The United States, Mexico, and Canada have all been host to a variety of hurricanes this season, all with crippling effects for the people in the area and local and national economies
Most recently, Hurricane Olaf made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane in Mexico’s Baja California del Sur region. Olaf was soon downgraded to a tropical storm once winds reached less than 70 mph, but not before devastating many coastal communities and resorts.
Across the United States and eastern Mexico, hurricanes have been especially malevolent this season. On August 29, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Port Fourchon, New Orleans, with shockingly similar results to the devastating Hurricane Katrina of 2005.
Ida also caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, largely affecting the Phillips 66 oil rig and pipeline. Using images taken from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft, the US Coast Guard was able to identify the source of the majority of the oil spill in the region.
Port Fourchon is home to one of the largest oil refineries in the world, the Alliance Refinery, which can process over 255,000 barrels of oil per day. Phillips 66 tried to downplay the effects of the spil, with Bernardo Fallas, Phillips 66 spokesperson, saying that there was a negligible amount of water in the facility. Later, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality found that necessary levees inside of the facility had been broken during the storm, leaking oil for days after the initial waters receded.
The total amount of spilled oil as a result of Hurricane Ida is still unknown, but the story comes as no surprise, as Hurricane Katrina was responsible for almost 8 million gallons of spilled oil.
For Canada, Hurricane Larry made landfall in Newfoundland as a Category 1 hurricane. Widespread flooding and a barrage of early-season snow caused a large number of power outages on the island.
Once Larry moved away from Newfoundland, it was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, and then finally a winter storm. Southern parts of Greenland received mild snow, but experts have decreed that the storm could bring up to 4 feet of snow.
Finally, Tropical Storm Depression Nicholas made landfall in Texas on Tuesday, September 14. Flash flooding is predicted, especially in coastal Louisiana and Texas, still grappling with Hurricane Ida’s damage.
The storm is also expected to release more than 10 inches of rain in a multitude of areas near the Gulf of Mexico, and storm surges are a strong possibility as well.
Hurricane Ida has already left state governments rushing to restore powers to highly-affected areas, and with Nicholas, experts must work even harder to restore Louisiana infrastructure to survive the powerful storm.
Olaf, Ida, Larry, and Nicholas do not even scratch the surface of the immense number of hurricanes plaguing coastal North America, but all seem to say something similar: hurricanes are increasingly becoming more powerful and more devastating, and infrastructure can barely keep up with the destruction.
