From the WashPost: Hurricanes’ hidden toll: Thousands of deaths years after they strike.
“Of more than 500 hurricanes that have hit the United States, the average storm led to up to 11,000 excess deaths, hundreds of times higher than official estimates. ”
From E&E News by Politico: How Project 2025 would treat Helene survivors.
The conservative playbook for a possible Trump presidency calls for cutting disaster aid. “The conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration calls for weakening the government’s response to disasters by slashing public rebuilding money and dissolving federal flood insurance.”
“That could deprive survivors of disasters like Hurricane Helene of the financial help they need to rebuild their homes as rising temperatures and expanding development magnify the costs of catastrophes across the United States.”
The Diva acknowledges that this is an unusual article for this blog, but it’s worth reading to get familiar with the perspective of conservative political figures in the U.S.
From TheConversation:In storms like Hurricane Helene, flooded industrial sites and toxic chemical releases are a silent and growing threat.
“Hundreds of industrial facilities with toxic pollutants were in Hurricane Helene’s path as the powerful storm flooded communities across the Southeast in late September 2024.”
From the WashPost: Why Helene’s floods caught North Carolina off guard .Before this scenic, rustic Great Smoky Mountain refuge turned into a trap few residents saw coming, there were signs of Hurricane Helene’s unthinkable potential.
“A historic storm that exceeded expectations — and preparations.”
From CNN: Southeast grapples with loss and destruction as Helene leaves over 60 dead, traps families and knocks out power
Communities in the Southeast are grappling with widespread devastation after Helene made landfall as the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday and tore through multiple states, killing at least 62 people, knocking out power to millions and trapping families in floodwaters. In hard-hit North Carolina, days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many without basic necessities and overloaded state resources.
From the Congressional Research Service, this 4 page report: Hurricane Helene Recovery: Brief Overview of FEMA Programs and Resources
From the NY Times: Hurricane Ian Proved Why Ron DeSantis’s Version of Climate Resilience Is a Disaster. One excerpt:
“Resilience, Florida style, turned out to mean something different than what climate advocates might have imagined. It primarily meant using taxpayer money to protect the rampant development of low-lying areas such as Lee County — development that some of Governor DeSantis’s staunchest campaign contributors helped lead.”
From the WashPost: The 4 biggest hazards still to come from Hurricane Helene. “The impacts of the storm, which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4, will be felt by those even hundreds of miles away from its center.”
News accounts say more than 3 1/2 million homes/businesses are without power.
Recovery Diva 