Shultz James M, Berg Ryan C, Kossin James P, Burkle Frederick, Maggioni Alessandra, Pinilla Escobar Victoria A, Castillo Melissa Nicole, Espinel Zelde, Galea Sandro
Center for Disaster & Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center), Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Senior Fellow, Americas Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, DC 20036, USA.
J Clim Chang Health. 2021 Aug;3:100019. doi: 10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100019. Epub 2021 May 25.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was notable for a record-setting 30 named storms while, contemporaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic was circumnavigating the globe. The active spread of COVID-19 complicated disaster preparedness and response actions to safeguard coastal and island populations from hurricane hazards. Major hurricanes Eta and Iota, the most powerful storms of the 2020 Atlantic season, made November landfalls just two weeks apart, both coming ashore along the Miskito Coast in Nicaragua's North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. Eta and Iota bore the hallmarks of climate-driven storms, including rapid intensification, high peak wind speeds, and decelerating forward motion prior to landfall. Hurricane warning systems, combined with timely evacuation and sheltering procedures, minimized loss of life during hurricane impact. Yet these protective actions potentially elevated risks for COVID-19 transmission for citizens sharing congregate shelters during the storms and for survivors who were displaced post-impact due to severe damage to their homes and communities. International border closures and travel restrictions that were in force to slow the spread of COVID-19 diminished the scope, timeliness, and effectiveness of the humanitarian response for survivors of Eta and Iota. Taken together, the extreme impacts from hurricanes Eta and Iota, compounded by the ubiquitous threat of COVID-19 transmission, and the impediments to international humanitarian response associated with movement restrictions during the pandemic, acted to exacerbate harms to population health for the citizens of Nicaragua.
2020年大西洋飓风季因创纪录的30场命名风暴而备受瞩目，与此同时，新冠疫情也在全球蔓延。新冠疫情的活跃传播使为保护沿海和岛屿居民免受飓风危害而进行的备灾和应对行动变得复杂。2020年大西洋季节最强大的风暴——飓风伊塔和约塔，在11月相继登陆，间隔仅两周，均在尼加拉瓜北加勒比海岸自治区的米斯基托海岸上岸。伊塔和约塔具有气候驱动风暴的特征，包括快速增强、高峰风速以及登陆前前进速度减缓。飓风预警系统，加上及时的疏散和避难程序，在飓风影响期间将生命损失降至最低。然而，这些保护行动可能会增加风暴期间共用集体避难所的公民以及因房屋和社区严重受损而在灾后流离失所的幸存者感染新冠病毒的风险。为减缓新冠疫情传播而实施的国际边境关闭和旅行限制，削弱了对伊塔和约塔幸存者的人道主义应对的范围、及时性和有效性。总体而言，伊塔和约塔飓风造成的极端影响，再加上新冠病毒传播的普遍威胁，以及疫情期间与行动限制相关的国际人道主义应对障碍，加剧了对尼加拉瓜公民人口健康的危害。
