Impact of Hurricane Sandy on Unborn Children

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy, one of the most severe storms from the Atlantic, caused widespread devastation across the US and Caribbean.

The storm resulted in over 250 fatalities and incurred tens of billions of dollars in damages, but it also left emotional scars—stress, grief, and trauma among those who survived.

Recent research indicates that the effects of the hurricane extended even to the unborn children of pregnant individuals during the disaster. For those who faced both the storm and extremely high temperatures, the impact might be even more pronounced.

“As far as we know, no earlier studies have looked at how pregnancy-related stressors, like extreme weather, can interact in shaping a child’s brain development,” explains Donato Delngeniis, a neuropsychologist at Queens College, who conducted the study.

While hurricanes are not uncommon in the Atlantic, human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are altering the climate, making storms more intense. This intensification enhances wind speeds and worsens storm surges, similar to those that flooded parts of New York City during Sandy.

This level of anxiety and stress can affect anyone, but for expectant mothers, disasters like this can also impact the development of their babies.

From 2019 to 2022, Delngeniis’s team studied the brains of 34 children, averaging eight years old, born in New York City. They aimed to assess the volume of gray matter in the basal ganglia, a brain segment linked to movement and learning.

Among the kids, eleven were in utero when Hurricane Sandy struck New York, while the others were exposed before or after the hurricane’s direct impact.

Those children who were gestating during the hurricane exhibited a notably larger volume in various basal ganglia regions, including the putamen and globus pallidus, which are crucial for movement regulation, as well as the right caudate nucleus, associated with cognitive functions.

“Even though they did not directly experience the storm, it appears that climate change is fundamentally altering brain development in children while still in the womb,” Delngeniis observes.

“The increased brain volume we see might lead to behavioral disorders in the future.”

Seven children exposed to Sandy and 17 who were not also experienced extreme heat during their prenatal development—at least one day with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). This allowed researchers to assess the combined effects of extreme heat and hurricane exposure.

The findings showed that extreme heat alone didn’t significantly impact brain development, but when experienced alongside the hurricane, it exacerbated adverse effects on basal ganglia volume. Behavioral neuroscientist Yoko Nomura from Queens College noted that this combination leads to “profound disruptions to the children’s developing brains.”

Children who faced both extreme heat and the hurricane had enlarged left pallidum and reduced left nucleus accumbens, the latter being a key area related to motivation and action.

The study’s scope had limitations, including a small sample size and a focus on broad brain structures. Hence, more research is necessary to confirm these findings and explore variables like specific developmental stages or gender impacts.

However, these results raise serious concerns as extreme weather events and heat waves become more common.

“Imaging techniques help us understand how environmental stressors can cascade through an expectant mother’s experience, reshaping a child’s brain development,” states neuroscientist Ahmed Duke Shereen from City University of New York.

“Our findings suggest that the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue; it poses potential neurological challenges with lasting effects on future generations.”

This research has been published in PLOS One.