Tag: extreme weather

A Perfect Storm

Center for American Progress logoExtreme Weather as an Affordable Housing Crisis Multiplier

Overview

Extreme weather events fueled by climate change are exacerbating the intertwined crises of affordable housing and homelessness and thus require timely intervention by federal, state, and local governments.

Authors’ note: The disability community is rapidly evolving to using identity-first language in place of person-first language. This is because it views disability as being a core component of identity, much like race and gender. Some members of the community, such as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, prefer person-first language. In this report, the terms are used interchangeably.

Introduction and summary

Weeks after Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle last fall, leaders of the local recovery initiative estimated that as many as 20,000 residents of Bay County—more than 1 in 10 residents in the community of 185,000—were experiencing homelessness as a result of the storm.1 Rental homes make up nearly three-fourths of the community’s damaged properties, and when residents scrambled to find new places to live, they discovered that rents had skyrocketed due to the sudden supply shortage.2 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been slow to provide temporary homes—which are only offered for up to six months—and is approving very few extension requests for the small number of residents lucky enough to receive temporary housing.3 As a result, many residents are living in structures that are not fit for human habitation, including damaged homes and tents, while others wait and wonder what will happen when the clock runs out on their FEMA housing.4

View the complete August 1 article by Guillermo Ortiz, Heidi Schultheis, Valerie Novak and Aleah Holt on the Center for American Progress website here.

Extreme hurricanes and wildfires made 2017 the most costly U.S. disaster year on record

The following article by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website January 8, 2018:

Fires in California and hurricanes in Texas and Puerto Rico caused massive damage in 2017. This is what it looked like from the air. (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)

This story has been updated.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria combined with devastating Western wildfires and other natural catastrophes to make 2017 the most expensive year on record for disasters in the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Monday.

The disasters caused $306 billion in total damage in 2017, with 16 events that caused more than $1 billion in damage each. The bulk of the damage, at $265 billion, came from hurricanes. Continue reading “Extreme hurricanes and wildfires made 2017 the most costly U.S. disaster year on record”

How Global Warming Fueled Five Extreme Weather Events

The following article by Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich was posted on the New York Times website December 14, 2017:

A wildfire in Azusa, Calif., in 2016. New research has analyzed 27 extreme weather events from that year for links to climate change. Credit Gene Blevins/Reuters

Extreme weather left its mark across the planet in 2016, the hottest year in recorded history. Record heat baked Asia and the Arctic. Droughts gripped Brazil and southern Africa. The Great Barrier Reef suffered its worst bleaching event in memory, killing large swaths of coral.

Now climate scientists are starting to tease out which of last year’s calamities can, and can’t, be linked to global warming.

In a new collection of papers published Wednesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, researchers around the world analyzed 27 extreme weather events from 2016 and found that human-caused climate change was a “significant driver” for 21 of them. The effort is part of the growing field of climate change attribution, which explores connections between warming and weather events that have already happened. Continue reading “How Global Warming Fueled Five Extreme Weather Events”