Sunday November 17th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
The High Cost of a Landfalling Category 5 Hurricane…Case In Point Dorian
Hurricane season has come and gone for the United States with our country getting by relatively unscathed. Yes we saw some horrific flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda, and Hurricane Dorian raked the North Carolina Outer Banks area, but the nation did not get a direct impact from a major hurricane as opposed to 2018 when Michael made a landfall in the Florida Panhandle.
Speaking of Dorian, what if the thing went through the Bahamas and made landfall in South Florida before moving north up the coast? About 72 hours before stalling over Grand Bahama Island this was a distinct nightmarish scenario looking at hurricane models. Should this scenario have panned out the overall cost could have run in the hundreds of billions of dollars, not to even mention the cost in terms of deaths and displaced lives and human suffering. Here is the tweet that caught my attention and is the main subject of today’s post:
Here is more as quoted by the linked Weather Channel article from the above tweet:
https://weather.com/news/news/2019-11-15-hurricane-dorian-bahamas-losses-report
Hurricane Dorian Responsible for $3.4 Billion in Losses on Bahamas, Report Says
By Associated Press
2 days ago
weather.com
At a Glance
- Hurricane Dorian caused $3.4 billion in losses on the Bahamas, a new report found.
- Some $2.5 billion of that was attributed to damage caused by the massive hurricane.
- The $3.4 billion price tag is equivalent to one-quarter of the Bahamas’ GDP.
About $3.4 billion in losses was caused in the Bahamas alone by Hurricane Dorian – a number equivalent to one-fourth of the nation’s gross domestic product – according to a report released Friday.
The report by the Inter-American Development Bank also echoed the previously reported death toll of 67 and number of missing, 282, as of late October.
29,500 people homeless, without jobs or both, the report added.
(MORE: Cows Washed Away During Hurricane Dorian Found Alive and Well)
The development bank said reconstruction will require big investments and will take many years. Dorian was one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever to make landfall, unleashing a storm surge of up to 25 feet.
Destruction of homes and other buildings as well as infrastructure caused damage amounting to $2.5 billion, with 87% reported in Abaco and the remainder in Grand Bahama, according to the development bank.
Some 9,000 homes were damaged and seven schools destroyed, leading to the reassignment of 1,500 displaced students, the report said. It described damage to some tourism facilities as “catastrophic.”
Another $717 million in losses was caused by the storm’s impact on the production of goods and services provided, with the private sector sustaining 84% of that total, the report said. It estimated another $221 million in costs for the cleanup of an oil spill in Grand Bahama and debris removal and demolition.
Atisha Kemp, an activist in the capital of Nassau, said Bahamians are frustrated with the government and that many of the displaced are still living in tents, with power and water lacking in some areas.
“Things are a mess,” she said. “Everything is at a standstill.”
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I and other scientist contend that there will be many more than from historic average counts CAT 4 and 5 hurricanes roaming around the Atlantic and elsewhere on the planet going into the future. The warmer the planet gets the more fuel will be available for devastating storms. Should we keep the planet’s temperature down, however, the chances for one particular point along the coast to encounter a CAT 5 storm should go down. For those living in Miami or New Orleans, among our most vulnerable cities, it’s just that simple…Oh, and the rest of us inland dwellers won’t have to shoulder excess billions of dollars in climate crisis cost.
Here is more climate and weather news from Sunday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
Here are some “ETs” from Saturday and Sunday:
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”