Sustainable Switch-Hurricane Milton’s trail of destruction
Oct 10 -
By Sharon Kimathi
Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
sharon.kimathi@thomsonreuters.com
Hello,
Today’s newsletter continues where Tuesday’s left off as the Gulf Coast of the United States prepares for Hurricane Milton.
Hurricane Milton marched across Florida on Thursday after making landfall on the state's west coast hours earlier, whipping up deadly tornadoes, destroying homes, and knocking out power to nearly two million customers.
The storm closed in on Florida's Gulf Coast, leaving residents only a few hours to evacuate or hunker down before the storm brings a life-threatening surge of seawater, shredding winds, and a deluge of rain to a region already battered by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago.
The storm was on a collision course for the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, home to more than three million people. Forecasters said seawater could still rise as high as 13 feet (4 meters).
‘Better to get out of town’
At least two deaths were reported at a retirement community following a suspected tornado in Fort Pierce on the eastern coast of Florida, NBC News reported, citing St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson. His department did not immediately respond to a request for details.
Michael Tylenda, who was visiting his son in Tampa, said he was heeding the advice from officials to evacuate.
"If anybody knows anything about Florida, when you don't evacuate when you're ordered to, you can pretty much die," Tylenda said. "The house can be replaced. The stuff can be replaced. It's just better to get out of town."
Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Sandra Tapfumaneyi told CNN that people who remain on the barrier islands in her county just south of Tampa likely would not survive the projected 10- to 15-foot storm surge.
"If you choose to stay, make sure you have a life preserver handy," she said.
What is behind the storm?
As storm winds organize into a hurricane, they pull energy from the heat in surface waters. The warmer the water, the more fuel for a hurricane.
Thanks to climate change, water temperatures are rising. In the last four decades, the ocean has absorbed about 90% of the warming from greenhouse gas emissions.
This year has seen especially warm waters due to climate change, with 2024 on track to have the warmest average global air temperature on record.
The past 12 months have seen global warming at 1.62 degrees Celsius (2.92 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Tuesday.
A storm's strength is defined by its sustained wind speeds, with a Category 1 hurricane carrying wind speeds of 74-95 mph (119-153 kph), while a dangerous Category 5 storm has wind speeds of 157 mph (252 kph) or higher.
Click here for the full Reuters explainer.
How does Hurricane Milton compare to Hurricane Helene?
Many of the communities facing Milton are still recovering from Hurricane Helene last month, which killed more than 200 people after causing disastrous inland flooding, particularly in the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
At its most intense, Helene was a Category 4 hurricane, reaching sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph) and a minimum central pressure of 938 millibars at its peak.
Milton quickly surpassed that , becoming a Category 5 storm within hours with sustained winds of 180 mph (285 kph) and a minimum central pressure of 897 millibars on Tuesday.
Talking Points
At least 22 people have died in severe floods and landslides which wiped out whole villages across Bosnia and Herzegovina and caused huge damage to the impoverished Balkan country, officials said.
Google case: In a landmark case, a judge found in August that Google, which processes 90% of U.S. internet searches, had built an illegal monopoly. Now, the Department of Justice is planning to force Alphabet's Google to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that it says are used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search. Click here for the full Reuters story.
In keeping with ESG tech developments, social media users in the European Union will be able to make complaints against Facebook, ByteDance's TikTok and Alphabet's YouTube over content moderation to a new independent body set up in Ireland.
Boeing drama: Talks broke down between Boeing and its key manufacturing union, with no negotiations currently planned as the financially damaging strike heads into a fourth week. "We're in this for the long haul and our members understand that," said Jon Holden, lead negotiator for the Machinists Union representing Boeing workers.
The United States is incredibly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, particularly in northern Gaza, the State Department said, adding it is the subject of very urgent discussions between Washington and Israel.
ESG Lens
Hurricanes Milton and Helene are putting new pressure on the federal government's emergency response agency FEMA, which is already short of money, hit by a politics-fueled disinformation campaign and burdened by its past failures in handling massive storms.
In fact, FEMA had to update its website’s frequently asked questions page to include a section to address the rising rumors being spread about it online that are hindering rescue and recovery efforts.
ESG Spotlight
After millions of people were ordered to flee along Florida's Gulf Coast, the African elephants, Caribbean flamingos, pygmy hippos and about 1,000 other animals were riding out the monstrous Hurricane Milton at Tampa's zoo.
For many of the animals, the storm will mean they have to give up the creature comforts of their everyday accommodations but they will not have to leave ZooTampa's 70-acre (28-hectare) property, even though it is in a mandatory evacuation zone, said Tiffany Burns, senior director of its animal programs.
Today’s Sustainable Switch was edited by Mark Potter
Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.
Does FEMA have sufficient budget for disaster response? https://reut.rs/4eWawlW
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
