2020 has been quite a year so far: The Corona virus shut down schools and workplaces, the Australian wildfires began, murder hornets showed up to the scene, and the Black Lives Matter movement was instiuted. But, more recently, in the beginning of October, Hurricane Delta had been ravaging through parts of the US and the islands on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This category 4 hurricane is the second strongest storm of the year, considering its winds are up to 150mph. Delta rapidly grew from a tropical depression to a category 4 hurricane in just thirty hours. Meteorologists claim that the typical hurricane forms in about 48 hours, so that says a lot about the intensity of Delta.
In Cancun, the hurricane has led to sandstorms, floods, and has dealt damage to buildings. Tens of thousands of residents in the area had to be evacuated. Furthermore, the Quintana Roo governor shared to the press that more than half of Cancun lost their power. Chuck Watson, disaster modeler and researcher, claimed that the damage done to Cancun could cost as much as $4 billion. More than 100,000 people in the region also lost their job. Hurricane Delta unfortunately, brought this tourist attraction’s economy down even more. Not only did COVID-19 decrease the number of people travelling there by 97%, but now this hurricane puts them at an even bigger debt due to all the damages.
On the other hand, in the US, this storm cyclone has wiped out more than six hundred thousand people’s power in the South. And the storm has raised water levels on the southern coast of the US by a few more feet. Just like in Cancun, people in Louisiana had to evacuate; around 9,000 of them are in shelters because their property was destroyed. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has however offered to aid 78,000 residents. Once again, Louisiana is also in an economic crisis since Lake Charles acted as a tourist attraction, but has died down due to COVID-19.
This punishing storm season is twice as hard to recover from this year in particular. Due to the Corona virus most, if not all places and businesses around the world aren’t as successful as they were in previous years. Although I fortunately live in a town separated from the dangerous world, it is very important to continually educate ourselves about these current events. Because the only way to get out of hard situations is to help and rely on each other. As a community we can donate to the Red Cross to help the civilians suffering in this hurricane season, we can donate PPE to hospitals, and much more. Everyone needs to realize that we are living in this big world together.
It has been a rough year all around.
ReplyDeleteI think its kind of humorous that since our country has much going on that we are kind of blowing off the second strongest storm of the year. (in regards to news coverage).
ReplyDeleteThis sucks to hear about and that this is happening. 2020 has been terrible and many things are not focused on enough. I think it is definitely important to focus on other events going on such as this one.
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