Hurricane Irma ravaged much of the state of Florida, with Republican Gov. Rick Perry having stated that over six million people in his state are now without power, as of 11:45 a.m. Monday morning.
Additionally, Miami City Commissioner Ken Russel says that parts of the city that he represents were pretty much “completely submerged” after Irma. Luckily, things appear to already be clearing up due to city’s infrastructure and draining system.
As the clean-up and rescue efforts begin with the storm dying down on its way to Georgia, some experts are warning that Irma could have been much more dangerous and powerful had it not slammed into Cuba on its way to the Sunshine State.
“There’s a huge difference between a [Category] 3 and 5 when it makes landfall,” said Ryan Maue, meteorologist at Weatherbell Analytics. “Barbuda is an example of that. It was wiped.”
Nearing the U.S. mainland, Irma was downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 4 hurricane after losing some of its power and hitting the northern coast of Cuba. While still dangerous, it’s winds dropped considerably, from an estimated 170 mph to around 115 mph as it made landfall in Florida.
“This is obviously not the worst-case scenario for Florida overall,” he added, noting that “it would have been much worse” had Irma hit Florida 20 to 30 miles to the east.
The slight change in direction would have caused much more devastation, according to Weather Underground Meteorology Director Jeff Masters, such as much stronger winds, more rainfall and tornadoes directly hitting the city.
Despite the weakened hurricane, Masters believes Hurricane Irma will become one of the top five costly hurricanes in the history of the United States, trailing behind Hurricane Harvey which hit Texas and Louisiana just last month.
Despite the heavy cost of destruction and human lives from such strong storms, Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, says it is insensitive to discuss climate change during and immediately after their destruction.
“To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,” Mr. Pruitt said as Irma approached Florida. “To use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to these people in Florida,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ben Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, believes failing to discuss climate change in moments such as now hurts both Florida and the rest of the country.
“It’s precisely the conversation that we should be having right now. I’m not sure what’s insensitive about that,” said Dr. Kirtman, who evacuated from Florida on Wednesday. “It’s really important to direct resources and funds to the crisis on the ground at the moment, of course. But I don’t see why what’s causing these storms and what’s contributing to making it worse is necessarily mutually exclusive.”