Floods account for approximately 40-50% of all disasters and disaster-related deaths worldwide. In Australia, flooding is the most common natural disaster and causes more loss of life than any other type of disaster.

A recent article written by FitzGerald et al and published in the journal of Emergency Medicine Australasia, compiled a database of flood fatalities in Australia for the period 1997 to 2008 inclusive. During the 12 year period analysed there were 73 fatalities directly related to floods, approximately six cases per year in Australia.

The research found that most flood related deaths occur during the summer, with deaths from floods peaking in February. The eastern states of New South Wales and Queensland are where the majority of flood fatalities occurred.

Behaviours undertaken prior to death included the use of a motor vehicle (involved in 48.5% of deaths). Of these 39.7% of people were using the vehicle to cross waterways and 8.8% were involved in the collapse of a flooded roadway. Of particular concern were the 26.5% of victims who were engaged in behaviours such as swimming or surfing in flooded waterways at or just before the time of death. A further 16% of deaths were associated with attempt to swim or wade across flooded water ways.

This study suggests that the vast majority of flood related death in Australia, that is over 90%, occur as a result of the choices made by the individual such as inappropriate risk taking behaviour or to enter flooded waterways either by foot or in a vehicle. The majority of deaths occurred among men (71.2%) and people between the ages of 10 and 29 and those over 70 are overrepresented among the fatalities.

The authors find that the Australian public’s knowledge and awareness of the threat posed by floods is inadequate and as a result there is a need for flood safety awareness education programmes that target both the general population and specific high risk groups such as young men. This data therefore, has important consequences for those working in drowning death prevention including health promotion practitioners and those involved in the development and analysis of public health policy.

George Karagiannis, Chair of the International Life Saving Federation’s Aquatic Disasters Committee says "This paper presents a statistical analysis of fatalities related to flood disasters in Australia within a 12-year period. In this way, it is an improvement to the understanding of aquatic disasters and presents highly relevant findings. The conclusions about the causes of deaths resulting directly from floods are quite pertinent in that they confirm the importance of public education about disaster-related drowning prevention and hence encourage public education actions targeted at specific high-risk groups, such as young adult males.”

George goes on to say: “Overall, this paper is a very useful addition to the drowning prevention arsenal. It would also be pertinent, provided that proper funding becomes available, to expand the research in the future so as to include other types of hydro-meteorological disasters as well (such as tsunamis or hurricanes)."

With the use of a motor vehicle being present in almost half of all examined flood related drowning deaths in this study, transportation related drowning prevention must be a key strategy for water safety practitioners. This topic and others such as disaster mitigation, preparation and response; occupational related drowning prevention; climate change and its impact on drowning and water safety will form a key part of the disasters and climate change theme at the upcoming World Conference on Drowning Prevention.

If you have been involved with research, policy or practice related to any of these or associated topics, please feel free to submit an abstract.

Full text of this article can be found in the journal 'Emergency Medicine Australasia' (2010) 22, 183-189. 

Amy Peden, Royal Life Saving Society – Australia

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