On Aug. 29, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida hit the state of Louisiana. It only got worse from there. After leaving more than a million people without electrical power, Ida moved from Louisiana into the Northeast, breaking rainfall records, spawning a tornado outbreak, causing flash flooding, and prompting the shutdown of most of New York City’s transportation system. The hurricane dissipated on Sept. 4, resulting in over 90 deaths in the US, and 20 in Venezuela. Two weeks later, many homes are still uninhabitable, roads are destroyed, people are left without power, loved ones are being mourned, and the nation is contending yet again with the ever-growing threat of the climate crisis.

Research illustrates that the warmer the planet gets, the more brutal storms are becoming. James P. Kossin, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stated, “Climate change is making it more likely for hurricanes to behave in certain ways.” As human-induced climate change warms the surface temperatures of the Atlantic, storm activity appears to be increasing. Veronica Penney at The New York Times runs through the different ways storms are changing and becoming more deadly. Due to rising temperatures in the ocean’s surface, hurricane winds are becoming stronger, as warmer water provides more energy to the incoming storms. Penney points out stronger winds can cause “downed power lines, damaged roofs and when paired with rising sea levels, worse coastal flooding.” Climate change and warming temperatures also increase the amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold, which leads to more rain. Since the hurricanes are being fueled by warmer water, the zones in which hurricanes can form are expanding. There are some changes with unknown causes as well, such as storms moving more slowly, and storms intensifying more rapidly. Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post explains “parts of the Gulf are three to five degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average for the end of the 20th century. Research shows that human greenhouse gas emissions have caused the ocean to warm faster in recent years than at any point since the end of the last ice age.” Even though all these changes are not yet explained, the trends are clear and are a cause for worry.

Around 5,000 National Guardsmen have been activated across the Southeast, and more than 25,000 electrical crews and linemen from 30 states came in as well. President Biden said he had instructed the Federal Aviation Administration to work with electrical companies to deploy surveillance drones across the impacted regions. Biden also sanctioned the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to provide satellite imagery to assess the damage. The Federal Communications Commission launched a “cooperative framework agreement among wireless carriers,” so that people will be able to use any company’s services. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that Nassau County, Bronx, Queens, Kings, Richmond, Westchester, and New York Counties are eligible for Federal Disaster Assistance. This means that all New Yorkers who have been displaced are eligible for funds that include housing assistance, crisis counseling, unemployment assistance, home repairs, and legal services. Additionally, the deadline to apply for FEMA aid was extended. President Biden, in addition to working with local governments to provide direct relief, emphasized his Build Back Better plan, which would “modernize our roads, our bridges, our water system, sewers and draining systems, and power grids and transmission lines to make sure they’re more resilient.” He also emphasized the importance of bipartisan cooperation, both at a federal level and a community level.

However, the process of rebuilding is slow and painful. And divisions between parties in Congress may prove costly for those severely impacted. In one part of Louisiana, Pointe-aux-Chênes, 80% of homes are uninhabitable, and both residents and the local government do not know if enough money will be provided to rebuild successfully. Coastal communities such as Pointe-aux-Chênes were hit the hardest by Ida within the state. Entergy, the main utility company in the area, reported 75% of residents were still without power two weeks later, opposed to 1% of their customers in New Orleans. Fatalities have also increased as heat-related deaths resulted from a lack of electricity. Many simply do not know where to go from here.

Hurricane Ida is a dangerous example of the worst that comes from human-induced climate change. Rapid destruction results in slow rebuilding, and it stresses the significance of taking action against the warming climate.