Hurricane Idalia Slams Into Florida's Big Bend

Facts

• On Wednesday morning, Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida's Big Bend as a Category 3 cyclone after briefly reaching a Category 4 in the overnight hours. Later in the day, the storm settled into a Category 1 as it reached southeastern Georgia.¹
• According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the storm saw winds of up to 125 mph — the strongest hurricane the Gulf Coast has seen in over 125 years.²
• The NHC warned of a significant storm surge and issued two extreme wind warnings, as some areas broke record inundation, with up to 9 feet of flooding.²
• Ahead of the storm's impacts, residents were advised to evacuate to areas less vulnerable to the high winds, flooding, and storm surge, with residents from at least 28 counties cleared out.³
• Hurricane Idalia is expected to continue to weaken as it moves inland, and, according to the NHC, the storm will continue on a north-northeastward track with impacts to Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina through the afternoon of Wednesday and into Thursday.⁴
• As thousands of officials and rescue workers were deployed, Pres. Joe Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a call, with the latter reportedly indicating that the state's needs are currently being met.⁵

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²CNN (a), ³CNN (b), ⁴WESH, and ⁵CTVNews.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Carbon Brief. The warming of our planet is creating a hot-tub-like environment in the waters off the coast of Florida. These abnormal conditions have become the norm, and the consequence is the rapid intensification of storms that cause catastrophic damage and loss of life when making landfall. This new normal changes the landscape of coastal living and leaves millions of people facing the threat of back-to-back catastrophic destruction.
• Narrative B, as provided by Forbes. While climate change is an urgent issue, journalists and activists have an obligation to separate the facts from fiction and describe environmental problems honestly and accurately. The catastrophic framing of climate change does far more harm than good, not only by impacting the mental health of our youth, but by alienating and polarizing large portions of the population and distracting from other important issues. Climate alarmism must be taken with a grain of salt.