Public Health and Disasters

Revision with unchanged content. Anecdotal accounts and media stories about poor birth outcomes following a major disaster have as yet not been verified in an academic context, especially for the United States. If this relationship is true, the implications are that a population already disproportionately affected by a disaster might continue to suffer for literally years to come. The potential for this disproportionate disaster legacy is no better illustrated than in the landscapes of post Hurricane Katrina and Rita in Louisiana. In order to gain insight into whether such a problem may exist for Louisiana, and by extension any other post-disaster environment, this book goes back to analyze the pregnancy surfaces for areas impacted by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. This book will show that in the Louisiana landscape affected by Hurricane Andrew, proportions of preterm deliveries did rise, and for different time periods after landfall. Why – was it because of post-disaster stress? What are the implications of these findings for recovery operations after Hurricane Katrina? This book will frame results in a more general overview of post-disaster health and general birth risks. The intended audience are students / researchers in public health, disaster science, social vulnerability and medical geography.