Key Facts Of The Day 09/26

Hurricanes

• As of Monday morning, Hurricane Ian was located about 90 miles southwest of Grand Cayman, moving northwest at 14 MPH and has maximum sustained winds of 75 MPH.
  • Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency throughout Florida and urged residents to prepare for the storm to lash large swaths of the state with heavy rains, high winds, and rising seas.
  • President Joe Biden also declared an emergency, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance to protect lives and property.
  • Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced that he and the director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency have ordered the activation of the State Operations Center on Monday to prepare for any potential impact from the storm later in the week.
  • Some evacuations were ordered Monday in coastal Hillsborough County, Florida.
  • Officials in many parts of the Tampa Bay region have announced that schools would begin shutting down Monday and stay closed through at least Thursday.
  • Bethune-Cookman University canceled classes Monday and said it would reconvene remotely on Tuesday.
  • Ian was forecast to emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, pass west of the Florida Keys late Tuesday, and approach the west coast of Florida on Wednesday.
  • The hurricane center predicts 5 to 8 feet of storm surge will be possible along Florida’s Gulf Coast, and even in areas that avoid a direct hit, coastal flooding could be dramatic.
• A week after Hurricane Fiona, Puerto Ricans are still dealing with the devastation.
  • As of Saturday, at least 16 people had died because of Hurricane Fiona.
  • About half of the nearly 1.5 million power customers are still without electricity on Sunday, a week after Fiona made landfall.
    • Most of the customers who’ve been reconnected to the power grid are in the northeast, where the storm caused less damage. 
  • About 80%, or 1,062,192 customers, have had their water service restored as of Saturday afternoon.
    • The water coming out of the government system is still unreliable, and drinking water remains a precious resource.
  • Some mayors in remote and battered towns where power restoration has taken too long are taking matters into their own hands.
    • When Bayamón Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz was on the brink of starting to hire his own experts and workers to fix damaged power lines, Luma Energy reached an agreement with him.
    • In the town of Aguadilla, Mayor Julio Roldán Concepción hired his own team to bring fallen light posts and cables back up to where they belong.
    • In Utuado, Mayor Jorge Pérez Heredia released an open letter to Luma Energy Thursday begging the company to connect the town to a nearby power plant that has already been energized.

Wildfires

• As of Monday, there are currently 89 large active wildfires that have burned 898,732 across CA, ID, MT, OK, OR, WA, and WY. As of Monday, 52,708 wildfires have burned 6,850,045acres across the country.
• In California, 4 fires have burned 147,763 acres as of Monday.
  • The Mosquito Fire has burned 76,781 acres and is 85% contained as of Monday.
  • California’s wildfire activity is running below average this year, but experts warn it’s not over.
    • Hot and dry offshore winds, often referred to as the Diablo or Santa Ana winds, can trigger an enormous wildfire threat, and the wind phenomena do not tend to start until the fall and winter. 
    • Although less acreage has burned so far this year, individual wildfires have been quite deadly and destructive. The fires have killed nine people and destroyed 800 structures.  
• In Oregon, 6 fires have burned 326,496 acres as of Monday.
  • The Cedar Creek Fire has burned 114,104 acres and is 20% contained as of Monday.

Extreme Heat

• Another heat wave settled into Southern California on Sunday, with temperatures expected to linger in the 90s and low triple digits in some areas through Wednesday.
  • An excessive heat warning was issued from 10 a.m. Monday until 8 p.m. Wednesday for the valley areas, and from 10 a.m. Monday until 8 p.m. Tuesday for downtown Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, Compton, Culver City, Downey, Hollywood, Lakewood, and Norwalk.
• In Los Angeles, which imposed sweeping restrictions on outdoor water use this year, residents are replacing their lawns with climate-friendly yards with California native plants.
• To save water in Texas, nonprofits are paying farmers to leave it in reservoirs.
  • Getting reimbursed for using less, or in some cases no water, could be beneficial to farmers with failed crops. 
  • The current drought is costing Texas agriculture billions of dollars in losses.
• Researchers have found that rising temperatures shorten the lifespan of fig tree pollinators.

New Reports and Data

• A September 2022 report found that offshore wind lease sales are a significantly better use of ocean acreage than oil and gas for energy consumers, taxpayers, and the climate.
• A September 2022 study found that blue lakes in North America and Europe will likely turn green-brown as global temperatures rise.
• A September 2022 study found that pollution co-emitted with CO2 can increase the social cost of carbon by as much as 66%.