Citation

Cruz MA, Garcia S, Chowdhury MA, Malilay J, Perea N, Williams OD. J. Public Health Manag. Pract. 2016; 23(1): 54-58.

Affiliation

Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health (Dr Cruz) and Biostatistics (Mss Garcia and Perea, Mr Chowdhury, and Dr Williams), Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, and National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia (Dr Malilay).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/PHH.0000000000000445

PMID

27798529

Abstract

Disaster shelter assessments are environmental health assessments conducted during disaster situations to evaluate the living environment of shelters for hygiene, sanitation, and safety conditions. We conducted a secondary data analysis of shelter assessment records available (n = 108) on ice storms, floods, and tornado events from 1 state jurisdiction. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze results of environmental health deficiencies found in the facilities. The greater numbers of environmental health deficiencies were associated with sanitation (26%), facility physical issues (19%), and food areas (17%). Most deficiencies were reported following ice storms, tornadoes, and flood events. This report describes the first analysis of environmental health deficiencies found in disaster shelters across a spectrum of disaster events. Although the number of records analyzed for this project was small and results may not be generalizable, this new insight into the living environment in shelter facilities offers the first analysis of deficiencies of the shelter operation and living environment that have great potential to affect the safety and health of shelter occupants.

Language: en