advance they are coming, because in the spring, they very likely will.

Advance planning for thunderstorms, lightning, tornadoes and floods requires specific safety precautions. Still, you can follow many of the same steps for all extreme weather events. You should have on hand:

  • A battery-operated flashlight, a battery-operated NOAA Weather Radio, and extra batteries for both
  • An emergency evacuation plan, including a map of your home and, for every type of severe weather emergency, routes to safety from each room
  • A list of important personal information, including
    • telephone numbers of neighbors, family and friends
    • insurance and property information
    • telephone numbers of utility companies
    • medical information
  • A first aid kit may include:
    • non-latex gloves
    • assortment of adhesive bandages
    • antibiotic ointment
    • sterile gauze pads in assorted sizes
    • absorbent compress dressings
    • tweezers
    • scissors
    • adhesive cloth tape
    • aspirin packets (81 mg each)
    • First aid instruction booklet
  • A 3–5 day supply of bottled water and nonperishable food
  • Personal hygiene items
  • Blankets or sleeping bags
  • An emergency kit in your car

Remember to help prepare your family members and neighbors for the possibility of severe weather too. Tell them where they can find appropriate shelter as soon as they are aware of an approaching storm. Make sure to run through your emergency plans for every type of severe weather. Show family members where emergency supplies are stored, and make sure they know how to turn off the water, gas, and electricity in your home.

Unfortunately, few of us get much advance notice of a severe weather event. Often times when we become aware of an approaching storm, we have little time to prepare for it.  But, we know what season it is, and even if this spring doesn’t bring any severe weather to your area, being prepared can help you at any time of the year.

Are there any stories of your own spring preparedness that you want to share with us?

Posted by in Flooding, General, Natural Disasters, Preparedness, Spring Weather, Thunderstorms, Tornadoes, wildfires

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