Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Assessment Of Pathogens In Flood Waters In Coastal Rural Regions: Case Study After Hurricane Michael And Florence, Moiz Usmani, Sital Uprety, Nathan Bonham, Yusuf Jamal, Yuqing Mao, Daisuke Sano, Joanna Shisler, Avinash Unnikrishnan, Thanh H. Nguyen, Antarpreet Jutla

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The severity of hurricanes, and thus the associated impacts, is changing over time. One of the understudied threats from damage caused by hurricanes is the potential for cross-contamination of water bodies with pathogens in coastal agricultural regions. Using microbiological data collected after hurricanes Florence and Michael, this study shows a dichotomy in the presence of pathogens in coastal North Carolina and Florida. Salmonella typhimurium was abundant in water samples collected in the regions dominated by swine farms. A drastic decrease in Enterococcus spp. in Carolinas is indicative of pathogen removal with flooding waters. Except for the abundance presence of Salmonella …