Mortality caused by tropical cyclones in the United States | Nature
Accounting for all TCs in our data, underlying age distributions, demo
graphic changes over time, historical experience with TCs (including
associated adaptations) and nonlinear models of TC impact (Meth
ods), we find that southeastern states have the highest proportion of
total deaths attributable to TCs (Fig. 4a). For example, 13% of deaths in
Florida, 11% of deaths in North Carolina, 9% of deaths in South Carolina
and 8% of deaths in Louisiana during this period can be traced to their
TC climate.
Burden by age
We estimate that the TC climate contributes to a large overall fraction of
mortality for individuals less than 45 years of age in CONUS. TC-related
mortality risk is highest for infants and lowest for people 1–44 years of
age (Fig. 2c and Extended Data Table 2). Because both groups have low
overall baseline mortality risk, post-TC excess mortality translates into
a substantial fraction of overall mortality, which explains 25% and 15%
of mortality for infants and for people 1–44 years of age, respectively
(Fig. 4b). Total TC-related deaths is largest for people 65 years of age
and up, but only accounts for around 3.5% of all 65+ deaths.