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Hurricanes

US Isn’t Prepared For Climate Disasters That Push People Deeper Into Poverty

December 6, 2021 Marina Lazetic and Karen Jacobsen, The Conversation. , , ,
Despite years of preparations, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said there was no time to issue a mandatory evacuation order as Ida rapidly intensified into a powerful Category 4 hurricane. She urged city residents to “hunker down.” Mass evacuations require coordination among multiple parishes and states, and there wasn’t enough time. In several surrounding parishes, people were told to evacuate, but in low-lying and flood-prone areas, many residents couldn’t afford to leave. Hurricane Ida became the most destructive storm of the busy 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, which ended Nov. 30. It was one of eight named storms to hit the U.S. as the season exhausted the list of 21 tropical storm names for only the third year on record.

A Conversation With Leaders Of The Mayangna Nation

February 21, 2021 Stephen Sefton, Alliance for Global Justice. , , ,
In November of 2020, between hurricanes Eta and Iota, Stephen Sefton interviewed Indigenous leaders and others in Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. The interviews mainly address long standing misapprehensions and outright falsehoods about Nicaragua’s Sandinista government’s defense of Indigenous people’s rights, an issue inseparable from defense of the natural environment. More immediately, the interviews exposed several poorly researched, inaccurate reports of the Oakland Institute, published in 2020, clearly seeking to damage Nicaragua’s economy by means of misleading, sensationalist and simply false allegations of abuse of Indigenous people’s rights and environmental depredation.

Major Media Fail To Connect Hurricane Dorian To Climate Change

September 6, 2019 Staff, Citizen.org , ,
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Although Hurricane Dorian exemplifies what climate scientists have warned about, major U.S. media outlets are failing to connect the climate crisis to the strongest Atlantic storm ever to hit land, a Public Citizen analysis shows. Scientists say that global warming makes hurricanes intensify faster, dump more rain and move more slowly. All these things have happened with Dorian; it has moved over water that is warmer than usual, intensified at an unprecedented rate, dumped 24 inches of rain on parts of the Bahamas and slowed to a crawl, moving at as little as 1 mile per hour.

Get Ready For Unnatural Disasters This Hurricane Season

September 6, 2019 By Jill Richardson, Otherwords.org , , ,
Donald Trump discusses immigration as if the benefits of residence in the U.S. are a pie. When immigrants get more, the people who were already here get less. In general, that’s not true. When immigrants come here, they don’t just take some jobs (often low-wage jobs U.S. citizens don’t want), they also create new jobs. They need housing, transportation, food, and clothes, and they buy all of those things, creating more jobs for other people in this country.

Why Are Hurricanes Like Dorian Stalling, And Is Global Warming Involved?

September 4, 2019 Bob Berwyn, Insideclimatenews.org , ,
Hurricane Dorian's slow, destructive track through the Bahamas fits a pattern scientists have been seeing over recent decades, and one they expect to continue as the planet warms: hurricanes stalling over coastal areas and bringing extreme rainfall. Dorian made landfall in the northern Bahamas on Sept. 1 as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, then battered the islands for hours on end with heavy rain, a storm surge of up to 23 feet and sustained wind speeds reaching 185 miles per hour.

Mutual Aid: Inspiration & Support for Disaster Preparation

July 21, 2019 Mutual Aid Disaster Relief , ,
As we enter hurricane season in the Atlantic and fire season in the West, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is compiling tips for preparing communities to take care of each other in the spirit of mutual aid when disaster strikes. Below is a list we’ve started and are continuing to add to as y’all submit new ideas for ways to prepare for disaster. Oftentimes, in disasters, whether personal or collective, we find a power within us that can’t be measured or defined. There is an alternative to the hoarding, violent zombie-prepper trope. This alternative is an instinctual social responsibility that most individuals and groups will default to when a crisis strikes.

Puerto Rico One Year Later: We’re Fighting For Justice And Prosperity

September 27, 2018 By Amira Odeh, 350.org , , ,
As the wind blew I could hear things falling and breaking outside. The walls of my (concrete-built) home were vibrating and water was coming in through every single window and door. At the moment I could only think of how to prepare for the worst and to be ready to seek refuge inside a closet or a bathroom. On September 20, 2017, I was fighting to keep my home and family safe during those long 24 hours that we endured Hurricane Maria. I would have never imagined what the next year would look like.

Climate Change Made Florence A Monster—But Media Failed To Tell That Story

September 21, 2018 Jim Naureckas, Fair.org , , ,
That Hurricane Florence broke rainfall records for tropical storms in both North and South Carolina shouldn’t be surprising, as global climate change has increased extreme precipitation in all areas of the continental United States. One analysis released before the massive storm hit, by researchers at Stony Brook, Berkeley National Lab and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projected that warming would cause Florence to bring twice as much rain compared to a similar storm with normal temperatures. But news audiences were rarely informed about the contribution of human-caused climate disruption to the devastating storm, according to a study of hurricane coverage by Public Citizen. Less than 8 percent of Florence stories in the 50 top-circulation US newspapers  (9/9–16/18) mentioned climate change—and only 4 percent of segments on major TV outlets.

Thirty-One Dead As Hurricane Florence Continues To Ravage The Carolinas

September 20, 2018 By Matthew Taylor, Countercurrents.org ,
Across the Carolinas, a scene of utter devastation continued to unfold on Monday, as tens of thousands of people have had their homes destroyed by floodwaters caused by Hurricane Florence, now downgraded to a tropical depression. Fallen trees and flooded highways blocked rescue attempts as stranded residents struggled to obtain food and water. Widespread power outages, landslides, and tornadoes continue to imperil the lives of those in the region. Entire cities cut off from outside aid, police guarding storefronts against desperate refugees of the storm, dams threatening to burst—this apocalyptic scene is now a routine feature of American life during Hurricane season. The death toll from the storm has risen to 31, with one of the latest victims being an infant child who slipped from his mother’s grasp after their car became trapped in the floodwaters.

Why Hurricane Florence Could Become A Public Health Crisis

September 18, 2018 By Jessica A. Knoblauch, Earthjustice.org , , ,
In the path of the storm are giant pits filled with coal ash, lagoons swirling with hog manure, Superfund sites and industrial facilities stocked with toxic chemicals. People in the southeastern U.S. are facing life threatening winds and rains from Hurricane Florence. Less obvious, but also of great concern, is the public health threat posed by a variety of contaminated sites located around the region. These include giant pits filled with coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal that contains toxic chemicals like arsenic and lead; lagoons swirling with hog manure from factory farms; hazardous waste dumps known as Superfund sites; and industrial facilities stocked with thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals. Many pollution-filled pits in the region are not as hardened against the potential for storms and other emergencies as the public would expect. Coal ash is a case in point.

Our Planet Is Angry

September 16, 2018 By Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig ,
“Storm of a lifetime” is how the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C., described Hurricane Florence as it came lumbering across the Atlantic to hurl its ferocious winds and rain onto that coastal state. Pointing to the storm’s unusual path, one meteorologist said, “There’s virtually no precedent for a hurricane moving southwest for some time along the Carolina coast.” Florence is expected to slow down as it hits the coast, dumping a catastrophic amount of water over a small area instead of spreading rain far and wide. What that means for North Carolina’s numerous hog farms, coal ash pits and nuclear reactors is anyone’s guess, but there is a high likelihood of an environmental disaster unfolding.
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