![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.jpg)
BACKGROUND: Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New York City (NYC) on October 29, 2012. Storm impacts included power outages, transportation disruptions, building damage, hospital and nursing home evacuations and ambulatory healthcare facility and pharmacy closures. We evaluated the lasting effects of the storm on overall mortality in NYC.
METHODS: For this study, death certificate data were obtained from the NYC Office of Vital Statistics. Deaths directly attributable to Sandy were identified using the ICD-10 code ‘X37’ victim of cataclysmic storm. We compared all-cause mortality patterns in NYC for a fifteen-month period surrounding Hurricane Sandy (10/01/2012 – 12/31/2013) to the four prior years to identify periods of excess daily mortality. The cumulative sum of differences method and Grubb’s test were used to enumerate excess deaths, mortality displacement and test for statistical significance. For those identified time periods of excess mortality, we evaluated patterns by age and race/ethnicity.
RESULTS: Three periods of statistically significant excess all-cause mortality were identified: Period 1: 10/30/2012–11/10/2012, Period 2: 12/2/2012–2/21/2013, and Period 3: 3/21/2013–4/6/2013, followed by a period of moderate mortality displacement (4/07/2013–12/31/2013). Period 1 included 44 deaths directly attributable to Hurricane Sandy, while no deaths directly attributable to Sandy occurred in Periods 2 or 3. The average excess deaths per day were 17.8 in Period 1, 14.8 in Period 2, and 7.6 in Period 3. There were 214 excess deaths during Period 1, 1,212 excess deaths during Period 2, and 130 excess deaths during Period 3. There was a statistically significant 18.2% increase in mortality (95 excess deaths) among those aged 85+ compared to those aged less than 85 during Period 1, and a statistically significant 12.6% increase in mortality (1,131 excess deaths) among those aged 65+ compared to those aged less than 65 during Period 2. There was also a statistically significant 9.7% increase in mortality (71 excess deaths) among Hispanics compared to other racial/ethnic groups during Period 1. There were no statistically significant differences by age or race/ethnicity during Period 3.
CONCLUSIONS: Three distinct periods of increased all-cause mortality in NYC were identified after Hurricane Sandy, followed by a period of mortality displacement. Post-storm service disruptions and damage, and diminished access to healthcare services may have contributed to these patterns of mortality. Hispanics and the elderly may have increased vulnerability to storm-related mortality.