allison hanes: hurricanes are more than distant threats for montrealers
where once we may have seen hurricane season as a distant threat, now we worry about whether we'll suffer the collateral damage.
3 minute read
we apologize, but this video has failed to load.
try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
hurricanes are nothing new to florida. they have their own season in the atlantic basin, which runs from june 1 to nov. 30, a sixth-month period.
a house in new port richey, fla., boarded up in advance of milton’s arrival this week and photographed by the associated press, spoke poignantly to the growing frequency of extreme weather. it listed the disasters of recent years in spray paint scrawled on a sheet of plywood: charley, frances, ivan, irma and now milton. the homeowner is running out of room to cross out the next hurricane. and the “three strikes, you’re out,” baseball analogy topping the message long since stopped being funny. it’s more a testament to gritty resilience.
a sign on a home lists hurricane names in preparation for hurricane milton on tuesday, oct. 8, 2024, in new port richey, fla.
mike carlson
/
the associated press
climate change has made such storms more frequent, more destructive and more deadly. and this year, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration in the u.s. predicted a more active season than usual, what with higher ocean temperatures, the la niña weather phenomenon in the pacific and lower atlantic trade winds all amplifying the conditions.
but hurricane milton stands out for several reasons.
it’s the second murderous tropical storm in two weeks. hurricane helene barrelled in from the atlantic, ravaging the east coast. so some florida residents have been battered and flooded twice in less than a month.
advertisement
some of the worst and most unexpected destruction from helene occurred 643 kilometres inland, however, in the blue ridge mountains. appalachian homes, cars and residents were swept away, steel bridges were bent by the force of swollen rivers, mudslides came thundering down hillsides reshaping the landscape, highways were washed out, cutting off escape routes and hampering emergency response. entire villages like chimney rock, north carolina, were washed downriver into lake lure by a 30-foot wall of water, local media report.
an estimated 230 people were killed in six states. it’s a stark reminder, nowhere is safe.
and while florida, georgia, virginia, tennessee, north carolina and south carolina were still digging out from helene, milton queued up in the gulf of mexico with a west-to-east trajectory. more than 7 million people, or a third of the state of florida, were put under evacuation orders and told to flee, leaving piles of uncollected debris from helene behind on the curb.
milton was so monstrous as it gathered steam that one florida meteorologist choked up with emotion while describing its force. although it peaked as a category 5 hurricane while over water and was downgraded to a category 3 by the time it made landfall near sarasota, it still spun off tornadoes announcing its fury, toppled a construction crane and tore the roof of the tampa bay rays’ baseball stadium. (maybe they will need to relocate to montreal as some once hoped, at least temporarily.)
advertisement
the full extent of the damage and the death toll were still being assessed thursday. it promises to be grim.
hurricanes are no longer a phenomenon we can watch from a safe, voyeuristic distance here in montreal. we must be on standby ourselves for the remnants from these behemoths.
already this year, montreal and the surrounding area has been lashed by two of the season’s major cyclones.
in july, beryl, by then a tropical storm, dumped as much as 100 millimetres of rain on some parts of montreal in just a few hours, flooding underpasses, filling underground garages, submerging cars, closing highways, stranding motorists for hours and knocking out power. environment canada said it was the wettest july 10 on record. but that was just a teaser.
on aug. 9, what remained of hurricane debby caused more havoc. montreal was doused with 150 millimetres of rain in less than 24 hours, more than the 90 millimetres it typically receives in the month of august. some areas were drenched with even more. in ste-anne-de-bellevue, 173 millimetres of rain fell.
again, highways and bridges were closed because of flooding. highway 13 remained shut for days. basements across the city filled with murky water as storm sewers backed up. the damages exceeded $2.5 billion, according to the insurance industry, larger than the 1998 ice storm.
advertisement
this time, mercifully, milton is forecast to peter out over the atlantic while lesley, another storm, is supposed to boomerang back out over the ocean without making landfall. that’s something montrealers can be grateful for over the thanksgiving weekend.
so our hearts go out to florida and the appalachian states recovering from the double whammy of helene and milton. but the storm season is not over yet. the national hurricane centre is already keeping an eye on nadine.
we all have to be on the lookout for the next one veering in our direction. it’s a question of when, not if.
share story
