Natural Disasters and Impacts on Health 2E
Natural Disasters and Impacts on Health 2E : Floods. The greatest risk of mortality from a flood is predictably drowning. In North America, floods account for more yearly weather deaths than all other natural disasters, with the exception of heat illnesses. The greatest number of deaths and injuries occur when there is little to no warning of an impending flood. This can occur in the case of flash flooding, the collapse of a dam, or from the action of a tidal wave due to a distant or even sub-oceanic earthquake. Consistently, individuals underestimate the power of moving water leading to what could have been many preventable deaths and injuries. In the best of times, it is difficult to estimate the average depth of opaque and fast moving water; and it can be next to impossible at dusk or in the middle of the night. It takes less than two feet of moving water to float a large vehicle such as a school bus, and only between three and six inches of fast moving water to sweep a large man off of his feet. Second only to drowning, exposure to the elements accounts for a large percentage of the deaths and critical injuries that occur in floods. In many cases, individuals who are caught in rising floodwaters wait for rescue in any refuge that can be found including trees, tops of buildings and automobiles. Depending on the extent of the flooding and the availability of rescue personnel, people may spend hours to days openly exposed to inclement weather. The lower the ambient temperature falls below 15
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