Hurricane Debby (also Tropical Storm/Cyclone) is wreaking havoc along the Eastern Atlantic Coast of America. Severe flooding and power outages are causing mass evacuations and safety rescues. Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed12, but so far, a minimal number of deaths have been reported.
First impacting Cuba, Debby hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane and is now a tropical cyclone grazing along the Atlantic coast over Georgia, and South Carolina and is expected to continue impacting northeastern states in the coming days -states whose shorelines and infrastructures have already been weakened by climate change and past disasters.
While the storm didn’t turn into a major hurricane, it is still leaving plenty of damaging results. Parts of Georgia and South Carolina are already seeing up to a foot of rain. Florida is wiped out with almost all counties under declared state of emergency by the governor, with many rescue efforts underway to save people trapped in floodwaters and without electricity.
WFLA 8 – Widespread flooding in Florida from Tropical Storm Debby (YouTube 1hr+)
DRONE FOOTAGE: FLooding in Charleston, SC (YouTube, -2mins)
AP – Tropical Storm Debby hits Georgia with rain and floods (YouTube, 1min)
Most of the time everyone is focused on how intense the hurricane is going to be and probably rightly so, because the higher the intensity, the greater the likelihood of lives lost and more severe damage done, but it can’t be the only area of focus.
“You can’t just focus on just the category of the hurricane, because that only tells one part of the story, which is the windspeed. When we talk about the impact of these tropical systems, they drop a lot of water, a lot of rainfall over areas…” – Grant Skinner, WKRG Meteorologist1
That amount of rain means flooding, flood damage and long-term expenses for homeowners, farmers, businesses and those living on the streets. In Florida, property insurance has already been a big problem.
WFLA 8 – Flooding in Sarasota causes severe problems for homeowners
“In 2007, then Florida Gov. Charlie Crist placed a note in the historic “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem where Jews and Christians go to offer up prayers. Crist’s note read: “Dear God, please protect our Florida from storms and other difficulties.” – Forbes
“No other state has suffered more from storms and other difficulties.” “…more than three quarters of its 21.5 million residents live in areas near the two coastlines. Six of the top 15 metropolitan areas at risk for storm surge in the U.S.—Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, Bradenton, Fort Myers and Naples—are all located in the eye of “storm surge,” wind-driven water strong enough to drive homes right off their foundations, according to CoreLogic, which rates potential property damage nationwide.” – Forbes article titled, Why Why Is Homeowners Insurance In Florida Such A Disaster?2
Coastal Erosion
In Florida and other states along the Gulf and East Coasts there has also been an outstanding problem of shoreline erosion due to a combination of sea level rising and ground level sinking -contributing to a lack of buffer zone for storms as well as leading to threat of permanent displacement of communities under water.3 4 5
“…of coastal land from New England to Florida. In a study published in PNAS Nexus, the team reported that more than half of infrastructure in major cities such as New York, Baltimore, and Norfolk is built on land that sank, or subsided, by 1 to 2 millimeters per year between 2007 and 2020. Land in several counties in Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia sank at double or triple that rate. At least 867,000 properties and critical infrastructure including several highways, railways, airports, dams, and levees were all subsiding,”6
Is Coastal Restoration in Vain?
Millions if not billions have been invested into coastal ecology and habitat restoration, but can these efforts have a chance to root and get established before they’re beat down or destroyed by the next storm season? Some areas seem to have success, but as an example, Cocoa Beach restoration has been rebuilt 10 times since 1966 (about once every 6 years), costing tax payers over 40 million. 7 8 9
WKMG 6 – WHOA! Hurricane Debby creates 6-foot sand cliff on Flager Beach
FOX – Florida Coastline Faces Looming Danger of Sea Level Rise
Learn about the SASMI project here:
Polluted Waters
“You can kind of see the sheen on top of the water. This is exactly why we say don’t go through these flooded waters, because not only are you talking about fertalizer and things from the ground that are in these waters, but at this point now we’re talking about pollution -oil from cars and who knows what…[and] Don’t open the manhole covers.” – WFLA News Channel 810 (14:00)
Beyond immediate safety concerns created, Florida and many other southern states have also faced big problems with potable drinkable water after pollution from chemical spills, to chemical plant dumping (PFAS), fertilizer runoff, sewage backup and more. Hurricanes cause their own problems to drinking water and clean water.
Most of Floridians live off bottled water sourced form aquifers11 or installed water filtration systems, causing separate environmental threats.12 13 These are some of the less talked about and less addressed issues that impact people’s health and quality of life. Polluted waters of course not only affect human survival, but also endanger wildlife, marine life and plant life.
(Past news reference) Hurricane Ian’s ecological impacts unfold as pollution…
Keep your heads up and keep the solutions coming, folks!
Please note another hurricane is expected form by next weekend/weekend according to “Mr. Weatherman”. Still to early to say the intensity or route it will take, but ay alert and stay safe!14
Check out more videos (including insurance tips for survivors) on the full playlist: Angle and Perspective Journal YouTube playlist for Hurricane Debby
Praying for the safety of those affected,
iam:ForeverBlessed
http://www.AngleandPerspective.com
- https://youtu.be/WPIvMpzen_g?si=YTnjkzistRFAiKCZ ↩︎
- https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/why-is-homeowners-insurance-in-florida-such-a-disaster/ ↩︎
- https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152452/americas-sinking-east-coast#:~:text=In%20many%20parts,EOI)%20Lab. ↩︎
- https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/06/climate/sinking-cities-us-sea-level-rise-climate/index.html ↩︎
- https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240130-this-louisiana-town-moved-to-escape-climate-disaster ↩︎
- https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152452/americas-sinking-east-coast#:~:text=of%20coastal%20land,were%20all%20subsiding%2C ↩︎
- https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/975f272f650f4d7ebf1b271abc3fdb47 ↩︎
- https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/coastal-habitat-restoration-and-resilience-grants-underserved ↩︎
- https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/04/02/tens-of-millions-of-dollars-being-spent-to-repeatedly-rebuild-central-florida-beaches/ ↩︎
- https://youtu.be/WPIvMpzen_g?si=R_NVtTdH_awNwcGs ↩︎
- https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2024/03/08/bottled-water-is-draining-floridas-aquifer/ ↩︎
- https://www.sfwmd.gov/science-data/gw-modeling#:~:text=In%20Florida%2C%20most%20of%20the,use%20comes%20from%20underground%20aquifers. ↩︎
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/opinion/bottled-water-is-sucking-florida-dry.html ↩︎
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9Op3-E0ckI ↩︎
Cover Photo credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/myfwcmedia/7542471912
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