Issue II Final Layout (1)

december 2022 NEWS | 03
Hurricane Ian’s devastating effects on Sanibel Island, Florida
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM
AVANI SHAH-LIPMAN ‘25
NIKOLETTA KUVAEVA ‘25
Sports Editor and Staff Writer
O
n September 28
2022, Hurricane Ian hit
Southeast Florida and the
surrounding small islands,
including Sanibel Island.
Winds that reached 150 miles
per hour brought down trees
and powerlines, flooded houses,
and pushed feet of water ashore
from the Gulf of Mexico.
The World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) called it “one
of the worst hurricanes to hit the area
in a century.” Many families’ lives
were turned upside down when their
homes were damaged or destroyed by
the wind and water.
Ian was one of the strongest storms
to ever slam Florida, the death toll
amounting to more than 100 people, most
from drowning. Entire neighborhoods
were flooded with water in an unforeseen
case of property destruction.
Unfortunately, Ian is part of an
already worsening trend of weather
disasters. Beneath this storm lies the
ferocity and truth of our current climate
catastrophe.
“Climate science is increasingly
able to show that many of the extreme
weather events that we are experiencing
have become more likely and more
intense due to human-induced climate
change,” WMO Secretary General
Petteri Taalas said.
According to the
Environmental Defense Fund,
hurricanes have become stronger
due to the rise of ocean level
temperatures. This causes
more water vapor and
heat to be pulled into the
atmosphere and results
in more severe rain
and wind.
Pennsylvania
has experienced similar
extreme weather events. In
2012, Hurricane Sandy caused
catastrophic damage to much of the Mid-
Atlantic region, a sign that climate change
can have very real consequences, even
for inland states. At Category 3 strength,
it caused $60 billion in total damages. It
took lots of hard work and collaboration
to build these areas back to the way they
were, and some areas are still rebuilding
ten years later.
Similarly, Hurricane Ian, an even
more devastating Category 4 storm, will
require massive amounts of effort
to recover from.
Sanibel
Island was
one of the
communities
that was hit
hardest by Ian. Being
a barrier island (an ever-shifting
sand deposit paralleling Florida’s coast),
Sanibel residents are far more susceptible
to the damage of hurricanes. The process
of restoring their electricity, water, and
sewage is primarily inhibited by the
destruction of the causeway, the bridge
connecting Sanibel to mainland Florida.
Additionally, many buildings sustained
major structural damage or were reduced
to debris.
“Sanibel Island is unrecognizable
as the hometown we left just a few days
ago” Dana Souza, Sanibel’s city manager,
reported to FOX Weather.
Sacha Connor, the owner of a
consulting firm whose father
calls Sanibel Island home,
recounted her
father’s
h a r r o w i n g
experience with
Hurricane Ian. While Mr. Connor
fortunately did evacuate, several
hundred people chose to stay on the island
because “no one expected it to be this
bad.”
On October 5, 2022, City Council
allowed residents who had evacuated
to return home, but they “had to figure
out their own way” back to the island.
Mr. Connor managed to hitch a ride on
a contractor’s boat to Sanibel, as the
causeway prevented any automobile
travel.
However, his journey
was far from over. “You
had to bicycle to
your house,”
Ms. Connor
s a i d .
U p o n
M r .
Connor’s
arrival, he
found his home
filled with four feet
of water. “It [was] just a
disaster,” Ms. Connor said.
“Places that these hurricanes
are hitting are more built up than they
have been in the past, so they affect more
people,” Ms. Connor said. The question
becomes, with the consistent increase of
hurricane severity, is it worth rebuilding
the decimated areas?
Ms. Connor was conflicted about
whether Sanibel should be rebuilt. On one
hand, she said, “These people want to be
together in this beautiful place. My father
built a community here.” She wants people
to be able to enjoy the “wonderful place
it was: natural beauty, animal life, plant
life, no street lights.” However, on the
other hand, she acknowledged
the immense cost of
rebuilding an
island
that will
likely be
struck again.
Jesse M.
Keenan, a Tulane
professor, predicts
that Sanibel will
become “an enclave
for the ultrawealthy,” as
people with less means likely
won’t pour their money into
rebuilding their homes just to
see them destroyed again.
According to NBC
Washington, “barrier islands
were never an ideal place for
development.” Although they are
disproportionately vulnerable to
weather-related events compared to
the mainland or larger islands, their
beauty makes them a prime location for
vacation homes.
As climate change worsens,
awareness about global warming’s
association with extreme weather events is
growing, and efforts to alleviate hurricane
damages have amassed support both
nationally and within our own community.
At Baldwin, Middle School’s Service
League ran a pin sale to assist victims of
Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico.
The threat of climate change—
and the accompanying severe weather
events—looms over residents of coastal
Florida and the entire country. Each
passing hurricane has the capacity to
be stronger than the one prior, and one
day the homes on islands like Sanibel
Island may become as distant as
Atlantis. Only time will tell how
rising tides and extreme weather
will affect the island, leaving
residents to reflect on the toll
of Ian and if—and how—they
should go about rebuilding.
Design and graphics by Cynthia Zhang ‘24