The southward exodus is as much a part of us as maple syrup, the leaves that change color in autumn, and our blizzards that impress everyone on the planet except for the Russians, who are heartbroken by all the misery. “Tomorrow, winter, I don’t care. I go south in the sun. »: That should be our national anthem!
The storm surge from Hurricane Ian has just reminded us that we need to be more careful, by “dipping our toes in the soft sand,” to paraphrase Robert Charlebois, who 55 years ago had no idea our holiday plans could be so violent destroyed in just a few hours.
It is necessary to find a reason that scientists are observing that the most violent tropical storms are becoming…more violent, and that these most violent storms are also becoming more frequent.
They are hurricanes to us in North America, cyclones or typhoons elsewhere, but essentially they are giant wind and rain machines powered by warm seawater and air.
HIDE FROM THE WIND! ESCAPE FROM THE WATER!
Overturned caravans, houses ripped from their foundations, boats piled up in the streets of Fort Myers: That’s what winds of 150 mph (240 km/h) cause! However, as I’ve seen so many times in my career — during the unleashing of Hurricanes Gustav, Rita, and Katrina, for example — the rising waters driven by Ian, coupled with torrential rain, loom in Florida and along the even more devastating and deadly Atlantic coast.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people in New Orleans. However, the main culprits weren’t the winds that tossed us around for hours. Rather, I saw the next day and the following days the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, along with those of Lake Pontchartrain, invade the most vulnerable neighborhoods of the great city of Louisiana.
A reality that experts say is only going to get worse as climate change contributes – once again – to a steady rise in sea levels.
THE PRICE OF ACTION
Experts have calculated that sea levels have risen by an average of 20 to 23 cm since 1880, with two-thirds of this rise beginning in the late 1990s.
And according to a group of UN experts, that level should jump more than a meter by 2100. Hello damage!
All of this is expensive. In human life, certainly. And in devastation of all kinds. In 2021 alone, the Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation Agency put the bill for the twenty worst climate disasters the United States has experienced at $145 billion. Only for 2021!
Over five years, these disasters have cost the United States nearly $750 billion in damage. We can continue to pretend nothing happened, but nothing has never been so expensive.
Climate catastrophes that are getting worse
- 56 | The number of weather and climate-related disasters in the United States over the past three years (2019 to 2021) that cost more than $1 billion each in damage.
- 20 | The number of weather and climate-related disasters the United States experienced in 2021 that each resulted in at least $1 billion in damages.
- 7e | 2021 marked the seventh consecutive year that at least $10 billion in disasters have occurred in the United States.
- The total cost of these events reached in the past year $145 billion.
- $2.155 billion | The approximate total cost of damage caused by weather and climate-related disasters in the United States from 1980 to 2021.
THE MOST PRECIOUS HURRICANE IN HISTORY
It is still too early to draw any conclusions from the storm surge Janbut initial estimates range from $47 billion to $100 billion.
Source: NOAA, United States Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, 2022)
