Key Facts Of The Day 10/14

Hurricanes

• After hurricane Ian caused devastation across Florida and other parts of the East Coast, communities start recovery efforts.

• Preliminary analysis of Hurricane Ian’s deadly storm surge suggests the Gulf of Mexico pushed as high as 15 feet above normally dry ground on Fort Myers Beach as it made landfall.
• Hurricane Ian may have destroyed the financial security of thousands of Florida retirees whose life savings were invested in houses and condos lost to the storm’s winds and flooding.
• Post-storm modeling from the analytics firm CoreLogic Inc. found that nearly 800,000 Florida homes saw hurricane-force winds during the storm, with roughly 600,000 experiencing winds powerful enough to flatten a house.
• Two weeks after the storm, Lee County Electric Cooperative and Florida Power & Light reported that a few thousand customers still remain without power.
  • But in the hardest-hit parts of Southwest Florida, the damage is so severe that key distribution lines will need to be reconstructed.
  • Several elderly men died after the oxygen pumps they relied on failed when the power went out.
• While many have sought refuge elsewhere as the islands are rebuilt, some vulnerable, elderly residents refuse to leave — meaning they are living without consistent access to lighting, refrigeration, and in some cases, even water.

• On Thursday, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed critical habitat and Endangered Species Act protections for two South Florida snakes that are especially vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.
  • The agency observed that “the predominant threat currently affecting the Key ring-necked snake and its habitat is the rapid and intense shifts in climate occurring as a result of increasing greenhouse gas emissions.”
  • In the upper Florida Keys, the federal agency estimates that between about 47% and 59% of the snakes’ rockland hammock habitat could be lost to sea-level rise.
• Local coastal governments like Atlantic City will have to decide whether to manage a retreat from the coastline over several years or to stay and only leave when the floodwaters become unlivable.
  • City leaders have no plans to take state offers to buy and demolish homes in flood-prone areas.
  • Instead, officials are spending $100 million, from 2016 through next year, to “fortify and armor” the city from rising sea levels by installing sea walls, pump stations, and bulkheads.
  • The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that New Jersey’s 950 square miles of beaches and back bays will sustain more than a billion dollars in annual flooding damage in a few years.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 66 large active wildfires that have burned 767,013 across CA, ID, MT, OR, SD, and WA. As of Friday, 56,285 wildfires have burned 6,937,344 acres across the country.
• In California, 1 fire has burned 76,788 acres as of Friday.
  • The Mosquito Fire has burned 76,788 acres and is 95% contained as of Friday.
• In Oregon, 5 fires have burned 329,229 acres as of Friday.
  • The Cedar Creek Fire has burned 122,794 acres and is 40% contained as of Friday.
• In Washington, 13 fires have burned 41,006 acres as of Friday.
  • Wildfire smoke is sticking around several parts of Washington and forecasts show smoke will likely get worse before it gets better.

Extreme Heat

• The medical examiner for Maricopa county, Arizona has so far confirmed 284 heat-related deaths this past summer, while investigations into 169 more suspected heat fatalities are ongoing.
  • Overall, the suspected heat death toll is 36% higher than for the same period last year.
  • The temperature hit 110 degrees or higher on 22 days this year.
  • It did not drop below 80 degrees on 75% of nights between June and August.
  • According to the county’s annual count, there were 5,029 people sleeping on the streets in January – triple the number of unsheltered people compared with 2016.
• California regulators unanimously approved a $140 million desalination plant on Thursday, offering a guideline for how the state can convert ocean water into drinking water amid the worst drought in 1,200 years.
• Oklahoma growers who run a pumpkin patch said scarce rainfall definitely affected their annual crops of pumpkins, squash, other types of gourds, red okra, cotton, tomatoes, and other products.

New Reports and Data

• An October 2022 study found that land in a cyclone’s wake becomes more vulnerable to forest fires.
• An October 2022 study found that even in remote, rarely visited national parks, the presence of even just a few humans impacts the activity of wildlife that live there.