The 2022 summer months were very quiet and now with the arrival of fall, we’ve had two storms setting their sights on North America. One, Fiona, is in the history books with Puerto Rico getting hit hard with flooding and Canada experiencing coastal damages from wind and waves.
Next up is Ian that is set to strengthen to a hurricane before returning to a tropical storm status and impacting Florida.
Winds and storm surge are what make hurricanes deadly, but it is slow-moving tropical storms dumping massive amounts of rain that have made them also significant damage producers.
People should not be fooled by the thought that it is “only a tropical storm.” Over the next few days we’ll learn the path for Ian and watch the speed with which it moves over land.
Bigger storms are still very possible as we get into October and November. And, while Nov. 30 is the “official” end of hurricane season, with climate change happening everywhere, anything is possible!
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
