  Billions of people live in urban poverty, with many forced to reside in
disaster-prone areas. Research suggests that such disasters harm child
nutrition and increase adult morbidity. However, little is known about impacts
on mental health, particularly of people living in slums. In this paper we
estimate the effects of flood disasters on the mental and physical health of
poor adults and children in urban Indonesia. Our data come from the Indonesia
Family Life Survey and new surveys of informal settlement residents. We find
that urban poor populations experience increases in acute morbidities and
depressive symptoms following floods, that the negative mental health effects
last longer, and that the urban wealthy show no health effects from flood
exposure. Further analysis suggests that worse economic outcomes may be partly
responsible. Overall, the results provide a more nuanced understanding of the
morbidities experienced by populations most vulnerable to increased disaster
occurrence.
