Hurricane Laura: A Sign of Bad Things to Come
Climate change puts hurricanes on steroids, leaving residents and governments unprepared at landfall
I’ve been through my fair share of hurricanes. When you grow up in South Florida, it comes with the territory.
I remember when Hurricane Katrina passed over South Florida. We got some winds and plenty of rain, but we were fortunately spared the devastation suffered in New Orleans and surrounding areas.
Katrina was a Goliath. But Hurricane Laura, which made landfall almost exactly 15 years to the day after Katrina, was in many ways like Katrina on steroids.
Fossil fuel steroids, to be exact.
What are these hurricane steroids?
How was Laura stronger than Katrina? Hurricanes don’t pump iron, so we must turn to the science.
Laura packed fiercer winds upon landfall than Katrina; in fact, Laura had the fastest winds at landfall of any hurricane to hit Louisiana since 1856.
It also caused a higher storm surge than Katrina. In a region as low-lying as Louisiana, that spells trouble.
But the hurricane steroids don’t come from the winds or the storm surge.
