ObjectivesTwo category 5 storms hit the US Virgin Islands (USVI) within 13 days of each other in September 2017. This caused an almost complete loss of power and devastated critical infrastructure such as the hospitals and airportsMethodsThe USVI Department of Health conducted 2 response Community Assessments for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPERs) in November 2017 and a recovery CASPER in February 2018. CASPER is a 2-stage cluster sampling method designed to provide household-based information about a community’s needs in a timely, inexpensive, and representative manner.ResultsAlmost 70% of homes were damaged or destroyed, 81.2% of homes still needed repair, and 10.4% of respondents felt their home was unsafe to live in approximately 5 months after the storms. Eighteen percent of individual respondents indicated that their mental health was “not good” for 14 or more days in the past month, a significant increase from 2016.ConclusionThe CASPERs helped characterize the status and needs of residents after the devastating hurricanes and illustrate the evolving needs of the community and the progression of the recovery process. CASPER findings were shared with response and recovery partners to promote data-driven recovery efforts, improve the efficiency of the current response and recovery efforts, and strengthen emergency preparedness in USVI. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:53-62)

No abstract

Little is known about aquatic macroinvertebrate colonization of aquatic habitats within riparian zones of headwater streams in the midwestern United States. Many headwater streams and their riparian habitats in this region have been modified for agricultural drainage. Riparian habitat modifications caused by agricultural drainage may influence aquatic macroinvertebrate colonization within the riparian zones of headwater streams. However, the effects of agricultural drainage-induced riparian modifications have not been evaluated because others have focused on the impact of agricultural drainage on aquatic macroinvertebrates within the streams. We placed water-filled mesocosms in the riparian zones of two channelized and two unchannelized streams in central Ohio and sampled them from June to August 2009 to determine if differences in physical habitat, water chemistry, and aquatic macroinvertebrate colonization occurred between riparian zone types and among sampling dates. Canopy cover was greater in unchannelized than channelized riparian zones. Dissolved oxygen was greater in channelized than unchannelized riparian zones only during the latter half of the study. Turbidity and nutrients progressively increased throughout the study. Taxa richness was greater in unchannelized than channelized riparian zones. Copepod relative abundance, zooplankton relative abundance, and Shannon diversity index was greater in unchannelized than channelized riparian zones only during the latter half of the study. Abundance, taxa richness, culicid relative abundance, and dipteran relative abundance increased from the beginning of the study to the end. Our results indicate aquatic community colonization in the riparian zones of headwater streams is influenced by riparian habitat type and nutrients.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito first invaded the Americas about 500 years ago and today is a widely distributed invasive species and the primary vector for viruses causing dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever. Here, we test the hypothesis that the North American colonization by Ae . aegypti occurred via a series of founder events. We present findings on genetic diversity, structure, and demographic history using data from 70 Ae . aegypti populations in North America that were genotyped at 12 microsatellite loci and/or ~20,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, the largest genetic study of the region to date. We find evidence consistent with colonization driven by serial founder effect (SFE), with Florida as the putative source for a series of westward invasions. This scenario was supported by (1) a decrease in the genetic diversity of Ae . aegypti populations moving west, (2) a correlation between pairwise genetic and geographic distances, and (3) demographic analysis based on allele frequencies. A few Ae . aegypti populations on the west coast do not follow the general trend, likely due to a recent and distinct invasion history. We argue that SFE provides a helpful albeit simplified model for the movement of Ae . aegypti across North America, with outlier populations warranting further investigation.