ELLICOTT CITY:Julia Sanger, whose tiny ice cream shop flooded twice in two years inMaryland's historic Ellicott City, joked darkly that the disasters left manylocal business owners in need of therapy. Shops on the former mill town'spicturesque Main Street are barely back on their feet more than a year afterthe second flood. Some are boarded up, and others open just a few hours a day.Several heavily damaged buildings are due to be torn down.
"Some of myfriends down here, I know they sought professional therapy. I know there'sprobably some who should have and didn't," said Sanger, whose shop got 6feet of muddy floodwater in 2016 and 8 ft in 2018. "I drink a lot,"she added. "I'm not going to lie. I'm definitely drinking more than I didbefore." She has also moved her shop to higher ground. Worsening extremeweather linked to climate change is creating hardships for many, from immediatedeaths and injuries to increases in asthma and heat stroke. But thepsychological trauma that often accompanies such losses is barely on the map.
Depression,anxiety, suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder tend to increase afterfloods, storms, wildfires and heatwaves, according to the American PsychologicalAssociation (APA), which represents psychologists in the United States."The problem with that link is it's not like so obvious. It's not like Istick a needle in you, you feel pain right away," said Anthony Ng, formerhead of the APA's caucus on climate change and mental health. "Some ofthis is so insidious and gradual that people won't realize it until it's toolate. That's why it's hard for a lot of people to appreciate it."
Panic
The debate overhow to safeguard residents of picturesque Ellicott City, a tourist draw anhour's drive north of Washington, DC, illustrates the challenges many towns arefacing as the world becomes warmer and wetter. The town was devastated in 2016by a so-called 1,000-year flood - meaning a magnitude with a one-in-1,000chance of occurring in any year. The Patapsco River, which runs through thetown, rose more than 13 ft in less than two hours.
Less than twoyears later, a 1,000-year storm struck again, overwhelming the tributaries thatconverge under the old mill town's buildings and feed into the Patapsco. Warmertemperatures are increasing heavy downpours, and rainfall has been growing inintensity in the Northeast, according to the government's 2018 National ClimateAssessment, risking power outages and the viability of roads and bridges.
As Ellicott Cityhas become more built up, floodwater flows across paved roads and rooftops,instead of percolating down through the soil as it used to - a phenomenon knownas urban runoff, which is worsening globally as cities grow. In the wake of the2018 floods, the county launched the Ellicott City Safe and Sound plan, whichinvolves demolishing some old buildings, making tunnels to carry water underroads and clearing waterways more regularly.
Officials are alsotesting a flood warning system, with emergency sirens telling people to move tohigher ground. It has caused some alarm among residents, said Amy Miller, asocial worker at the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center. "You almosthave a panic response," said Miller, whose non-profit organization, basedin Columbia, some 8 miles (13 km) south, has provided food, shelter and supportto flood survivors. "We're basically exposing ourselves to the perceivedthreat of a traumatic event."
Suicides
Grassrootsprovides 24-hour counseling to people in Ellicott City and the surroundingrolling hills of Howard County who might be feeling suicidal. Miller hastrained farmers to watch out for each other and spot signs of danger,particularly suicide risks. Farmers are a high risk group. They tend to livesolitary lives, have access to lethal means and face financial stress when hitby poor weather and low prices - factors they cannot control, according toanti-suicide campaigners.
"When yourlivelihood is impacted, that causes hopelessness," Miller said. "Thehard part for farmers is they work almost 24-7, and it's really hard for themto seek treatment." Stanford University predicted last year that a hotterplanet could lead to a surge in suicides by 2050. Its data analysis foundsuicides had risen 0.7% in the United States and 2.1% in Mexico with a 1?°Cincrease in monthly average temperatures.
The researchersalso found - by analyzing the language used in more than a half billion Twitterposts - depressive language increased during hot weather, suggesting worsemental health. Keith Ohlinger, one of the Howard County farmers trained to keepan eye out, said he was driven to the work by the suicide of a young friend whogrew up on a nearby farm, planned a career in agriculture and took her own lifelast year at age 21.
He struggled thisspring with heavy rains washing away seeds and soil and leaving hay too wet tobe dried and stored for winter feeding. "Things are changing," hesaid. "The earth is changing, Patterns are changing. Things aremelting." Ohlinger uses his position on the Maryland AgriculturalCommission, which advises the government on farming, and at monthly farmersclub meetings to bring up mental health, often taboo in the conservative agriculturalcommunity.
He said climatechange was just one more stress for farmers already worried about commodityprices, credit, bank loans, the price of equipment and old family-run farmsbeing squeezed out by more and more giant residential homes known as McMansions."I can't fix pricing. I can't fix what the Chinese president or DonaldTrump does, but I can surely try and keep someone from killingthemselves," Ohlinger said. Not everyone in the region is willing to makethe link between mental health problems and climate change.
Global warming asa manmade phenomenon is a politically divisive topic in the United States,where President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw from the Parisagreement, a global pact to fight climate change. "You talk about globalwarming, but we deal with this stuff all the time," said another HowardCounty farmer, Howie Feago. "Most farmers believe it's more of an ebb andflow. We know that the weather is going to be up and down. If you're going toworry about global warming, you probably ought to get some other kind of jobbecause it will drive you nuts."- Reuters