Child abuse after a disaster. In the six months after Hurricane Floyd hit North Carolina in 1999, the incidence of "inflicted traumatic brain injury," also known as shaken baby syndrome, rose to five times the normal rate, according to the March issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers discovered, too, that the rate of accidental traumatic brain injury rose dramatically, and that although the rate of inflicted injury dipped back almost to the pre-disaster level after six months, the rate of accidental injury remained high. The researchers attribute the increase in rates of inflicted injury to parental stress after the hurricane; they attribute the increase in accidental injury to, among other things, greater risk of injury from motor vehicle accidents and environmental hazards.