The Human Impact of Tropical Cyclones: a Historical Review of Events 1980-2009 and Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background. Cyclones have significantly affected populations in Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific, and the Americas over the past quarter of a century. Future vulnerability to cyclones will increase due to factors including population growth, urbanization, increasing coastal settlement, and global warming. The objectives of this review were to describe the impact of cyclones on human populations in terms of mortality, injury, and displacement and, to the extent possible, identify risk factors associated with these outcomes. This is one of five reviews on the human impact of natural disasters. Methods. Data on the impact of cyclones were compiled using two methods, a historical review from 1980 to 2009 of cyclone events from multiple databases and a systematic literature review of publications ending in October 2012. Analysis included descriptive statistics and bivariate tests for associations between cyclone characteristics and mortality using Stata 11.0. Findings. There were 412,644 deaths, 290,654 injured, and 466.1 million people affected by cyclones between 1980 and 2009, and the mortality and injury burden was concentrated in less developed nations of Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Inconsistent reporting suggests this is an underestimate, particularly in terms of the injured and affected populations. The primary cause of cyclone-related mortality is drowning; in developed countries male gender was associated with increased mortality risk, whereas females experienced higher mortality in less developed countries. Conclusions. Additional attention to preparedness and early warning, particularly in Asia, can lessen the impact of future cyclones.

No Calm After the Storm: A Systematic Review of Human Health Following Flood and Storm Disasters

“…Other reviews have summarized the impact of flood or storm disasters on mortality and the causes, risk factors, or burden of specific diseases. [4][5][6][7] These approaches take a preventative public health perspective and are important for reducing a disaster's health impact.…”

Differential mortality patterns from hydro-meteorological disasters: Evidence from cause-of-death data by age and sex

“…Developing countries with poor or non-existing civil registration systems are not represented, and our results should not be generalised to those countries. Indeed, it has been shown that flood and storm mortality is concentrated in the less developed and heavily populated nations of southeast Asia and the western Pacific (Doocy et al 2013a(Doocy et al , 2013b, where WHO data are scarcely available. The demographic differentials in flood-and storm-related mortality observed in this study could thus be biased.…”

“…In addition to geophysical characteristics, the level of economic development has been found to be significant in determining human and economic losses from natural disasters (Fankhauser and McDermott 2014;Toya and Skidmore 2007). Compared to more developed countries, developing countries generally suffer much higher death tolls from floods and cyclones because they often have poor infrastructure and badly constructed housing, high-density settlements, a lack of early warning systems, and poorly devised evacuation and shelter procedures (Doocy et al 2013a). The fact that most deaths from cyclones in less developed nations are storm surge drowning fatalities that occur during the impact phase implies that deaths from storms are, to a certain degree, preventable (Shultz et al 2005).…”

“…Similarly, for storm-related deaths, both children and older adults are exposed disproportionately to higher mortality risks (Brunkard et al 2008;Bern et al 1993;Chowdhury et al 1993). With respect to gender, in developed countries men are generally more likely to die from flood-and storm-related causes, whereas in less developed countries women appear to have a higher risk of mortality (Alderman et al 2012;Doocy et al 2013aDoocy et al , 2013b. In addition, studies have shown that flood-related mortality in different age groups is not distributed evenly between men and women: while the vast majority of females who die in floods are elderly women (Coates 1999), in many countries flood-related deaths are most common among adult men (Ashley and Ashley 2008;Coates 1999).…”

Changes of Tropical Cyclone Size in three Oceanic Basins of the Northern Hemisphere since 2001

“…is estimated that 10,000 people have died every year since 1980 due to tropical cyclones 94 (Doocy et al 2013), and thus it is of great importance to study tropical cyclones and to 95 understand their response to changes in environmental conditions such as sea surface 96 temperature (SST). The sensitivity of frequency, intensity, and duration of tropical 97 cyclones to climate change has been extensively investigated with a general conclusion 98 that both global and regional changes in TC behavior should be expected as the climate 99 and SST change (e.g., Emanuel heat into the Northeastern Pacific basin to directly fuel intense hurricanes in that basin 135 two or three seasons after its winter peak.…”