Key Facts Of The Day 09/19

Hurricanes

• As of Monday morning, category 1 Hurricane Fiona was located 35 miles southeast of Samaná, a coastal town in the northeast Dominican Republic, with maximum sustained winds of 90 MPH and was moving northwest at 8 MPH.
  • More than a million people remain without power in Puerto Rico Monday morning after Hurricane Fiona caused an islandwide blackout.
  • Rainfall from Hurricane Fiona has swollen the Guanajibo River in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, to 29.2 feet, surpassing its previous record height set during Hurricane Maria.
  • Hurricane Fiona caused catastrophic flooding in Puerto Rico, and nearly the entire island remains under flash flood and flood warnings.
    • Some parts of the island still bear the scars of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico almost exactly five years ago.  
    • More than a foot of rainfall has been reported in several locations.
  • Wind gusts in southern Puerto Rico reached 50 to over 100 MPH on Sunday.
  • President Biden approved Puerto Rico’s emergency declaration Sunday morning to free up federal resources to provide assistance in supporting local disaster-relief efforts.
  • The storm could bring a total of up to 30 inches of rainfall to Puerto Rico and up to 12 inches to eastern and northern Dominican Republic.
• On Saturday, Alaska was hit with its fiercest storm in years, which was unusually strong and massive. 
  • On Saturday, Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared an emergency in the face of the “unprecedented” storm.
  • The storm surge knocked out lines of communication, prompted evacuations, wrenched homes from their foundations, and washed away roads. 
    • Without power, people with packed freezers risk losing their food for the upcoming season.
    • The impacted areas span well over 1,000 miles of coastline, including some of the most remote areas of the U.S.
    • Dozens of small, primarily Indigenous communities dotting the coast face unique challenges as they try to recover from the damage before winter comes.
    • Most of the affected areas saw winds between 60 and 80 MPH.
    • Major flooding was also reported in the small coastal communities of Chevak, Kotlik, Newtok, Golovin, and Shaktoolik, where multiple evacuations were necessary.
    • Many boats floated away and sank, cutting off another vital means of transportation.
  • No injuries or fatalities tied to the storm have been reported yet, but Alaska state troopers are conducting a search for a young boy missing from Hooper Bay.

Wildfires

• As of Monday, there are currently 95 large active wildfires that have burned 902,574 across CA, ID, MT, NE, OK, OR, UT, WA, and WY. As of Monday, 51,169 wildfires have burned 6,789,438 acres across the country.
• In California, 6 fires have burned 154,235 acres as of Monday.
  • The Mosquito Fire has burned 76,290 acres and is 38% contained as of Monday.
• In Oregon, 6 fires have burned 324,080 acres as of Monday.
  • The Cedar Creek Fire has burned 112,287 acres and is 11% contained as of Monday.

Extreme Heat

• Drought threatens the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s farm in an isolated corner of Colorado.
  • The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, which has operated the farm and ranching enterprise for four decades, received only 10% of its water allocation last year.
  • Higher temperatures and less runoff feeding into the nearby McPhee Reservoir have led to a slowdown in production over the past two years, costing the farm from $4 million to $6 million last year. 
    • The losses combined with the pandemic forced the company to lay off more than half its workforce of 50.
• With nearly half of the western region of the U.S. experiencing severe drought conditions and almost every area now classified as abnormally dry, some farmers are planting less while some ranchers are having to sell off cattle early and purchase less.
• On Saturday, three hikers were rescued after suffering heat-related illness on Scottsdale, Arizona, hiking trails.

New Reports and Data

• A September 2022 study found that the number of hungry people has doubled in 10 countries, including  Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, and Zimbabwe.
• A September 2022 study found that air pollution may spur irregular heart rhythms in healthy teens.
• A September 2022 study found that pollutants from burning structures linger in waterways post-wildfire.