Hurricane Helene is now forecast to reach catastrophic Category 4 strength by the time it makes landfall in Florida on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center says, with storm surge potentially climbing to 20 feet along some parts of the coast.
Helene could be the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in over a year – and time is running out for those in its path to prepare.
“A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20 feet above ground level, along with destructive waves,” the center warned. “Preparations to protect life and property should be completed by early Thursday before tropical storm conditions arrive.”
Helene rapidly intensified into a hurricane Wednesday and will continue strengthening as it crosses over the record-warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. Rapidly intensifying storms like Helene are becoming more frequent in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution…
I truly think this will be a status quo shattering storm. Ever since “covid ended” the US has been in this state of extreme suffocating denial dialed up to 11 about the future and consquences. We all returned to office (if we were lucky enough not to be deemed an essential worker and were able to quarantine at all) and just accepted society was too dysfunctional to treat our safety as valuable even at a basic and fundamental level. Liberals and centrists dont even try to convince me they arent full of shit anymore, they checked out (all my leftist and science friends on the otherhand are still fighting but they and people in general for that matter are real close to collapse).
Honestly I feel exactly like I am living in a nightmare and if there is any silver lining to this storm it might be from punching centrists in the face to get them to wake up from their shitty dreams that are quickly foreclosing our future. Not that I want this to happen or that people sufferring is good…
. . but oh my I cant take much more of this, this is the most suffocating and disonant period of US culture I have lived through it makes the Iraq war era US look grounded and sane in comparison, which makes me want to throw up just saying that.
I don’t think this is gonna change the status quo of anything, I bet most people forget about it by the end of the week
People generally remember storms this big for the rest of their lives.