Hurricane Idalia causes billions of dollars in damage

Category 4 hurricane “Idalia,” which once recorded a maximum gust of 201 kilometers, hit major southern states such as Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina on the 30th of last month, killing at least three people and causing about 570,000 households to suffer power outages. Investment bank UBS predicted that property damage in Florida alone, which was hit the hardest, would reach 9.36 billion U.S. dollars. Hurricanes are classified on a scale of 1 to 5, with the higher the number, the stronger the force.

Idalia hit Tallahassee and Gainesville, Florida, on Wednesday. Accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, houses and trees were toppled and power lines were cut. About 570,000 households suffered power outages.

Heavy rains caused two traffic accidents, each killing one person. In neighboring Georgia, another tree fell and killed one person while clearing a fallen tree from a road. On Thursday, heavy rain is forecast in the area, so there is a high chance that human life and property damage will increase.

U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned large-scale natural disasters that occurred in August, such as the Italian and Maui fires in Hawaii, and said, “Record floods, extreme droughts, heat, bush fires, etc. are causing serious damage scales we have never seen before. No one can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore.”


purple@donga.com