Devastation in the USA: Around 180 dead after “Helene” – and thousands could follow

Devastation in the USA
Around 180 dead after “Helene” – and thousands could follow

Several days after the devastation caused by tropical storm “Helene”, the number of victims is increasing in the southeast of the USA continues – and according to new scientific findings, there could even be significantly more victims. According to a recent count by the US broadcaster CNN, at least 180 people have died as a result of the storm, while NBC reported at least 175 deaths.

A study published in the renowned journal “Nature” states: Such tropical cyclones usually cause increased mortality in the affected areas for years to come.

Soldiers help with food and water supplies

US President Joe Biden announced the deployment of 1,000 soldiers to the disaster area. The military stationed in the state of North Carolina will help deliver food, water and other essential supplies to the affected region, the White House announced.

The storm, which made landfall as a second-highest category hurricane in northwest Florida last week and then moved somewhat weaker to the north, left immense destruction in six states. As of Wednesday afternoon (local time), more than a million households were still without power, including almost half a million in the state of South Carolina alone, according to data from the US website PowerOutage.

Solomon Hsiang from Stanford University and Rachel Young from the University of California in Berkeley, both in the USA, looked into what the long-term health of the people there could be like. The researchers evaluated data relating to 501 storms from 1930 to 2015. According to computer models, the storms resulted in 3.6 to 5.7 million deaths during this period that would not have occurred without the natural disasters.

Less health insurance and hospitals as possible reasons

Although the two emphasize that they cannot make any statements about the causes of excess mortality, they do put forward several hypotheses. The disasters could lead to people losing their jobs and therefore their health insurance. Or they spend money on home repairs that they had actually saved for retirement.

The state could also lack money for medical facilities due to infrastructure repairs. The exact causes should be determined in further investigations, demand Hsiang and Young.

The analysis found that, on average, a hurricane leads to 7,170 to 11,430 additional deaths, depending on the model assumptions. This is significantly more than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates for direct deaths per hurricane: on average, 24 people died directly, for example from drowning.

Assessment from Germany: plausible study

The researchers also found that the wind speed of the storms did not increase from 1930 to 2015. However, there have been significantly more tropical cyclones since 2001. “We expect tropical cyclones to become potentially more dangerous and destructive due to climate change,” Young emphasized.

Hajo Zeeb from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen believes the two US researchers’ approach is plausible: “They describe their approach in great detail and transparently.” The economic connections and health consequences have probably hardly been investigated so far because they require large amounts of data and complex calculations.

People should be relieved

As an immediate response to Storm Helene, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued a decree on Tuesday temporarily suspending the gasoline tax. This is intended to relieve the burden on communities that are currently completely dependent on fuel to power their homes and necessary equipment, Kemp wrote.

US President Biden headed to North Carolina and South Carolina on Wednesday to get a picture of particularly affected areas. His vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, is planning a visit to Georgia. Your Republican opponent Donald Trump was already in Georgia.

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dpa