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Extreme Weather and Society

Extreme Weather, Health, and Communities

Sheila Lakshmi SteinbergWilliam A. Sprigg Editors

Interdisciplinary Engagement Strategies

Extreme Weather and Society

Series editors

William A. Sprigg, Tucson, AZ, USA

Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg, Irvine, CA, USA

Extreme Weather and Society examines people, place and extreme weather, from an emerging trans-disciplinaryfield of study. The series explores how abrupt and trending changes in weather alter physical environments and force community responses challenged by cultural practices/interpretations, politics, policy, respon- sibilities of education and communication, community health and safety, and environmental sustainability for future generations. The series highlights extreme weather alterations to different physical and social environments to better explore how people react and respond to extreme weather. The hallmark of this series is the innovative combined inclusion of social and physical science expertise. Extreme Weather and Society contains single and multi-authored books as well as edited volumes. Series Editors are currently accepting proposals, forms for which can be obtained from the publisher, Ron Doering (ron.doering@springer.com). More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15334

Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg

William A. Sprigg

Editors

Extreme Weather, Health,

and Communities

Interdisciplinary Engagement Strategies

123

Editors

Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg

School of Arts and Sciences

Brandman University-Chapman University

System

Irvine, CA

USAWilliam A. Sprigg

Department of Atmospheric Sciences

The University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ

USA

Extreme Weather and Society

ISBN 978-3-319-30624-7 ISBN 978-3-319-30626-1 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30626-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016934022

©Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

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This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland

Foreword

Everyone remembers his or herfirst experience with extreme weather. I grew up in northern New Jersey and the early 1950s brought an especially active series of tropical storms. In 1955, Hurricane Diane roared through the Northeastern United States. I vividly recall the street where I lived crisscrossed with downed oak and elm trees and the city impassable for miles around. As a child, the storm was the most exciting show I had ever witnessed. Downed electrical wires sparked at the curbsides and neighbors scrambled to check on their homes and each other. I soon saw my neighbors pulling large branches from the roofs of their homes and cov- ering the damage with tarps. I heard the fearful whine of chainsaws and the grunting and chugging of heavy equipment, backhoes, and grapple-skidders. The roadways were slowly cleared. For some reason we had not lost water supplies, though electricity was out for about 10 days. I felt like quite the little frontiersman as I went out to collect scrap twigs and dried branches that could be burned in thefireplace to keep our home warm during the 10 days (although I don't think we really needed the warmth, the adults probably needed some task to keep us boys busy). My experiences were tame compared to those of the children in New Orleans in

2005 or those in Coney Island 2012. When bad outcomes ensue, such as the inun-

dation of New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina, we initially blame them on an"Act of God,"but before long we realize that this act of nature has been amplified by shortsighted design and inadequate building codes. The disaster of Katrina was magnified by bad levees, slapdash building, and residential siting in inundation zones. All made worse by a dysfunctional system of local governance, especially the police department. The New York region is overall wealthier than New Orleans and was better prepared for Superstorm Sandy, but the populations at risk were far larger. Similarly, though, in the case of Sandy, many of the bad outcomes were predictable and could have been prevented, such as the inundation of NYU Medical Center and of the city of Hoboken, or the loss of $100 million worth of new railroad rolling stock because it had been thoughtlessly sidelined parked in a knownßooding zone. Extreme weather events allow us to see our communities at their best, and sadly at their most unseemly. The communities that are the most resilient - the ones that v function well and recover most quickly - bring to their recovery an important mix offinancial and infrastructure assets that are perhaps the most critical element in resilience and recovery. In"Tornado Alley"people living in brick homes with basements and with steel tiedowns for the foundations and roofs survive violent windstorms better than do the low income persons living in trailer parks. People withfinancial assets, such as a remote vacation home or a large SUV to help evacuate them in order to stay with unimpacted relatives, managed Hurricane Katrina far better than those with few resources. Those with adequate homeowners' insurance policies rebuilt far sooner, and they rebuilt homes that were"up to code" and more resilient than the ones damaged or destroyed. And in the same way, those living in countries where national assets can be rapidly deployed to assist also manage more effectively than those with more limited assets. Protecting health and being resilient in the face of extreme weather requires more, however, than solidfinancial resources. It requires anarrativeof survival and of recovery. And that narrative must be personal and connected not just to the family, but also to the community, municipality, and jurisdiction. Studies of recovery after disasters demonstrate that families and neighborhoods where there was strong pre-existing social capital, namely community organizations, churches, and a strong volunteer culture, as well as competent and effective local governance, recovered from calamities more quickly than those without this. Communities that lackfinancial and social capital are more likely to fail to recover from disasters and end up in a diaspora; with persons and families scattered thousands of miles in every direction. This is what happened to many of the poor in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. At times a diaspora is exactly what is needed - not all locations are suitable for human habitation or redevelopment. For example, swampy areas subject to regularßooding may be good farmland but they are unlikely to be ideal for residential building. Desert areas can be turned into agricultural land, or even cattle feedlots, but only with enormous inputs of energy, water, and agricultural chemicals, including fertilizers and pesticides. Creating habitation on unsuitable land is rarely a good long-term investment. In my role in public health I have had substantial experience in health leadership roles following various crises and disasters. When I was with the California Department of Public Health, we had to address droughts, immense wildfires, ßoods, earthquakes, mudslides, as well as civil insurrections. When I was head of the National Center for Environmental Health at CDC we had to address hur- ricanes in Florida, massiveßoods along the Mississippi Valley, and inundations in the low country, and even the Piedmont on the East Coast, particularly the Carolinas. My Center developed and administered the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile, which was directed and funded by Congress to be mobilized in the event of terrorism and pandemic threats; it wasfirst deployed on September 11, 2001. In addition, CDC's Refugee and International Health group was located in NCEH; it was frequently called on to respond to refugee crises in many parts of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere. Each of these crises brought its own set of needs and different demands for response. And each of the various assistance groups tended to bring its own set of skills and supplies, ranging from drinking water and viForeword meals-ready-to-eat, all the way to temporary shelters and portable surgical hospitals. But in my own experience, the assets and help most often needed more than any other were: good intelligence (what is going on with whom, where, when, and for how long), solid management, and robust communication. While these needs seem self-evident, they are rarely concurrently present, and I assert, the most commonly neglected need following these crises iseffective communication. Many times I have been in the room with elected officials, physi- cians and health leaders, public safety personnel including police andfire, and emergency management experts, where each one narrowly focused on his or her own expertise. And then each looked to a third-party"expert"to confront a critical and urgent element of the response - that essential element is:communication. Yet, each of these leaders would delegate the task of communications to someone else: a public relations expert, or to a writer, or to a telegenic junior staff member. These"experts" frequently persisted in the belief that providing distressed disaster victims a list of facts once a day is adequate communication. But they fail to realize that effective community engagement is a two-way process. This near-predictable behavior reßects a fundamental misunderstanding of communication.Communication isnot merely talking to or at people.Communication is - not just talking - but listening. Communication only occurs as a two-way activity. Just as every child is told"you have two ears and one mouth because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you speak,"so those responding to extreme weather events and disasters need to hear and behave in the same way. Those in leadership roles must be listening clearly and synthesizing information, planning ahead; not merely directing traffic or offering dictates. Members of the community who are suffering must be conversed with, not just in their own language, but also in their own dialect and educational level. It is important to understand the cultural aspects and norms of the communities as you plan to communicate and take action around extreme weather events. When I was in North Carolina following Hurricane Floyd, I visited many of the shelters that had been set up in the school gymnasia and armories. I repeatedly heard the community members express anxiety about epidemics of typhoid. After listening to distraught members of the public express fears about a typhoid epi- demic, we would patiently explain that there were no typhoid bacilli in the area and that the likelihood that this would occur was negligible. Our reassurances were dismissed. People who were frightened, isolated, and distraught repeatedly insisted that they wanted"typhoid shots,"an activity I considered worthless, especially compared to all the other more urgent needs that people had. Then I hit on it - the most common health threats in these situations resulted from drinking contaminated water and food; these needs were being well taken care of. But after major disasters such as earthquakes and tornadoes, the most common injury people sustained was puncture wounds to the feet. The landscape was covered with pieces of lumber, broken boards, and other debris with wood shards and exposed nails sticking up. After the wearing of personal safety equipment such as heavy-duty work shoes, the most important health protective contribution we could make to these folks was

Forewordvii

to raise their immunity to tetanus, or lockjaw. Yet puncture wounds were seen as a personal threat and liability, perhaps the result of carelessness, rather than a com- munity or public health threat. To respond to an actual public health danger to the community, we then set up clinics to administer a tetanus toxoid vaccine in the form of TDap shots. The immunity to tetanus would be far more useful and last ten years, and also to the good, they received boosters against diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough). The act of waiting in line with one's neighbors and receiving this useful injection carried far more benefit, both medically and in terms of anxiety reduction, than almost any other action we could have taken. Listening is what created this community benefit. This kind of clinical management at a community level is somewhat similar to actions taken in clinical medicine, where what the patient is saying they are worried about, and what the doctor knows they should be concerned about, are not in agreement. In these situations the patient needs to feel listened to and well cared for, and the doctor must with good conscience do what is best for that person. Climate experts say that extreme weather will be on the increase because of planetary warming and our ignoring the community health signs and symptoms of global, unchecked dependence on fossil fuels. Sea levels have been rising at the rate of about a centimeter per decade, which means that oceans are about a third of a foot higher than they were during Hurricane Diane. Storm surge and saltwater intrusion into freshwater resources create greater threats to safety, health, and infrastructure. Warmer atmospheres hold not just more energy but hold more water vapor, and the combination of more heat and more humidity can be deadly in our densely populated cities. Experts say these weather extremes will become not just more frequent but more violent. And weather will not impact merely little neighborhoods but will lead to impacts on large populations. Where droughts prevail and arid lands expand, wind storms will carry even more dust around the world to downgrade air quality and exacerbate respiratory consequences. Diminution of the Himalayan glaciers and the relative drying up of the Ganges River and the Brahmaputra River, combined with sea-level rise in the Bay of Bengal, will lead in this case to large population migrations. Increasing numbers of drought events worldwide would combine with sea-level rise, and the inevitable salination of aquifers used for drinking water, livestock, and irrigation will drive ever larger population migrations. Population migrations always come with major health impacts, and too many start with war and terrorism. And as with everyone's early life experiences with violent weather, the impacts will be unforgettable. Sadly, the children of tomorrow will have many more weather stories to tell; stories with little charm and a great deal of preventable terror. The following chapters are a sample of how society has dealt with extreme weather events, concerns for human health using interdisciplinary approaches to community engagement. They tell of life-threatening moments of terror and of chronic, life-restricting consequences of extreme weather. They take us through the viiiForeword painstaking cycle of research, education, and payoff, with fewer lives at stake, healthier communities, and a higher regard for climate and weather. Significantly, they remind us of the need for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural participation in coping with weather extremes.

January 2016 Richard J. Jackson

Chair and Professor, Environmental Health Sciences

Professor of Urban Planning

University of California, Los Angeles

Forewordix

Contents

Introduction: Extreme Weather, Health and Communities: Why Consider the Connections?............................. 1

William A. Sprigg and Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg

Superstorm Sandy: A Game Changer?........................ 7

David A. Robinson

Extreme Weather: Politics and Public Communication............. 35

Michael A. Moodian and Margaret M. Moodian

Dust Storms, Human Health and a Global Early Warning System.... 59

William A. Sprigg

Interdisciplinary Engagement of People and Place Around Extreme Weather........................................ 89

Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg

Engaging Communities to Assess the Health Effects of Extreme Weather in the Arctic..................................... 117

David Driscoll and George Luber

Rening the Process of Science Support for Communities Around Extreme Weather Events and Climate Impacts............ 135 Kristina J. Peterson, Shirley B. Laska, Rosina Philippe, Olivia Burchett Porter, Richard L. Krajeski, Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg and William A. Sprigg Reducing Vulnerability to Extreme Heat Through Interdisciplinary Research and Stakeholder Engagement........................ 165

Olga Wilhelmi and Mary Hayden

Sociospatial Modeling for Climate-Based Emergencies: Extreme Heat Vulnerability Index............................ 187

Austin C. Stanforth and Daniel P. Johnson

xi Drought and Health in the Context of Public Engagement.......... 219

Nicole Wall and Michael Hayes

Extreme Weather: Mental Health Challenges and Community Response Strategies....................................... 245

Jyotsana Shukla

Extreme Winter: Weaving Weather and Climate

into a Narrative Through Laura Ingalls Wilder.................. 271

Barbara Mayes Boustead

The Air We Breathe: How Extreme Weather Conditions Harm Us.............................................. 293

Mary M. Prunicki and Kari C. Nadeau

Human Response to and Consequences of the May 22, 2011, Joplin Tornado.......................................... 311 Erica D. Kuligowski, Franklin T. Lombardo and Long T. Phan Approaches for Building Community Resilience to Extreme Heat..... 351

Peter Berry and Gregory R.A. Richardson

xiiContents

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Sheila Lakshmi Steinberg Ph.D.is Professor of Social and Environmental Sciences at Brandman University-Chapman University System, Irvine, CA. The theme throughout her research is examining people and their relationship to space and place. Dr. Steinberg's research interests include environmental sociology, research methods, social inequality, community, geospatial research (GIS), and policy. Dr. Steinberg has always been interested in weather, climate and society from living in so many different parts of the U.S. Recently, she co-authored a book entitled GISResearch Methods: Incorporating Spatial Perspectivesfor Esri Press and has also co-authored chapter on this topic entitled"Geospatial Analysis Technology and Social Science Research"in theHandbook of Emergent Technologies, Sharlene Hesse-Biber, Editor, Oxford University Press 2011. In

2006, she co-authored a book for Sage Publications entitled,GIS for the Social

Sciences: Investigating Space and Place. In 2013, she joined Brandman University where she now teaches courses related to social and environmental sciences. William A. Sprigg Ph.D.Yale University, is Research Professor Emeritus, University of Arizona, the current and founding director of the World Meteorological Organization's Pan-America Center for airborne dust forecasting and research associate of the Public Health Institute in California. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society's Board on Environment & Health, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Committee for Digital Earth Observations, and the Serbian Program of Basic Research, Environmental Protection and Climate Change. Former positions include Distinguished Professor at California's Chapman University, Director, U.S. National Research Council Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, head of the U.S. National Climate Program Office, and architect of the U.S. Climate Program. He participated in thefirst Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Authoring a number of technical publications on climate and, most recently, on his current research interests, airborne dust and human health, Dr. Sprigg continues his interests in interdisciplinary research and science policy. xiii

Contributors

Peter Berry Ph.D.is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Climate Change and Health Office at Health Canada (Government of Canada) where he has worked since 2001. While at Health Canada Peter has conducted research in several areas related to climate change including health risks to Canadians, adaptive capacity of health systems, health vulnerability assessment, and communicating climate change risks to the public. As part of Health Canada's initiative to help Canadians protect themselves from extreme heat he co-authored a number of guidance documents for public health officials. Peter actively collaborates with researchers within and outside of Canada to facilitate public health adaptation. He is a contributing author for climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment guidelines that were released by the World Health Organization in 2012 and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on the Management of Extreme Weather Events. He was a lead author for the Health Chapter of the Government of Canada climate change and impacts assessment update that was released in July 2014 and is currently on an expert advisory committee for a vulnerability assessment for the island state of Dominica. Olivia Burchett Porter M.A.grew up in Trinity and Wilmington, North Carolina. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005. She served as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Busia, Uganda, from 2007 to 2009. Olivia joined the University of New Orleans urban and regional planning program in 2012, and worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for the UNO Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology (UNO-CHART). She received her Master's degree in urban and regional planning in 2014. She currently attends Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law, and is pursuing a J.D. with a Certificate in Environmental Law. Loyola University of New Orleans, New Orleans,

Louisiana.

David Driscoll Ph.D.is the Director of the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies and Associate Professor in the College of Health at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He is a medical anthropologist and epidemiologist with a specialization in the application of interdisciplinary and mixed method health research designs to assess the social and physical determinants of community health. Dr. Driscoll conducts research to develop and evaluate evidence-based risk communication, health promotion, and disease prevention interventions for rural, isolated, and culturally-distinct communities. He has published widely on his research, including in theJournal of Rural Health,Health Promotion Practice, the International Journal of Circumpolar Health, and theJournal of Health

Communication.

Mary Hayden Ph.D.(NCAR) is a behavioral scientist with over 15 years of experience working on weather, climate, and health-related linkages. Dr. Hayden received her Ph.D. in Health and Behavioral Sciences from the University of xiv Editors and Contributors Colorado and is adjoint faculty at the University of Colorado School of Public Health as well as a Guest Researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. Her primary research emphasis is on the human behavioral component of climate-sensitive health and disease issues, including community participatory research and the characterization of population vulnerability to weather and climate-related health threats. Michael Hayes Ph.D.is currently Director for the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) located within the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He became the NDMC's Director in August 2007 and has worked at the NDMC since 1995. The NDMC now has 20 faculty and staff working on local, tribal, state, national, and international drought-, climate-, and water-related issues. Dr. Hayes'main interests deal with drought monitoring, planning, and mitigation strategies. He is currently a co-chair on the Implementation Team for the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). Dr. Hayes received a Bachelor's Degree in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Master's and Doctoral Degrees in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Richard Joseph Jackson M.D., MPH, FAAP, HonAIA, HonASLAis Professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. A pediatrician, he has served in many leadership positions with the California Health Department, including the highest as the State Health Officer. For nine years he was Director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health and received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award. Jackson lectures and speaks on many issues, particularly those related to health and the built environment, and has co-authored the books:Urban Sprawl and Public Health,Making Healthy Places,andDesigning Healthy Communitiesfor which he hosted a four-hour PBS series. Jackson is recipient of the John Heinz Award for national leadership in the Environment; the Sedgwick Medal, the highest award of the American Public Health Association; and in 2015 the Henry Hope Reed Award for his contributions to Architecture. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the

National Academy of Sciences.

Daniel P. Johnson Ph.D.is currently Associate Professor of Geography and Department chair of the IUPUI Department of Geography. He holds an M.S. in Information Science from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in Geography from Indiana State University. Daniel is also the director of the Center for Aerial Unmanned Systems Imaging (CAUSI) at IUPUI. His research interests include Medical Geography, Extreme Heat Events, Remote Sensing, and Human Health. Richard L. Krajeski D.D.has served the Presbyterian Church and the ecumenical community as an ordained pastor for over 50 years and the disaster response community for 30 years. Rev. Krajeski spent 40 years as a pastor in the mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia and now lives and works in the delta area of Southern Louisiana - all places of"economic, environmental and human

Editors and Contributors xv

extraction."He is active in environmental and social justice ministries. Dick's academic background includes degrees in philosophy and theology. His doctoral studies were in the area of applied technology, sustainable development, and ethics. He has been instrumental in introducing the concept of mitigation, vulnerability, and resilience to the disaster and mission ministries of the religious community. Rev. Krajeski is a founding member of the international Gender and Disaster Network, the Natural Hazard Mitigation Association, and Lowlander Center. He is a Fellow in the Society for Applied Anthropology. Erica D. Kuligowski Ph.D.is a sociologist in the Community Resilience Group in the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Dr. Kuligowski holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as a B.S. and M.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Kuligowski's research interests arequotesdbs_dbs29.pdfusesText_35

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