Inclusion

Weather events such as Hurricane Irma can increase relapse and overdose rates. The IDEA Exchange is a needle project in Florida that helped prepare people struggling with addiction for the hurricane event. Part of the project is distributing clean needles and overdose reversal kits, and training participants to identify opioid overdoses.

A new study has researched the impact of repeated heatwaves on Australian health care, showing that the larger cities experienced stretched health services on occasions. Higher temperatures in Australia are the new normal, with an early start to warm weather and predictions of more heatwaves. Doctors are now calling for better preparedness to the extreme heat.

Persons with disabilities have historically been disproportionately affected by natural hazards. While some strides have been made in addressing the needs of persons with different disabilities in response and recovery efforts, fewer efforts are aimed at incorporating lessons into long-term disaster and climate risk management at a systemic and/or policy level.

In order to save more lives when disaster strikes, we must improve the way we handle evacuations. Focusing on people with special needs, using high-capacity vehicles, providing adequate shelter and improving damage forecasts feature among the key considerations.

A village in the Udapayar district of Nepal, vulnerable to the annual monsoon and flash floods, is starting to recover. A project started in 2014 involved the construction of an embankment that minimizes the risk of flooding and awareness raising on flood risk management. Since the start, the local economy has strengthened and livelihoods are protected.

Accurate storm forecasting can provide warning several days in advance of landfall, improving the ability to prepare and ultimately save many lives. Still, the loss and damage from a tropical storm is harder, as it depends on both the severity of the storm and the vulnerability of the area affected. As coastal communities grow, forecasting technology needs to improve.

While the country has cut poverty rates in half since 1999, Tajikistan is facing an increasing number of disasters across the country. To safeguard socioeconomic gains and development, the World Bank has partnered with the government of Tajikistan to strengthen the country's critical infrastructure in some of its most vulnerable regions.

A researcher at Old Dominion University's Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) has examined why some people choose to ignore evacuation orders during a disaster. Reasons include a distorted perception of risk, financial vulnerability, feelings of invincibility, medical fragility, and the desire to protect property and pets.