NPR

The human cost of climate-related disasters is acutely undercounted, new study says

A new study counts the human health costs from increasingly costly and dangerous extreme weather in the U.S.
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.

Dr. Latoya Storr was an emergency medicine physician for a hospital in Grand Bahama when Hurricane Dorian ripped across the island in 2019. The hospital flooded four feet deep in places. Storr and her colleagues had to move the intensive care unit, pediatric department, and maternal care into the emergency room area—the only space not totally flooded.

Storr was particularly struck that the health risks for her patients didn't stop when the storm passed. In the first few days after the hurricane, patients showed up with bad

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