My focus for these blogs is helping as many people as possible transition to what I see as “Sustainable Living” – which I define as net zero utility usage and a better quality-of-life experience. I’ve learned that we all have habits – activities and products that we like best. But … the world is changing constantly, and change often challenges us to change from our favorite habits.
Early research said climate change is caused by our fossil fuel use and that we’ll be seeing more severe and more frequent storms. That’s exactly what’s happening. And Hurricane Helene is simply the latest. What will you do about it? Comments afterwards.
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At least 64 dead and millions without power
after Helene devastates south-eastern US
Flooding and landslides strike southern Appalachians
after hurricane pummeled region and wreaked havoc
Nina Lakhani and agencies
The Guardian
Sat 28 Sep 2024
At least 64 people have been confirmed dead and almost 3.5 million were without power on Saturday, after strong winds and torrential rain from Hurricane Helene wreaked unprecedented havoc across large swaths of the south-eastern United States.
Historic flooding continued over parts of the southern Appalachians on Saturday, as first responders worked to reach stranded communities in trying conditions while local authorities began to assess the scale of the damage and displacement.
“It looks like a bomb went off,”
… said Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, after surveying the damage from the air on Saturday.
“To say this caught us off-guard
would be an understatement,”
… said Quentin Miller, sheriff of Buncombe county, North Carolina, where part of Asheville is underwater and multiple cell towers remain down, hampering rescue and recovery efforts. Emergency services have declined to confirm the number of fatalities in the county until communication outages can be restored and next of kin informed.
In a statement also on Saturday, Joe Biden said that the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Deanna Criswell, was travelling throughout the south-east to assess the damage alongside other state and local officials. He said …
“I am deeply saddened by the loss of life and
devastation caused by Hurricane Helene
across the south-east. My administration is
in constant contact with state and local
officials to ensure communities have the
support and resources they need. We’re not
going to walk away. We’re not going to give up.”
Kamala Harris, the vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate, released her own statement on Saturday. Harris said …
“My heart goes out to everyone impacted by
the devastation unleashed by Hurricane
Helene. President Biden and I remain com-
mitted to ensuring that no community or
state has to respond to this disaster alone.
“Federal personnel are on the ground to
support families that have been impacted
so that critical resources like food,
water, and generators are available.”
Helene made landfall late on Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a category 4 hurricane, pummeling the peninsula with winds of 140mph (225km/h). It weakened into a tropical storm, moving quickly through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, uprooting trees, blowing roofs off homes, sweeping away cars, testing dams and flooding rivers – leaving entire communities without escape as landslides and flooding struck.
A combination of strong winds, heavy rain, flooding and tornadoes that followed in the path of Helene have probably caused billions of dollars in damage, with entire downtowns, highways and large numbers of homes and businesses ruined.
Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather, estimated the damage from the storm to cost between $95bn and $110bn, potentially making this one of the most expensive storms in modern US history.
According to a tally by the Associated Press, Helene has so far caused at least 64 deaths in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and include firefighters, a woman and her one-month-old twins, and an 89-year-old woman whose house was struck by a falling tree. Scores of people including multiple children remain in hospital with serious injuries.
“I’ve never seen so many people
homeless as what I have right now,”
… said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a small river town in the state’s rural Big Bend region. England has turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes.
By midday on Saturday, just over a million homes and businesses remained without power in South Carolina, with 750,000 also in the dark across Georgia and 600,000 in North Carolina, according to PowerOutage. Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky are also badly affected, as well as tens of thousands of people in Indiana, West Virginia and Tennessee.
The threat of further deaths and destruction is ongoing but Helene had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone with the risk of additional heavy rainfall waning as it moves across the Tennessee valley, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Scores of dramatic water evacuations and rescues were carried out on Friday as unprecedented heavy rain strained dams and rivers.
The rain unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina, where the governor, Roy Cooper, described it as “catastrophic” and search-and-rescue teams from 19 states and the federal government came to help. One community, Spruce Pine, was doused with more than 2ft (0.6 meters) of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.
Parts of western North Carolina were largely cut off by landslides and flooding that forced the closure of major roads.
In rural Unicoi county in east Tennessee, dozens of patients and staff were rescued by helicopter from the roof of a hospital that was surrounded by water from a flooded river.
After touring the damage by helicopter, a stunned US representative, Diana Harshbarger, said:
“Who would have thought a hurricane would
do this much damage in east Tennessee?”
Meanwhile in Mexico, at least 22 people were confirmed dead on Saturday after Tropical Storm John made its second landfall and flooded the southern resort city of Acapulco – which still hasn’t recovered from Hurricane Otis last October.
John first made landfall as a category 3 hurricane farther north in the state of Michoacán, weakening inland, and then gathering strength again over the ocean before making landfall in Acapulco. Local authorities pleaded for help from boat owners after a year’s worth of rain that pounded the coastal mountains triggered landslides and severe flooding in Acapulco and elsewhere.
Global heating, which is driven by burning fossil fuels, is supercharging tropical storms by generating conditions that enable rapid intensification, sometimes within hours, and bring a heightened risk of flooding.
Atlantic storms have become deadlier as the planet warms – and are disproportionately killing people of color in the US, according to one landmark study. About 20,000 excess deaths – the numbers of observed rather than expected deaths – occurred in the immediate aftermath of 179 named storms and hurricanes which struck the US mainland between 1988 and 2019.
The National Hurricane Center is currently monitoring two more storms that are moving through the Atlantic – Tropical Storm Joyce and Hurricane Issac, which is gathering strength.
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I’ll begin my comments by repeating that last quote …
“Who would have thought a hurricane would
do this much damage in east Tennessee?”
However … you can simply delete “east Tennessee” and insert your own location. Over a quart of a century ago, the film, “The American President,” had two issues to address, gun control and climate change. The problem is not a secret; we’ve known about it for decades. My conclusion: government is unable to solve the problem. Rather than government leaders issuing “heartfelt apologies” and sending in clean-up teams, how about us changing a few of our habits to eliminate the problem?
I used to love warm pecan pie, with chocolate ice cream. Then I had a bout of diverticulitis, and I had to cease eating nuts. So, I found a different desert that was just as tasty. The change didn’t cost me a penny more and opened me to more alternatives. Better health; equal pleasure; no added cost.
I can readily equate fossil fuel use to diverticulitis. They’re both threatening my life, and they both have available solutions. I live in a home that uses no fossil fuels, is more beautiful than any other in which I’ve lived, and costs a lot less to operate and maintain. I’ve driven an electric car for eleven years that’s actually more fun to drive than most gas cars I’ve driven; (I once had an Austin Healy sports car that I may have loved more!) With my solar panels, my e-car costs nothing to operate, and just over $200 a year for maintenance. In both cases: equal or greater pleasure with equal or less cost.
I didn’t invent these products. And my spouse will tell you I’m not much “smarter than the average bear.” What’s holding you back? Don’t wait for a climate disaster to strike where you are. Adding D’s comments …
“It would be wise for each reader to develop an emergency kit and an emergency plan. Then, determine if you need to move or what to do to your current abode – or car – to strengthen your connection to Earth.”
