The true death toll of hurricanes in the U.S.

Tropical cyclones may have a more adverse public health impact than previously considered, particularly among young or black individuals. Study: Mortality caused by tropical cyclones in the United States . Image Credit: BEST-BACKGROUNDS / Shutterstock.

com A recent study published in Nature investigates the excess mortality associated with tropical cyclones in the contiguous United States (CONUS) between 1930 and 2015. The effects of tropical cyclones Tropical cyclones, which are also referred to as hurricanes, represent a significant threat to the United States' coasts, as they often inflict infrastructure, home, and business destruction, population displacement, societal and economic disruption, ecological changes, reduced availability of essential services, increased pollution, agricultural damage, and death. Previous studies have primarily focused on direct mortality attributed to tropical cyclones.

However, this narrow focus can may underestimate the wider costs of natural catastrophes, as they cause complex cascades of events. About the study In the present study, researchers estimate the mortality burden of 501 tropical cyclones throughout the CONUS coastline between 1930 and 2015. Excess deaths were calculated for every 100,000 individuals and wind speed in m/sec of the tropical cyclone.

Data were obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which included tropical storms and hurricanes.

An alternate natural experiment was also conducted, in.