By the Palm Beach Post Editorial Board
Hurricane Helene barreled through Florida’s Big Bend area, leaving a trail of devastation from storm surge, flooding and wind in its wake. This is nothing new for Florida. Our state knows how to respond to storms, even one as threatening as this one.
Right now, the priority should be on search and rescue, cleanup and rebuilding. As of Friday afternoon, Helene left six dead and more than 1.2 million Florida home and property owners without power. Work crews have begun inspecting bridges and clearing roads of debris, and utility companies are working hard to restore power to stricken areas. Patience is always required as the true extent of the storm’s damage is still being determined, and recovery will take time.
But, for state leaders who make Tallahassee their home, what comes next should be obvious: More needs to be done to appreciate and address the effects of climate change so that the state can better direct its resources to buttress and protect communities before hurricanes hit.
Florida has shown that it can appropriately react to a storm, but let’s be clear-eyed about this: Michael, Ida, Idalia, Debby and Helene didn’t hit a major population center. They all missed Tampa and St. Petersburg. And could you imagine the damage — both physically and financially — if a Category 4 storm hit Palm Beach County? Frightening.
The politics driving state policies that could help Floridians better cope with the effects of a warming planet need to change.
How can Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature in good conscience approve a law that erases the term “climate change” from state statutes, while boosting natural gas production and reducing state regulations on gas pipelines?
And how can state leaders rest on their laurels as Florida’s property insurance crisis continues without a more comprehensive approach that addresses consumer needs and industry concerns? Hurricane Helene is just the latest storm to impact both, and given the obvious trends of warming seas and stronger storms, it won’t be the last one.
Helene is the fifth storm in the past six years to make landfall somewhere in Florida, and once again the state’s first responders, utility linemen and volunteers will do all they can to restore those communities stricken by the storm. Florida knows how to handle a hurricane after the fact. State leaders though must do better on the front end before an urban center like Palm Beach County finds itself in the center of the cone.
This opinion piece was originally published by the Palm Beach Post, which is a media partner of The Invading Sea.
If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu. Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here.
