Key Facts Of The Day 10/17

Hurricanes

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

• According to the office of Gov. DeSantis, there have been 2,500 rescues made to date.
• The State Disaster Recovery Mental Health Coordinator created a survey to assess the need for mental health services for Hurricane Ian first responders.
• All school districts impacted by Hurricane Ian will be open by Tuesday, October 18, almost three weeks after Hurricane Ian made landfall.
• The scale of the destruction from Hurricane Ian threatens to destabilize Florida’s insurance and real estate markets, as devastated residents file a record number of claims for damaged or destroyed homes.
  • Without insurance, banks won’t issue a mortgage; without a mortgage, most prospective homeowners can’t buy a home. With fewer buyers, home prices fall, and new development can slow or even come to a stop.

• One month after Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, more than 10,000 customers remain without power.
• Michigan’s Upper Peninsula expects a foot of snow in an early-season winter storm.
  • Starting tonight through Tuesday, places like Marquette and Houghton are expected to see almost more than six to 12 inches of snowfall in an early-season winter storm.
  • Marquette and Baraga counties are expected to see from 16 inches to almost two feet of snow by the end of the snowfall.
  • Western counties with high elevations will see snowfall ranging from 10-12 inches.
  • Most areas in the central and west with lower elevations will see 7-9 inches.
  • Strong winds are also expected with a speed of 20-25 mph and gusts will range from 35-40 mph widespread with 45-50 mph near Lake Superior.
• Inland Empire evacuations orders lifted after storm system hits Southern California.
  • Portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties had been under flash flood warnings that were lifted Saturday night.
• Local authorities closed a 43-mile stretch of one of Amtrak’s busiest routes earlier this month because of unstable land from changing weather patterns and eroding shorelines.
  • The closure has forced commuters to either drive on a congested highway or take a bus between Oceanside and Irvine, two cities south of Los Angeles.
  • Late last year, the Orange County Transportation Authority dumped more than 18,000 tons of large boulders on the coastal side of the track as a buffer to temporarily stop the track movement.
  • Beachfront residents also have installed sea walls and other armor to protect their homes from the water. However, those protective structures also block sand movement and cause further beach erosion.

Wildfires

• As of Monday, there are currently 72 large active wildfires that have burned 776,012 across CA, ID, MT, OK, OR, and WA. As of Monday, 56,449 wildfires have burned 6,940,567 acres across the country.
• In California, 1 fire has burned 76,788 acres as of Monday.
  • The Mosquito Fire has burned 76,788 acres and is 95% contained as of Monday.
• In Oregon, 7 fires have burned 331,538 acres as of Monday.
  • The Cedar Creek Fire has burned 124,447 acres and is 45% contained as of Monday.
• In Washington, 14 fires have burned 43,001 acres as of Monday.
  • Authorities in southwest Washington ordered evacuations for thousands of homes as a wind-driven wildfire rapidly grew on Sunday.
  • The Clark Emergency Services Agency expanded evacuation zones after a wind-driven wildfire rapidly grew on Sunday, affecting 35,000-40,000 homes.
  • Smoke from that Washington wildfire in eastern Clark County that’s razed some 2,000 acres was “visible throughout the metropolitan area that Vancouver shares with Portland, Oregon.”

Extreme Heat

• Severe drought across the Midwest has shrunk the Mississippi to record lows, with more than 40 river gauges in the river basin reporting low water levels.
  • These conditions are wreaking havoc on the agricultural industry, river transportation, and the communities that depend on the water.
    • The river’s water levels have fallen so far that barge and boat travel has become unsustainable for companies.
  • The Mississippi Valley and Ohio River Valley haven’t seen enough rainfall this year to ease drought conditions, despite the two record storms hitting St. Louis and Eastern Kentucky over the summer.
  • The drought-hit Mississippi River also revealed a 19th-century trading ship.
• ​​California’s tomato farmers are getting squeezed by the water crisis as growing costs continue to rise.
  • This year, however, fewer tomatoes were grown as rising interest rates, inflation and the crushing drought squeezed farmers who saw their margins reduced.
  • Many farmers are being forced away from tomatoes as it’s a hard-to-grow crop that takes a lot of labor.
  • Farmer Aaron Barcellos and his family have grown tomatoes for 25 years but cut back on the number of acres usually dedicated to tomatoes from 2,000 to just more than 500 acres.
  • Farmers also are paying more for fuel and fertilizer, with those added costs then reflected in consumer prices.

New Reports and Data

• An October 2022 study found that economic losses from hurricanes become too big to be offset by the U.S. if warming continues.
• An October 2022 study found that sustainable concrete cuts emissions and uses waste for better buildings.
• An October 2022 study found that changes in social norms can also help mitigate climate change by creating political pressure for increased climate action.