Hurricane Helene
Hurricanes form over oceans and are fed by warm water, enabling them to intensify. When they come ashore, they weaken.
Almost four years ago I wrote about how climate change helps hurricanes last longer once they leave their oceanic incubator. Hurricane Helene is a perfect example.
Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, in what is called the “big bend” area, at the eastern end of Florida’s panhandle. One of the communities that was hardest hit by Helene was Asheville, North Carolina, which is more than 450 miles north of Perry. Of the more than 200 people who lost their lives because of this hurricane, about one-half were in North Carolina, hundreds of miles from the storm surge and the point of landfall.
Warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico helped Helene gain strength and severity, quickly increasing from a Category 1 (the least powerful type of hurricane) to a Category 4 (only Category 5 is more powerful) before making landfall. Helene’s monstrous size and strength carried huge amounts of moisture inland to the mountains of western North Carolina. Because cooler air cannot hold as much moisture as warmer air, the cooler temperatures in the mountains squeezed out a tremendous amount of rain, causing massive flooding and destruction. Property damage from Helene is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.
Unfortunately, our appetite for energy from fossil fuels—oil, natural gas, and coal—is feeding climate change and making these disasters more common and more severe.
To learn more about what climate change is, how it is impacting our world, and how it might be fulfilling biblical prophecy, read Chapter 11 of my book, Beyond Blind Faith, entitled “Apocalypse Soon.” You can read it in its entirety for free on this website. Just click here, or click on “Don’s Books” at the top of this page and go to the “List of Contents” under my book, Beyond Blind Faith.
This blog entry was based in part on information in the following website articles:
“Why Was Hurricane Helene So Damaging?,” by Tomasz Schafernaker, October 1, 2024, found at: https://www.bbc.com/weather/articles/c1jdzwgepgzo
“Hurricane Helene Makes Landfall in Florida,” September 27, 2024, found at: https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/hurricane-helene-makes-landfall-florida
“The search for the missing hits snags at every corner as Helene’s death toll tops 200,” by Jeff Amy and John Seewer, October 3, 2024, found at: https://apnews.com/article/helene-asheville-north-carolina-64fe5ca1b80f22fd2fd3b7c50b291d85
“Hurricane Helene expected to be one of the costliest storms in U.S. history,” September 30, 2024, found at: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/hurricane-helene-expected-one-of-costliest-storms-us-history/
0 Comments