PEOPLE 2

Damaging Hydrogeological Events (DHEs) are severe weather periods during
which floods, landslides, lightning, windstorms, hail or storm surges can harm people. Climate
change is expected to increase the frequency/intensity of DHEs and, consequently, the potential harm
to people. Method: We investigated the impacts of DHEs on people in Calabria (Italy) over 37 years
(1980–2016). Data on 7288 people physically affected by DHEs were gathered from the systematic
analysis of regional newspapers and collected in the database named PEOPLE. The damage was
codified in three severity levels as follows: fatalities (people who were killed), injured (people who
suffered physical harm) and involved (people who were present at the place where an accident
occurred but survived and were not harmed). During the study period, we recorded 68 fatalities,
566 injured and 6654 people involved in the events.