Hurricane Irma: Disaster & Older Adults

Hurricane Irma is considered to be the costliest storm in the history of America. This hurricane developed from a tropical wave, formed near the Cape Verde Islands on August 30. 2017. The next day the storm transformed into a hurricane and then into the major hurricane, which lasted for several days. By September 4 Irma reached the category 5 of hurricane intensity. “The cyclone then struck Sint Maarten and the British Virgin Islands on September 6 and later crossed Little Inagua in the Bahamas on September 8. Irma briefly weakened to a Category 4, but re-intensified into a Category 5 hurricane before making landfall in the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago of Cuba.” (Staletovich, 2017, p. 3). The hurricane had devastating effect upon Florida, although preparations for the hurricane started almost a weak before it struck the Keys. Taking into consideration that the Atlantic and Gulf costs were at risk, record evacuation procedures were undertaken and around 6.5 million people were relocated. “A mandatory evacuation order was issued for all Monroe County—though roughly 25% of residents stayed—and portions of 23 other counties. The large-scale evacuation strained roadways, with gridlock reported along Interstates 95, 75, and Florida’s Turnpike.” (Staletovich, 2017, p. 3). As a result around 192.000 people were looking for refuge in public shelters. All the main airports had to stop their services and totally 9.000 flights were cancelled. Such natural disasters as Hurricane Irma bring serious negative consequences to the concrete regions, people suffer from the loss of their property, they are injured or even die due to natural disasters; one of the most vulnerable categories of people, who suffer more, is elderly people and nursery homes, who are affected mentally, physically and financially to a great extent.

Hurricane Irma brought severe winds to the state of Florida. “Officially, the strongest sustained wind speed was 112 mph (180 km/h), observed by a spotter on Marco Island, while the highest recorded wind gust was 142 mph (229 km/h) at the Naples Municipal Airport. However, wind gusts may have ranged from 150 to 160 mph (240 to 260 km/h) between Bahia Honda and Little Torch Key, the general vicinity of the storm’s first landfall in Florida. Many counties throughout the state experienced hurricane force wind gusts.” (Hurricane Irma Hits South Florida, 2017). A lot of locations, mostly those situated to the east from the main path of the storm, suffered from heavy rainfall. The hurricane caused at least 23 tornadoes, 8 of which were in Brevard County only. 73.33 % of electrical subscribers lost power and power outages happened in 67 counties. There were thousands of homes and business buildings damaged along with 50.000 boats being destroyed during the hurricane. Overall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hurricane Irma caused around $50 billion in damage in Florida, which made this hurricane the costliest in the history of the country. But financial costs could not be compared to 93 deaths of people and great damage, which was caused to individuals, living there, especially to elderly part of population.

When Hurricane Irma was coming closer to Florida, experts underlined the need to take care of all the needed measures in relation to the most vulnerable population of the state- senior citizens. “According to the U.S. Census bureau, nearly 1 out of 5 Florida residents is age 65 or over — the highest proportion of any state — and health officials warn they may face special difficulties in an emergency situation.” (Cangialosi et, al., 2018).

Irma was between the Category 4 and 5 and after its ravaging through the Caribbean, it was expected to move to South Florida on Sunday morning. This caused the responsible services to organize mandatory evacuations for the Florida Keys and some parts of Miami-Dade County, including also Savannah and a number of coastal areas of Georgia. But evacuation is a great problem for the individuals, who need extra assistance due to their health problem or age. They are to register in advance with the Florida Special Needs Registry, but there are no guarantees of a spot, in addition not all individuals, who really need these assistance are aware of the registering procedure. Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs has created the list of individuals, enrolled in state, local and community programs for senior citizens. Staff members of the department called everybody from the list in order to make sure that these people had everything they needed through the hurricane. However, a number of resource centers, which are responsible for transportation, food and medical service provisions to elderly populations, were already closed and this meant that senior citizens were left on their own for several days. For those citizens, who lived in houses without generators, cuts of electricity meant that there would be stifling heat and lack of elevator for them to get downstairs. “Edith Lederberg, the executive director of the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Broward County, has spent the past several days arranging for seniors in the community to receive extra food deliveries from Meals on Wheels in preparation for the storm.” (Schulberg, 2017). Elderly people are fragile and especially in such a situation they become frightened and they fell lonely without adequate support and help.

About 2.5 million Florida homes were in flood-hazard zones, mostly they were situated in the densely populated cities of Miami, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. These are the communities, where a great number of senior citizens is concentrated. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price commented during the FEMA meeting that “The biggest challenge from a health standpoint in these storms… is making sure those folks with chronic illnesses and chronic diseases are able to hook back up with their providers.” (Cangialosi et, al., 2018). In addition there were very high risks for the individuals with chronic diseases, as they were displaced from their doctors and clinic for such a period of time, which could be enough for development of great health challenges because of their chronic problems. This meant the elderly people with health problems were to be evacuated along with their medications and health insurance cards and with complete lists of their health conditions, prescriptions and contact numbers of emergency. This was especially important for elderly population, who are most luckily to have chronic medical conditions, which might require immediate medications or medical help. The American Geriatric Society states that it is necessary to secure at least a three-to six-day supply of all the needed medications. Along with securing medications resources for elderly population, special attention is to be paid to water supplies, as access to lean water might be crucial during natural disasters. “If you’re staying put, make sure you have containers with clean water that is protected,” Maria Torroella Carney, M.D., chief of geriatric and palliative medicine at Northwell Health on Long Island, New York, told CBS News. Carney was the health commissioner of New York’s Nassau County during Hurricane Irene in 2011 and played a vital role in deploying a mobile medical unit from Northwell Health during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.” (Cangialosi et, al., 2018). Non-perishable food, which is easy to open, batteries flashlights, emergency whistle, basic hygiene products and first-aid kit should also be available to all elderly citizens.

In the areas of the mandatory evacuations, it is important to listen to all the local instructions, which inform, when it is time to leave the areas or get into the shelters. Unfortunately this could be problematic for elderly population and this is the reason, why people, whose neighbors are elderly people, are advised to check in with them before the potential disasters strikes, like it was in case with Hurricane Irma. In reality here are a lot of citizens, who are aging alone, and they do not have either their families or other people, who could help them in such critical situations, as natural disasters. These individuals constitute the most vulnerable category of all citizens and they need versatile help.

It is important to note that elderly population needs special attention not only during the preparation phase or during the natural disaster, they also need help and support in the aftermath. In case with Hurricane Irma dozens of the state’s senior centers stilled lacked electricity for the next days after the Hurricane Irma. Elderly people might be lacking food, medications or even psychological support, even when the disaster is over. Timely and adequate help to elderly population depends upon neighbors, family members and local authorities. When elderly people realize that they are cut from the world, because their families are not with them or are not ready to help them, they certainly feel frustrated and depressed. In addition if there is no electricity and television is not working, they are left without any information and this causes additional challenges for the most vulnerable population. They get lost, they simply forget about their medications, even if these are available, they might forget to eat or feel too disoriented to find their medication or food and this might also have terrible consequences. Even young people might get lost in difficult or life-threatening situations, for example hurricane, elderly people are mostly not able to think and react rationally.

Overall, Hurricane Irma is one of the examples of severe natural disasters, which might take place any time in any place and people are to be ready for this; special attention should be paid to the most vulnerable categories of citizens – elderly people and nursing homes.

References:

Allen, Nick, Crilly, Rob, Millward, David, Boyle, Danny, Chris, Graham. (2017). Hurricane Irma: Florida begins the big clean up after storm battering as death toll continues to rise. The Telegraph

Cangialosi,  John P., Latto,  Andrew S., Berg, Robbie J. (2018). Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Irma. (Report). National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Irma Hits South Florida. (2017). Tropical Winds Newsletter (Report). National Weather Service Miami, Florida.

Schulberg, Jessica. (2017) How Florida’s Millions Of Senior Citizens Are Preparing For Hurricane Irma. HuffPost

Staletovich, Jenny. (2017). Irma closes in on South Florida’s east coast. Miami Herald

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
close
Haven't found the right essay?
Get an expert to write you the one you need!
print

Professional writers and researchers

quotes

Sources and citation are provided

clock

3 hour delivery

person