Kumar says the long-term public health consequences are often underestimated. “If you were never exposed to high concentrations of black mold inside the home and are now chronically exposed to it, you could suffer from allergies or asthma for the rest of your life and it could put your life in danger,” he says. He recalls a case study after Hurricane Ian “in which someone ended up in a mold-infected house and died two or three months after the hurricane made landfall.”

In some cases, the scale of damage to health infrastructure also limits access to medical care, particularly for conditions deemed not life-threatening, with power outages and flooding forcing hospitals and pharmacies to close. In New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, three major hospitals were surrounded by floodwaters and remained closed for several months.

But not everyone in society faces the same level of risk. Gina Charnley, a global health researcher at Imperial College London, says infectious diseases following natural disasters tend to disproportionately affect people living in poverty.

“Following a disaster, people who have the means and ability to move away from these risks tend not to get sick, and those who cannot, such as the elderly, pregnant women or children are the ones who get sick most often,” she says. “Many infectious diseases around the world could be reduced if we lifted people out of poverty, but we have a long history of inaction in this area.”

Davis and Kumar say more needs to be done to identify areas most at risk following severe storms, as well as to prevent, identify and treat infections.

“There’s a lot we could do,” Kumar says. “Mobile health care delivery systems wherever we anticipate people will gather, including evacuation centers. You need to go to affected communities where people might be in danger, because otherwise they might not seek treatment and perish because of it. This is not the sole responsibility of the government, but of all health care providers, public and private.

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