Long-Term Health Risks of Flooding Documented in U.S.

Nature, 23 March 2025

This study investigates the long-term health impacts of floods in the US since the turn of the century, calculating that each day with flood conditions was associated with 8 more deaths than expected per 10 million individuals. Researchers specializing in climate change, medical care, and epidemiology synthesized two decades of data from the CDC National Center for Health Statistics and the NOAA Storm Events Database to quantify the health risks that emerge after floods. The study attributes over 22,000 deaths to floods between 2001-2020 across the contiguous US and found notable increases in heart disease, respiratory diseases, and injuries. This estimate does not take into account coastal flooding driven by tropical storms, and therefore serves as a lower bound. Many health impacts from flooding stem from disrupted medical services, power outages, restricted access to transportation, and lack of daily necessities, which limit accessibility to health care, decrease quality of life, and increase vulnerability. The findings underscore the importance of sufficient public health policies to mitigate the long-term health risks associated with flooding, particularly as climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of climate hazards.

Full Paper | Supplementary NOAA Data on High Tide Flooding