Author’s note: With no development expected in the Atlantic this week, the daily newsletter will devote time to sharing stories and lessons learned from survivors of the 2024 hurricane season. You can watch our full report “It Only Takes One” here.
Visiting an area recently struck by disaster feels strangely sacred. The stuff scattered about or piled high is hewn from meaningful memories – from possessions ripped away and buried under the soles of strangers. I’m reminded of this in every step, and with each purposeful step, pausing to reflect on the tattered fabric of a community betrayed by the idyllic surroundings credited for its birth.
Hurricanes are cruel. Not in a vindictive or malicious way, but cold and indiscriminately cruel. It’s human nature to think it won’t happen to us. Until, of course, it does.
It’s also human nature to seek out paradise, whether on sugary-white sand by turquoise seas or alongside peaceful riverbeds in fresh mountain valleys. But as emergency managers are inclined to say, there’s nothing natural about disasters. The hazards might be natural, but the disaster part comes with where and how we build.
For many whose lives were upended by unthinkable disaster, it’s not so simple. They’d built for the so-called 100-year storm. They carried policies to protect their businesses or belongings from wind and flood. They sought higher ground, only to have that ground crumble beneath.
It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to foresee our worst disasters, but disaster comes when the unprecedented exploits the cracks in our armor. Virtually no one after a disaster says they were expecting it. There’s no record of this ever happening here, they say, so how could we ever expect it? Yes, we heard the forecasts, but we didn’t think it would be this bad.
As a hurricane and disaster specialist, I’ve spent over two decades working inside communities struck by disaster. When applied thoughtfully, the hard lessons can identify overlooked weaknesses, improving predictive capabilities, making society more resilient, and promoting awareness ahead of the next threat.
After spending time in the air and on the ground with other National Hurricane Center personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis in 2005, we adjusted our storm surge models to detect dangerous forerunner waves, and the devastating surge I saw outside the hurricane warning inspired the national storm surge products and warnings I would later develop at NHC.
At FEMA, while overseeing its disaster planning, I spent months on the ground after nearly every devastating hurricane and used lessons gathered to overhaul its over 600-page hurricane response plan which took nearly two years. No plan is perfect, but the careful advance coordination among dozens of federal and state response agencies with input from affected communities move us in the right direction.
This week, I want to share a few stories and common themes I heard over the course of several weeks visiting communities hardest hit by the hurricanes of 2024 – from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the mountains of North Carolina. We told many of these stories in our annual hurricane season special “It Only Takes One,” which aired across South Florida on June 1st. You can watch it here.
On Wednesday, I’ll highlight the themes that stood out from my time on the road in these communities. Everyone I spoke to had a unique and compelling story and by listening we gain awareness and empathy to apply to our own lives for hurricane season.
More on this Wednesday. In the meantime, the Atlantic is giving us another quiet week to kick off the start of summer.
CLICK HERE to download the Local 10 Weather Authority’s 2025 hurricane survival guide.
