By Anya Vedantambe
Beginning on September 23, 2022, Tropical Storm Ian swept through the Caribbean, devastating the Southeastern Coast of the United States. Claiming over 110 lives, this was the deadliest storm in Florida since 1935 (AccuWeather, 2022). The damage caused by Hurricane Ian can lead to insight into some of the effects that climate change will have on our planet. But isn’t climate change supposed to be something well off into the future? We can see now how rising sea levels, extreme weather, and uncontrollable flooding are not just intangible instances existing far off into the 21st century and beyond. If Hurricane Ian is any indication, the effects of climate change are already here.
News outlets began to release stories coming from Florida ranging from firefighters rescuing stranded victims on jet skis to a hospital with its roof blown off with ICU patients inside (CNN News, 2022). The submerged streets of Florida looked jarring, with buildings completely collapsed and debris strewn everywhere. The many circulating photos of Florida look post-apocalyptic—power lines ripped out and streets turned into rivers. Many Floridians, especially those without the means to evacuate, were forced to escape the flooded streets by swimming through them. “[My neighbors] got my dogs, and then I jumped out of the window and swam,” describes 42-year-old Janelle Thil in an interview with BBC News. Cecilia Donald of Fort Myers recounts to CBS News that she considered tying herself to her husband so that neither of them would wash away in the floods. Those working in HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte describe the storm flooding the bottom floor, the emergency room, and tearing the roof off of the fourth floor and the ICU in a recent AP News article.
Although Hurricane Ian was anything but normal, these stories do not represent an abnormality in the timeline of climate change. According to The Guardian, measurements from the International Panel on Climate Change in 2021 reveal that the frequency of heavy precipitation has increased by a factor of 1.3 since the pre-industrial era. In the next three decades, around 216 million people will be forced to flee from extreme weather events unless immediate action is taken on climate change to prevent them (Reuters, 2021).
The consequences of extreme climate events reach beyond evacuation. Large economic ramifications will be incurred across the globe, especially in regions that already experience high poverty levels. As estimated by the World Bank, 23 trillion dollars will be lost from the global economy because of climate change by 2050. However, that estimation is likely to increase because the natural disasters that stem from climate change become more and more severe as time progresses. The recovery costs for Hurricane Ian are totaling 47 billion dollars in insured losses in Florida and the Carolinas (BBC News, 2022). Especially for the poor, returning to a pre-hurricane life seems impossible. Many have lost their homes, their jobs, and their livelihoods. The infrastructure of Florida is in ruins.
Despite all of this, Hurricane Ian might already be fading into the background of our memories. Just like with so many disasters, the tropical storm will gain national attention and increase discussions surrounding climate disasters in the short time immediately after, and then dissipate into a forgotten event. Unfortunately, the many people whose entire livelihoods have been upended by it can not forget. To prevent the next natural disaster caused by climate change and the many that will follow, we must not forget about the effects of the events in the past. Hurricane Ian is an important warning about what disasters are to come, and what has already arrived. Hurricane Ian is part of the huge wave of climate disasters that can be seen far out from the shore, and without action, we are the helpless swimmers waiting to be submerged.
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