Harvey registry will track Imelda’s impacts
The Houston Harvey Registry will now cover those who lived through Tropical Storm Imelda, its second update since it was launched eight months after Hurricane Harvey.
The registry is a joint effort by seven local health departments, the Environmental Defense Fund and Rice University and the first to collect and maintain health information about environmental exposures following a major U.S. flooding event.
“The significant damage caused by Imelda prompted the registry team to add more than a dozen questions to the survey,” officials said in a news release. Imelda brought up to 43 inches of rain to some areas and is linked to at least five deaths in the region. It is considered to be one of the wettest tropical cyclones in the nation’s history.
The update is the second conducted by the registry team, which earlier added questions about the impact of a May 2019 storm that battered the Houston region.
“Events are happening more frequently, and intense rainfall events more often, so there’s a growing recognition that we need to account for health and housing impacts, regardless of the name of the storm,” said Elena Craft, the Texas-based senior director for climate and health of the Environmental Defense Fund. “The registry was always meant to be a living tool that can be flexible enough to accommodate different events.”
The data is already being used by researchers to understand how weather events affect people’s physical and mental health. In February, officials presented initial findings about the lingering toll that Harvey had on participants’ mental heath. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to the registry, modeled on the one created in the aftermath of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, reported intrusive or unintended thoughts about the hurricane and its resulting flooding, the Houston Chronicle reported. That was a higher rate than physical symptoms reported by respondents.
The frequency was highest among those who experienced home damage, according to the registry.
Those who have already participated are encouraged to log in and help the registry compile a more complete picture of the damage the surprise mid-September storm caused to people’s homes and health, officials said, as new participants are welcome to complete the entire survey. About 20,000 area residents have shared their experiences in the registry, which is available online at HarveyRegistry.Rice.edu.
“While Imelda was not equal in size or scale to Harvey, it still had dramatic impacts,” Marie Lynn Miranda, a professor of statistics and director of the registry, said in the news release. “We need to understand the full impact of Imelda and Harvey — and subsequent storms — to better serve people today and to better prepare for the future.”