Name: Hurricanes Are Getting More Destructive
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For 100-million Americans living in coastal communities, more destructive storms are an increasing worry. Some are starting to confront the possibility of losing their land entirely.

Recent hurricanes blow away records for destruction, costing over a trillion dollars in 20 years.

Hurricanes Are Getting More Destructive

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For 100-million Americans living in coastal communities, more destructive storms are an increasing worry. Some are starting to confront the possibility of losing their land entirely.

Recent hurricanes blow away records for destruction, costing over a trillion dollars in 20 years.

Nature

Hurricanes Are Getting More DestructivePublished: November 5, 2024Speaker 1: Hurricanes are my forte. It's what I'm an expert at. And I myself have been so surprised over the years to see the number of rapid intensification cycles that hurricanes are going through.Speaker 2: Hurricanes are fueled by energy from the ocean. Today, during hurricane season, the Gulf of Mexico is about 1 to 2 degrees warmer than it was in the 1980s. And that warmer water supercharges storms.Speaker 1: On the air saying, "Look at this thing. Look at what this hurricane is doing." So a historic event in itself.Speaker 2: Recent hurricanes blow away previous records for destruction, costing over a trillion dollars in 20 years and counting.Speaker 1: We're not necessarily seeing more hurricanes, but we're seeing that a greater proportion of them are indeed becoming these monsters.Speaker 2: One place especially hard hit, the coast of Louisiana, where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico. Creating about 6,000 square miles of river Delta wetlands, here the sea is swallowing the land.Rosina Philippe: We are on Grand Bayou in Grand Bayou Village. This is my home, and this is the home of my people. And we've been here for a little more than 400 years.Speaker 2: Rosina Philippe is an elder of the Atakapa-Ishak-Chawasha tribe.Rosina Philippe: A lot of the places where you see water, it was land and not just land, highland, hills, hard dirt. But now, no more. None of that anymore. The land has washed away.Speaker 2: One study found sea level here rising at a rate four times the global average. Elder Chief Cherelle Parfait-Dardar, a member of a nearby community, the Grand Caillou Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe is also seeing her home threatened by land loss.Cherelle Parfait-Dardar: We call these skeleton trees. When you look out and you see these trees, you know that land was there at one time. But all that's left is the submerged tree and water holding on for as long as it can.Speaker 2: The impacts of more intense storms and rising seas are felt here now, in large part because the land has already been eroded by human activity. Fed by rivers and streams across much of the continent, the Mississippi River picks up sediment and would naturally deposit it in the Delta, constantly replenishing the wetlands. But starting in the 1900s, a of federal construction projects began to interfere with that natural system. Levees to prevent flooding, dams to improve navigation, the result, less flooding in some communities and more river trade, but also, less sediment reaching the wetlands. And then starting in the 1930s, oil and gas companies cut 10,000 miles of canals through the wetlands to reach their wells, speeding erosion even more.Speaker 5: So all of this is coming together in a way that we used to have this really strong protective barrier along the Gulf Coast that just is not there anymore. Then you add rising sea levels to all of that, and it's eating away even more so at our natural barriers that we have.Speaker 2: Since 1935, a 1/4 of Louisiana's coastline has vanished. That's an area about the size of Delaware, and every 100 minutes, water claims on average another football field's worth of land.

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Hurricanes Are Getting More Destructive

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How Do Hurricanes Form?

Killer Hurricanes

Weathering the Future