Most disasters do not occur in isolation, often triggering new challenges before the community has been able to recover. Floods in Valencia pose risks of infections and intoxications, challenges to mental health and to the supply of drugs and food, which affect the vulnerable population the most and must be addressed in a coordinated manner. In the face of such events, the overall strengthening of a country's healthcare system is critical.
Since the beginning of the DANA last Tuesday, October 29, which mainly affected the region of Valencia, more than people have died and dozens are still missing due to severe flooding.
In a few hours, the equivalent of a year's worth of rain fell in some areas, causing large floods that swept away entire towns, trapping thousands of people. This type of environmental disaster can have short- and long-term cascading effects on physical and mental health, and can indirectly affect health and well-being as a result of evacuation, social disruption, financial loss, change in lifestyle, damage to health care facilities, and changes in the broader political and socioeconomic context.
Cascading disasters can be defined as extreme events, where the effects increase in progression over time and generate unexpected secondary events that have a strong impact and tend to contribute substantially to the overall duration of the disaster.
A key element is that they have an escalation point, a junction in a chain of reactions that leads to greater effects than the initial disaster would have had.
