This article highlights the disproportionate vulnerability of older women to climate-related disasters, using the example of the 2017 Thomas fire and the 2023 Lahaina wildfires. It argues that emergency planning often overlooks the needs of older adults living in the community.
A firefighter keeps watch as the Thomas wildfire burns near Carpinteria, Calif., on Dec. 11, 2017. The fire destroyed hundreds of homes and prompted massive mandatory evacuations. When forest fires roared through Carpinteria, Calif., in 2017, 88-year-old Nadine Demalleville had just five minutes to evacuate the mobile home where she lived alone with her beloved cats. The former nurse relied on a wheelchair and had no way to get herself to the emergency shelter 20 miles away.
Were it not for a neighbor who stepped in to help, Demalleville would likely have perished in the fire. Instead, she arrived safely at the shelter with a lunchbox full of medications but little else. As climate change fuels ever-deadlier disasters, it may seem that no one is immune to the wildfires, storms and heat waves that plague our baking planet. While this may be true, some are more threatened than others, and older women like Demalleville are among those most at risk. Older adults represent a significantly disproportionate share of deaths associated with climate-fueled disasters. Consider the lives lost in the Lahaina wildfires in Maui this summer: of the 89 casualties identified by Maui officials, 85 percent were 60 or older. That figure is tragically consistent with other disasters across the U.S. over the last 20 years. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, two-thirds of the casualties were among people over 60. When Hurricane Maria swept Puerto Rico in 2017, 100 percent of the “excess deaths” caused by the storm were attributed to people over 60. Why are older adults—especially older women—more vulnerable? Part of the problem is that emergency planners are ill-informed about our needs. For example, while many emergency management plans address the needs of elderly residents of nursing homes or assisted living facilities, they don’t address the overwhelming share of older adults who live at home in the community, often alone
Climate Change Disaster Preparedness Elderly Gender Disparity Wildfires
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