Hurricane Irene caused enormous damage in New York state, flooding homes like this one in Prattsville, NY, in 2011. Major weather events like Irene send people to the hospital and can even contribute to deaths for weeks after the storms.Hurricane Irene caused enormous damage in New York state, flooding homes like this one in Prattsville, NY, in 2011. Major weather events like Irene send people to the hospital and can even contribute to deaths for weeks after the storms.
Storr knows it's not the last time she'll experience a catastrophic storm."Unfortunately, with climate change, one of the fears that we have is that they may be more severe in intensity," she says—a fear supported bylooks directly at the human health impacts from severe weather like hurricanes, floods, and intense storms. The study examined Medicare records before and after weather disasters that incurred more than $1 billion of damages from 2011 to 2016.
by weather disasters in 2023. In that year alone, the costs of damages to homes, roads, and other infrastructure from extreme weather totaled over $90 billion. Because health costs aren't folded into that number, it's probably an underestimate, Salas points out. Even the new Harvard analysis likely"could be a conservative number," Chen says. Medicare covers only about 20% of the U.S. population. More people are likely being affected than were captured in the study. Chen says adding in smaller storms, heat, or wildfire health impacts would balloon the numbers.