The News
More than a million Florida residents are under evacuation orders as Category Five Hurricane Milton barrels toward Tampa. With landfall expected on Wednesday night, forecasters warned of widespread flooding and storm surges in coastal areas, as the hurricane, juiced by record-high temperature Gulf waters, has rapidly become, by some measures, one of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded.
US President Joe Biden said heeding evacuation warnings may be a “matter of life and death,” and that the storm “could be one of the worst” in a century.
Milton’s likely catastrophic impact comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the southeastern US, killing at least 225 people across six states with hundreds still missing. The devastation left by Helene and the ongoing response underscores the growing likelihood of such intense storms, with their effects being felt far beyond the coast.
SIGNALS
Hurricane intensity is a direct result of climate change
Hurricane Milton is “exactly the type of storm scientists have been warning could happen” as a result of climate change, The Atlantic wrote. The storm has been made more powerful by high sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and increased humidity — revealing a trend where, as sea temperatures rise, future storms will be more intense, an expert told the outlet. A similar effect was seen with Helene: Climate change made the hurricane’s winds stronger and its rainfall 10% heavier, scientists found. More catastrophic climate disasters means more economic damage: Climate disasters exacted $93.1 billion in 2023, while the cost of Helene and Milton alone may yet meet that.
The US is underprepared for climate disasters
US government-backed climate adaptation programs are severely underfunded, experts say: When disaster strikes “we merely give the equivalent of a blood transfusion to the injured, without stopping the bleeding,” a hurricane scientist argued in Yale Climate Connections. He argued that instead of incremental adaptations like elevating single-family homes in the Florida Keys or relying on voluntary buy-outs, the US should pursue a managed retreat from the most risky areas. Lower-income households are particularly vulnerable, as they are less likely to receive federal disaster aid, partly because of the complexity of navigating the “spaghetti mountain” of programs, a Bloomberg columnist wrote.
Misinformation is hampering response efforts
The White House has criticized efforts by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his allies to spread misinformation about the administration’s hurricane relief response, NBC News reported. Officials are then forced to devote time to debunking such misinformation, hampering relief efforts, a USA Today columnist argued. Disaster relief officials on the ground have also criticized Elon Musk’s role in amplifying misinformation on his social media platform X, saying it obstructed relief efforts, with some speculating that it could result in fewer people seeking out help from FEMA and other federal agencies, Politico reported.