Residents affected by mass flooding in South Australia are urged to be aware of the mental and physical implications the natural disaster could cause.
Heavy rainfall across the state’s north in late January caused flooding in the pastoral districts, cutting off remote towns and stopping all road and rail food deliveries bound for the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
After the first trough swept across the state and moved east, a second low pressure system has brought more wet weather and exacerbated the flooding issue.
With more rainfall and thunderstorms predicted to continue throughout Wednesday, emergency medicine specialist and deputy chair of the SA Doctors for the Environment Australia Kimberly Humphrey explained that there were possible immediate, medium and long-term health effects from such a tragedy.
Short-term impacts include drowning, falls or being hit by objects in the water, hyperthermia, animal bites and even carbon monoxide poisoning.
Infection, gastroenteritis and infections of wounds are some of the medium effects, while mental health issues and chronic disease can present long term.
Dr Humphrey said almost everyone who lived in flood-affected areas would be impacted in some way, with mental health expected to be the most common ramification.
In order to avoid physical harm, she advised people to be aware of their surroundings and not put themselves in a position of increased danger like climbing on objects or running equipment indoors they normally wouldn't.
“Be really aware of hygiene, hand washing, drinking water and not eating food that should be refrigerated that hasn’t been,” Dr Humphrey said.
“When this kind of thing happens, you go into survival mode … so you may not think about these things, like your food not being refrigerated when it usually would, because you need to survive.
“It’s OK to ask for help. Lean on those around you and provide support to others in your community, look out for families and neighbours and ask how they are, and there are helplines and access to GPs.
“It’s enormously traumatic and it’s really important to think about your health, the health of those around your and to seek help if you need ixjmtzywt.”
Dr Humphrey said it was also good practice to have an emergency kit with a first aid kit, torch, food and extra batteries prepared for possible future unforeseen events.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicted between 2mm and 20mm would fall until midnight Wednesday for the southern parts of the pastoral districts.
But between 20mm and 80mm could fall in the northern areas, with localised falls of up to 120mm also a possibility.
It was only on Monday that more than 50mm fell within an hour at Port Augusta, and Pukatja in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands recorded up to 106mm before 9am on Tuesday.
The Royal Australian Air Force has air-dropped 20-tonne plane loads of supplies to Coober Pedy after flooding cut off road and rail routes to the town.
Fresh and frozen produce, milk, meat and toilet paper are some of the goods that needed to be transported to the opal mining town about 846km from Adelaide.
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