Fatal weather-related carbon monoxide poisonings in the United States

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless gas that can cause injury or death if inhaled. CO is a frequent secondary hazard induced by the aftereffects of natural hazards as individuals, families, and communities often seek alternative power sources for heating, cooking, lighting, and cleanup during the emergency and recovery phases of a disaster. These alternative power sources—such as portable generators, petroleum-based heaters, and vehicles—exhaust CO that can ultimately build to toxic levels in enclosed areas. Ever-increasing environmental and societal changes combined with an aging infrastructure are growing the odds of power failures during hazardous weather events, which, in turn, are increasing the likelihood of CO exposure, illness, and death. This study analyzed weather-related CO fatalities from 2000 to 2019 in the U.S. using death certificate data, providing one of the longest assessments of this mortality. Results reveal that over 8,300 CO fatalities occurred in the U.S. during the 20-year study period, with 17% of those deaths affiliated with weather perils. Cool-season perils such as ice storms, snowstorms, and extreme cold were the leading hazards that led to situations causing CO fatalities. States in the Southeast and Northeast had the highest CO fatality rates, with winter having the greatest seasonal mortality. In general, these preventable CO poisoning influxes are related to a deficiency of knowledge on generator safety and the absence of working detectors and alarms in the enclosed locations where poisonings occur. Education and prevention programs that target the most vulnerable populations will help prevent future weather-related CO fatalities.

Nursing home evacuations due to disasters in the United States over 22.5 years from 1995 to 2017

A large and growing segment of the United States population resides in nursing homes. Many nursing home residents have multiple comorbidities, are unable to perform activities of daily living, and need assistance for their daily functioning. They are some of the most fragile and vulnerable members of the population. Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity. This makes it likely that disasters will strike nursing homes and affect their residents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of disasters in the United States that resulted in nursing home evacuations. There were 51 reported nursing home evacuations due to a disaster over 22.5 years between 1995 and 2017. Natural disasters were responsible for the majority of evacuations (58.8 percent) followed by man-made unintentional disasters (37.3 percent) and man-made intentional (arson) (3.9 percent). The single most common reason for evacuation was hurricanes (23.5 percent, N = 12) and internal fires (23.5 percent, N = 12). Water-related disasters accounted for nearly three-fourths of the natural disasters (hurricanes 40 percent, N = 12; floods, 33.3 percent, N = 10; total 73.3 percent, N = 22), then snow/ice storms (13.3 percent, N = 4). Of man-made disasters, over two-thirds (66.7 percent) were due to internal fires (internal fires, n = 12, 57.1 percent and arson n = 2, 9.5 percent; total N = 14, 66.7 percent). The highest number of evacuations occurred in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania. This knowledge should enable nursing home administrators, disaster planners, public health officials, and others to improve preparedness for disasters that lead to nursing home evacuations.

Are We Prepared for the Next Disaster? Evidence from Ice Storm

This study examines the impacts that an emergency had on people’s preparedness levels, using the December 2013 Ice Storm in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as a case. A questionnaire consisting of three sections was developed to measure the associated impacts, people’s reactions/opinions, as well as their preparedness levels before and after the ice storm. The goal of the research is not only to discuss the factors that influenced people’s ability to prepare, respond to and recover from the ice storm but also to generate useful insights for future disasters that are similar in nature. Our analysis includes various aspects such as the effectiveness of advance warnings and their ability to disseminate information to mass audiences. The findings show that, most of the respondents believe that they learned a lot about ice storms and their impacts because of their prior experience; a significant majority believe that it is the city’s/municipality’s responsibility to prepare for emergencies like ice storms; home ownership was significantly associated with the previous ice storm preparedness; and, power outage experience was significantly associated with the next ice storm preparedness.

A Study on Global Warming- A Threat To Biodiversity and Universal Health

Global Warming is a very serious issue. the term “Global Warming” means increase in global temperature mainly due to increase in greenhouse gases concentration due to the burning of fossil fuels in the atmosphere and is long term warming of the planet. The whole world fights against it. The global warming changes the climate and is caused by the human action. Global warming is a very major problem and with it the flood, droughts, melting of ice, storms and change in climate is likely to happen. Steps have to be taken to solve the global problem global warming for the better universal health and better environment for the whole world. Due to global warming there will be environmental disruption and change in climate which will be an irreversible situation. The global warming is caused by the human and their activities and thus it is the human who is the sufferer of climate change, thus we cant stop global warming but we can solve it by reducing and slowing down the greenhouse gas emissions and burning of fossil fuels for a better environment for ourselves and a sustainable environment for the future generations.

Analysis of the impacts of extreme weather events on Ontario’s electricity grid using agent-based modeling

Extreme weather events have increased and are causing severe impacts on the electricity grid. Heat waves and ice storms are becoming more intense and frequent in Ontario, Canada. During an extreme weather event, the electricity demand fluctuates and the reliability of the electrical grid decreases due to equipment failure and shortage of electricity supply, which leads to blackouts. An initial stage simulation model is developed using the computational technique agent-based model. This thesis analyzed the impact of extreme weather events based on severity and frequency levels on two sector of Ontario’s electricity grid which are generation plants and distribution network. The simulation output showed multiple grid failures in different regions during extreme severity levels and increased frequencies of weather events. The model also showed heat waves and ice storms resulting differently depending on the month, extreme temperature months were more prone to failures than average temperature months.

Analysis of the impacts of extreme weather events on Ontario’s electricity grid using agent-based modeling

Extreme weather events have increased and are causing severe impacts on the electricity grid. Heat waves and ice storms are becoming more intense and frequent in Ontario, Canada. During an extreme weather event, the electricity demand fluctuates and the reliability of the electrical grid decreases due to equipment failure and shortage of electricity supply, which leads to blackouts. An initial stage simulation model is developed using the computational technique agent-based model. This thesis analyzed the impact of extreme weather events based on severity and frequency levels on two sector of Ontario’s electricity grid which are generation plants and distribution network. The simulation output showed multiple grid failures in different regions during extreme severity levels and increased frequencies of weather events. The model also showed heat waves and ice storms resulting differently depending on the month, extreme temperature months were more prone to failures than average temperature months.

Short-Term Increase in Abundance of Foliage-Gleaning Insectivorous Birds Following Experimental Ice Storms in a Northern Hardwood Forest

Large-scale disturbances such as ice storms may increase in frequency and intensity as climate changes. While disturbances are a natural component of forest ecosystems, climatically driven alteration to historical patterns may impart fundamental change to ecosystem function. At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, NH, experimental ice storms of varying severity were applied to replicate plots of mature northern hardwoods to quantify their effects on forested ecosystems. We assessed ice storm treatment effects on insectivorous foliage-gleaning birds and evaluated insectivore predation on model caterpillars in the understory vegetation. These birds are charismatic, of conservation concern, and are major predators of caterpillars. In turn, lepidopterans are the dominant herbivores in temperate forests and are integral to ecosystem function. We predicted that avian abundance would increase due to additional structural heterogeneity caused by ice treatments, with a concomitant increase in caterpillar predation. Point counts were used to measure insectivorous bird activity in the ice storm experiment plots and additional control plots before and after treatments. We deployed and retrieved plasticine model caterpillars and estimated predation from characteristic marks to these surrogates. Abundance of foliage-gleaning birds was higher in the ice storm plots and birds responded to treatments as a single diffuse disturbance rather than on an individual plot level. All species except one were observed both before and after the ice treatments. Surprisingly, predation on caterpillar models was unaffected by ice storm treatments but rather was a function of caterpillar density. The increase in avian abundance in the ice storm treatment plots corroborates other studies of bird responses to relatively small-scale disturbances in forests and the limited change in species composition was expected given the plot size. We conclude that ice storms may provide beneficial changes for foliage-gleaning birds in the growing season following the disturbance.

Short-term survival and crown rebuilding of European broadleaf tree species following a severe ice storm

Ice storms cause widespread damage to forests in many temperate regions, leaving behind many live trees with severe crown damage. Following a severe ice storm in 2014 that damaged forests across Slovenia, we examined how tree-level attributes influenced survival and crown rebuilding three growing seasons after the storm. Field sampling was carried out in four mature stands dominated by native broadleaf species. Of the 763 sampled trees, the annual mortality rate following the storm was 2.2%, and nearly all trees that died experienced >75% crown removal. Oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) and chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) had higher rates of mortality than beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and maple (Acer pseudoplatanus L.). Mixed models revealed that survival significantly increased with tree diameter and decreased with increasing crown damage. Although we observed sprouting across all the dominant species, maple, oak, and chestnut showed a more vigorous response than beech, and maple had the fastest sprout growth. Model results showed that sprout density and length increased with level of crown damage. The results indicate that these broadleaf forests are resilient to severe ice damage. Consequently, hasty salvage cutting of trees with canopy damage should be avoided, as many individuals with >75% crown damage are likely to survive and recover.