Why It’s Never Too Early to Prep for Hurricane Season

February 20, 2024 | Emma Carlson

As seen with Typhoon Mawar in Guam and Hurricane Idalia in Florida, hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms endanger communities and create public health hazards such as damaged infrastructure and the disruption of public utilities. Health agencies and their governmental and community partners play a critical role in responding to post-hurricane infectious disease and environmental health hazards. To best fulfill this role, health agencies provide the public and their staff with preparedness plans, training, and resources on addressing hurricane-related hazards.

Health Agencies Prepare for Response

Two critical components of hurricane preparedness are keeping emergency response plans up to date and equipping health agency staff with necessary training and tools to respond to environmental health threats. FEMA’s National Response Framework details steps jurisdictions should take when responding to emergencies and outlines the Emergency Support Functions (ESFs), which provide frameworks for federal agencies to coordinate response activities. State and territorial health agencies, including the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) and the United States Virgin Islands Department of Health (VIDOH), are often leads for coordinating ESF-8—Public Health and Medical Services—activities.

VIDOH collaborates with the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency and other external partners to regularly update the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Operations Plan. VIDOH’s Division of Environmental Health also assists Local Emergency Planning Committees with developing and implementing their own hurricane preparedness plans.

FDOH’s Environmental Public Health Preparedness Unit within the Bureau of Environmental Public Health reviews and updates all environmental health-related materials—such as checklists, press release templates, and risk communication materials—before distributing them to the state’s 67 county health departments. The Bureau’s internal Environmental Health Response Guide contains a collection of resources for responding to environmental health concerns, including for mobile home and recreational vehicle parks, group care facilities, and onsite sewage treatment systems. FDOH also shares checklists and other resources with its staff to help them create their own family emergency plans. After-action reviews can inform how to better prepare for and respond to future disasters, and identify ways to update critical internal materials and communication products.

Both FDOH and VIDOH emphasize the importance of creating and sustaining intentional partnerships with partners such as other health agency divisions, other state or local agencies, and local organizations. These partnerships can be cultivated by establishing communication channels, keeping up to date contact information, and coordinating on educational materials and trainings.

For example, FDOH works closely with partners involved in other ESFs such as ESF-10—Oil and Hazardous Materials Response—when developing and communicating boil water notices, including EPA and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. State and local partners can be instrumental when disseminating information to the community.

Finally, FDOH and VIDOH utilize environmental health strike teams to assess and mitigate potential or known environmental threats. Florida’s strike teams cooperate with the local response structure and provide technical assistance on activities related to food, water, sewage, indoor air, zoonotic disease, critical care facility, chemical, toxicological, and radiological concerns. In the months leading up to hurricane season, both jurisdictions provide refresher trainings to hone skills in case of future mobilization. For more on emergency preparedness exercises for state health agencies, check out this ASTHO infographic.

Intentional Engagement with Community Members to Prepare for Hurricanes

State and territorial health agencies work with communities across their jurisdictions to prepare ahead of a hurricane. Special attention is often required when engaging with at-risk populations, including people with disabilities, low-income individuals, elderly populations, and non-English speaking communities, as well as more isolated populations in rural areas. ASTHO highlights considerations around inclusive natural disaster planning and response for people with disabilities, including the importance of partnerships and intentional planning and training exercises.

Rural communities often present unique challenges due to their geographic boundaries, limited internet access, and unique environmental health risks. Many rural communities rely on private wells for their drinking water, and FDOH recognizes the importance of sending out timely messaging to private well owners about potential drinking water safety risks that can occur after a flooding event—such as the risk of an overloaded septic system contaminating a well. FDOH uses multiple avenues for community outreach including social media, door-to-door flyer handouts, community engagement with strike teams, and distributing educational materials at local disaster recovery centers.

To ensure all communities can best prepare for and respond to hurricane-related hazards, both FDOH and VIDOH intentionally engage populations depending on their needs by developing materials in different languages. VIDOH also works closely with local non-profit and community-based partners to conduct outreach and distribute information directly within neighborhoods.

In June 2023, FDOH collaborated with ASTHO, CDC, and FEMA to print laminated brochures with guidance on safely addressing mold after a disaster. The brochures were printed in English and Spanish and distributed by county health departments across the state. The FDOH Bureau of Environmental Public Health’s web page also includes interactive brochures for families in English and Spanish on how to prepare for a disaster.

For health agency staff looking to learn more about public health messaging for disaster preparedness and response, CDC’s Preparedness and Safety Messaging for Hurricanes, Flooding, and Similar Disasters guidance document includes key messages that can be used when communicating about topics such as flood water safety, food and drinking water safety, carbon monoxide poisoning prevention, and mold remediation. The resource, also available in Spanish, includes messaging specifically tailored to disproportionally impacted groups, including children, people with disabilities, older adults, and other vulnerable populations. CDC’s TRAIN course guides users through the resource.

Conclusion

With hurricanes and other weather events becoming more frequent and severe, VIDOH and FDOH recommend other health agencies be proactive to ensure they are prepared for environmental health threats before they strike. Equally important is reflecting on past response situations to identify opportunities for improvement, whether that includes an official after-action review, identifying additional training opportunities for staff involved in response efforts, or identifying new partners to involve in preparedness and response activities.