Hurricane Matthew may have entered into the history books alongside with many other past hurricanes that bombarded the United States and Central America, like Hurricane Irene and Sandy. These hurricanes created chaos along the east coast and were only mere category 3 hurricanes.
These damages took months, even years, to repair, but nothing close to what Hurricane Matthew will entail, which has sustained winds of 140 mph with gusts of up to 165 mph. America hasn't seen a storm this strong in almost a decade, since Hurricane Katrina, which hit in 2005 and was the most destructive storms in years, reaching around $108 billion in damage.
Matthew was a category 4 hurricane and at some locations a category 5. Currently the total fatalities have climbed to over 1,000 with 36 deaths in five states in the US. The storm surge, or the rising of the sea level, has peaked at almost ten feet.
"If you're watching and you're in an evacuation area, get out," Florida Governor Rick Scott said on October 6, prior to the storm reaching the US. "Don't take a chance. Time is running out. This is clearly going to either have a direct hit or come right along our coast and we're going to have hurricane-force winds. Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate."
Governor Scott’s initial warning proved to be a little extreme, as the storm's strength decreased when it reached the United State’s coast.
Matthew hit the worst in the Caribbean, reaching a category 5 hurricane. The United States Agency for International Development had airlifted 480 metric tons of relief supplies to Haiti. This includes 40,000 blankets, 20,000 hygiene kits, and 18,700 kitchen sets. These supplies are expected to benefit up to 100,000 people.
The hurricane weakened to a category 3 or 5 when it hit Haiti, eastern Cuba and the Bahamas. As it neared the United States coast, it was a category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds. Fernandina Beach, Florida had major flooding where water was reported to be 2.5 feet above ground level. Over 1,500 people were trapped under North Carolina floods and were in need of rescue. Some areas had over a foot and a half of rainfall. It was reported that a new inlet was carved between Marine land and Matanzas Inlet, between Palm Coast and St. Augustine Beach, Florida.
“Weather is extremely unpredictable even with technological advances,” NHS senior Ali Manfredi said. “No one really knew what the exact effects of this hurricane, so even though now it may seem as an overreaction, it is better to be over prepared.”
To aid these places, FEMA is sending millions of resources to Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, such as over 1.6 million meals, thousands of liters of water, and several thousands of blankets.
The hurricane left millions of dollars in damage and millions of power outages along parts of the US coast from Florida up to Southern North Carolina. Obama has ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts and also abroad. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has deployed officials to emergency centers in Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina.
“I do not believe that this is the worst [hurricane] the US has ever seen in history because although this hurricane was clearly devastating to certain areas to the United States, there have been hurricanes with greater impacts on a larger area, such as hurricane katrina,” Manfredi said.
The bigger concern, other than the damages and fatalities, is why these massive storms have been happening, as there have been over 30 reported in the last decade. Hurricanes are actually necessary for the Earth, as they help move heat from warm tropical places to cooler areas.
When the oceans are warmed during the summer months, the warm waters heat up the air above the ocean's surface. The air begins to rise and is replaced by cooler air spiraling down from the atmosphere. This creates the rotating circulation that forms the hurricane that you see on many maps tracking the storm.
Many connect the rising occurrence of these storms to climate change and the rising temperatures of the earth. It is difficult to conclude that human activities and pollution of greenhouse gas emissions have a direct impact on the creation of hurricanes.
Regardless of the reason why they exist and the rising concern of their presence, these hurricanes cause serious damage that require a lot of effort to rebuild and aid the countries and towns affected. The United States is beginning their aid towards our southern states and the rest of the world and hopefully can find a way to decrease these storms occurrence and strength.
Image Courtesy of efe.com