The Increasing Threat of Hurricanes By: Alex Melendez Ortiz

In the recent decades, the America’s have experienced an increased number of powerful hurricanes, which ravage through cities and towns causing widespread damage. According to AccuWeather, cities like New Orleans and Miami have seen the worst of these hurricanes in the past few decades. With the United States losing billions of dollars in hurricane damages in the past few decades and suffering from thousands of deaths. As a result, new measures must be taken in preparation for these storms.

       Hurricanes are responsible for mass destruction and loss of life, making them incredibly detrimental to the populations affected. These storms have drastically worsened in the last few decades, with stronger winds, storm surge, and flash floods. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, “As the storms travel across warm oceans, they pull in more water vapor and heat. That means stronger wind, heavier rainfall, and more flooding” As climate change heats up waters these types of storms will keep intensifying and increasing in frequency, as a result creating more risks to people in hurricane areas, such as Florida and the Caribbean. This increase in frequency suggests that weaker storms of category 1-2 will become less common as storms of category 3 and up bring havoc to communities. As stated by the Center of Climate and Energy Solutions, “Over the 39-year period from 1979-2017, the number of major hurricanes has increased while the number of smaller hurricanes has decreased.” This is incredibly dangerous for countries frequently hit by hurricanes, as these storms can cause incredible economic damage, as seen when category 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria both hit the island of Puerto Rico in 2017. These two hurricanes devastated the island and left damage still seen to this day. With climate change these types of devastating events may become more frequent.

       However, hurricanes also have an effect on the environment, as they ravage trough natural habitats and kill wildlife. These animals usually migrate to different areas when there is a hurricane heading towards them, however many cannot and most resort to finding shelter, those who do not usually do not make it. As stated by sophomore student Ana Miquilena, “I think hurricanes have a big effect, animals can't always seek shelter so sometimes all they can do is run, a bunch of them end up dying because of it.” These storms have an undeniable effect on wildlife, and as these storms intensify it is likely not all animals will be able to adapt. This places a great threat to the ecology of the regions impacted and can cause great damage to the ecosystems.

       But wildlife isn’t the only concern when it comes to environmental damage. Natural Resources are an incredibly important part of the economy and are also at threat of strong hurricanes. These important resources can be damaged and contaminated during these storms which can render them unusable. As pointed out by sophomore student Amelia Uribe, “I know that in things like water sources, a lot of debris can get into it.” Water sources are incredibly important but are also likely to become contaminated in these events. Consequently, we must be able to quickly and effectively fix damages caused by these hurricanes so that we can lessen these effects.

       Damages caused by hurricanes are extremely detrimental to communities and can affect important infrastructure and resources. This is dangerous and can have a lasting effect on the communities affected. As stated by FEMA, “Hurricanes can damage homes, buildings, and roads; cause power, water, and gas outages; pollute drinking water systems; damage infrastructure and lifelines.” These kinds of damages must be fixed quickly and effectively to reduce their lasting effects and help communities. However, proper knowledge of how and why these damages are caused is needed for it to be done effectively. It is likely buildings are not capable of withstanding such frequent powerful storms. As suggested by sophomore Connor Shia, “That damage is probably caused because hurricanes are supposed to be getting stronger, and maybe the buildings are not as good at dealing with them as they used to be.” This is plausible and if true could be extremely difficult to deal with, which can be detrimental in such dangerous cases. In turn there may be other reasons for such damage, and institutions must be capable of dealing with such important and variable cases.

In brief, these stronger hurricanes are posing a dangerous threat to the region and the countries at risk must be capable and ready to deal with them. The people of these countries must also be educated on this topic and must properly prepare themselves for these storms. As these storms are likely to only keep getting stronger the ways we deal with them must evolve.