By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org
News staff
JOHNSTON — When it
comes to climate change, senior citizens have few options. Extreme heat and
cold, more intense weather and power outages are all on the rise and difficult
to avoid.
Heat, in fact, causes
more deaths than tornados, earthquakes and hurricanes combined, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The elderly suffer
disproportionately because of difficulties sensing and adjusting to
extreme temperature changes. Other risks include living alone, a lack of
mobility or not owning a phone.
During a disaster,
help can be delayed as the elderly are often hesitant to evacuate, J. Timmons
Roberts, a professor with Brown University’s Center for Environmental Studies,
said during an Oct. 8 seminar about climate change and health at the Johnston
Senior Center. “People don’t want to respond to the door when someone is
telling them to get out," he said.
Their fears are likely
justified. David Dosa, a professor of health services at Brown University,
referred to studies conducted after hurricanes showing higher mortality rates
for seniors who evacuated than those who stayed put. In many cases, Dosa said,
the evacuees lacked proper accommodations and medications at emergency shelters
and died from exposure.
Many victims of Hurricane Katrina, for example, died
because emergency responders never checked on them, even those in nursing
homes. Instead of dying from the immediate impact of the storm, most died from
exposure after the worst of the weather was over.
“Ideally, the best
scenario is to keep (the elderly) where they are, if where they are is safe,”
Dosa said.
Prevention is the best
medicine for curbing the threat from heat, Dosa said. At-risk groups should be
encouraged to register with local emergencies services for help during storms.
Simple things such as buying air conditioners can save lives. Understanding the
difference between nursing homes, which are highly regulated, and assisted
living facilities, which are less regulated, is also crucial.
Overall, Dosa said,
more attention should be given to the effects of heat. “Because, as we all
know, it is getting hotter," he said.
Like many areas, Rhode
Island is warming as the climate trends toward more southerly temperatures. The
state's urban concentration of impervious surface compounds the risk by
retaining heat and exacerbates flooding. Some 55 percent of precipitation turns
into runoff in cites, compared to 10 percent in rural areas.
Floods are up 15
percent to 30 percent in the Northeast, Roberts said. In Warwick, the flood of
2010 illustrated the effects of vulnerable infrastructure, people and
businesses.
“These two problems of
heat and flooding are related because, depending on how your city is built, you
have the problem of the heat coming in and the problem that all of the water
that’s coming into a system," he said.
The heat-island effect
is most prominent in cities. In Providence, for instance, Roberts identified
high-heat areas: lower downtown, Federal Hill, the Lower Valley, Olneyville and
Smith Hill. “There’s significant temperature difference between downtown and
out of town," he said.
Pets. A fact that emerged from many of the recent
studies of natural disasters showed that rescue efforts for pets often exceeded
those for the sick and elderly, Dosa said. “It’s very easy to mobilize people
to save cats and dogs from shelters," he said. "It’s a lot harder to
mobilize people to save dementia patients from nursing homes and assisted
living (facilities).” Many volunteers responded to rescue dogs, he said, “and a
lot of nursing homes never saw anybody and a lot of people died.”
Trees filter air pollution, shade buildings
and reduce flooding by absorbing water. Satellite photos of urban neighborhoods
have shown that areas with trees are cooler. “One thing we can do affordably is
plant trees and maintain the ones we have,” Roberts said.
Roberts discovered
through surveys in Providence’s Elmwood neighborhood that some residents found
trees expensive to maintain and worried of harm to property. Areas with higher
rental populations also had fewer trees as many areas suitable for trees were
paved over for parking spaces.
“We need a different
kind of system to work with citizens to plant trees on private property,”
Roberts said.
He and his students
have been accessing vulnerability before disasters to help design emergency
plans. In Central Falls, his students studied heat issues and emergency
preparedness by mapping the hottest neighborhoods, and based on past
emergencies updated the city's emergency planning report.
A study of East
Providence revealed hazards from storms, such as coastal flooding, triggering
structural damage, chemical releases, mold, erosion, disease and even
landslides. “One kind of disaster can trigger a whole series of other hazards,”
Roberts said.
Catherine Taylor,
director of the state Division of Elderly Affairs, said Rhode Island will
incorporate these findings and efforts to address climate change.
"Understanding the importance of climate change is important to us,"
she said.
Seniors and other
at-risk groups can register with emergency responders here.