HMN 2025: How Ex-Cyclone Alfred has left flooding in its wake—this is how floods have an effect on our well being

Ex-Cyclone Alfred is bringing vital rainfall to southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Flooding has hit Lismore, Ballina, Grafton, Brisbane and Hervey Bay, which obtained 150 mm of rainfall in two hours this morning.

Tragically, a 61-year-old man died after being swept away in floodwaters close to Dorrigo in northern New South Wales.

More heavy rain and flash flooding is expected within the coming days because the climate system strikes inland and weakens.

Climate change is making these climate occasions more intense and frequent. Earlier this yr, far north Queensland skilled main flooding. As residents of the Northern Rivers, this newest catastrophe is very robust as a result of solely three years in the past we confronted the catastrophic 2022 floods.

We’ve studied the affect of floods on human health and well-being, and located floods are linked to a variety of bodily and psychological well being results in each the short- and long-term.

So what may you expertise if you happen to stay in an space affected by these floods?

We reviewed the proof

We recently reviewed analysis on the bodily and psychological well being impacts of floods throughout mainland Australia. We included 69 research in our evaluate, revealed over 70 years. The majority had been from bygone days ten years, analyzing the consequences of floods in Queensland and NSW.

These research counsel folks can count on a variety of well being impacts. Immediate bodily well being results of floods embody drowning, falls and accidents.

Chronic diseases equivalent to diabetes or renal illness also can worsen resulting from elements equivalent to lowered entry to move, health-care providers, drugs and hospitals.

Exposure to contaminated floodwaters can result in pores and skin infections, whereas respiratory issues can happen resulting from mildew and damp housing within the aftermath of floods.

Floods additionally create very best circumstances for mosquito-borne infections equivalent to Ross River virus and Murray Valley encephalitis, whereas additionally spreading infectious illnesses together with leptospirosis, a bacterial an infection from contaminated soil.

There are psychological well being penalties too

Our evaluate confirmed floods additionally affect mental health. The extra you are uncovered to floodwaters in your house or enterprise, the more serious the psychological well being impacts are more likely to be.

The After the Flood study examined psychological well being and well-being outcomes six months after the 2017 flood within the Northern Rivers. It discovered individuals who had floodwater of their residence, yard or enterprise, or who had been displaced from their residence for greater than six months, had been much more likely to have possible post-traumatic stress dysfunction, anxiousness or despair, in comparison with those that did not expertise flooding or weren’t displaced.

Repeated pure disasters might compound these psychological well being penalties. Southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers in NSW have skilled a number of disasters over current years. The Northern Rivers confronted main flooding in 2017, bushfires in 2020, additional main floods in 2022, and now Cyclone Alfred in 2025. These repeated disasters have taken a toll on our neighborhood, making a seemingly endless cycle of restoration, rebuilding and preparation for the subsequent catastrophe.

Our understanding of the distinctive challenges confronted by communities which expertise a number of disasters remains to be rising. However, a recent Australian study confirmed publicity to repeated disasters has a compounding impact on folks’s psychological well being, resulting in worse psychological well being outcomes in comparison with individuals who expertise a single catastrophe.

Mums and infants

The well being results of floods prolong far past the preliminary emergency and past the infections and psychological well being penalties you may count on.

The Queensland Flood Study tracked pregnant girls uncovered to the 2011 Brisbane floods. Researchers assessed moms’ stress associated to the flood and tracked them and their youngsters at six weeks outdated, six months, 16 months, 2.5 years, 4 and 6 years. It discovered some hyperlinks between prenatal stress and developmental outcomes in children.

While the well being results after flooding are numerous, the analysis thus far will not be complete. We have to be taught extra about how floods contribute to or exacerbate present persistent diseases, incapacity and long-term psychological well being points.

The impacts are inequitable

Flooding exposes and worsens present inequalities. Socially weak teams usually tend to be uncovered to flooding of their properties and have much less entry to sources to reply and get better from these occasions, placing some teams at increased danger of unfavourable well being impacts afterwards.

Some analysis has seemed on the disproportionate impacts on people with disabilities and their caregivers, First Nations communities and other people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

After the 2017 Northern Rivers floods, for instance, folks with incapacity and their caregivers had been extra seemingly than others to:

• expertise disrupted entry to meals, help networks and necessities equivalent to well being care and social providers
• proceed to be distressed in regards to the flood six months after it occurred
• be at comparatively excessive danger of post-traumatic stress dysfunction six months after the flood.

However, focused flood analysis exploring the experiences of those weak teams in Australia is proscribed.

Moving ahead, it is vital we study the numerous impacts of flood occasions for extra weak teams, so we will higher help them within the wake of devastating occasions equivalent to Cyclone Alfred.

This article is republished from The Conversation below a Creative Commons license. Read the unique article.