Hurricane Idalia could be US’s costliest climate disaster this year – Independent
September 2, 2023
By Paul Homewood
Does anybody actually believe the Independent?
Given that Idalia turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, the Independent is rather shooting itself in the foot. It rather proves that the cost of US “climate disasters”, (I assume they mean weather disasters), have actually been pretty low this year!
The simple reality, that even the simpletons who read the Independent must know, is that by definition hurricanes tend to be much more costly than most other weather events. That is the nature of the beast.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
How do you pronounce Idalia? Eye-Dahlia; i-day-leah; i-dah-leer. We need to be told.
Just say damp squib!
If you know the US state of Georgia… just add a “V” to the front. That’s the town where they grow sweet onions…
The potential impacts of hurricanes in Florida is bound to have increased over the years. Historically it was one of the least populated states – with only half a million people in 1900. Since 1950 the population has increased from 2.7 million to 16.0 million in 2000 and 22.2 million now. Just the sheer increase in property and buildings makes it likely the dollar costs of hurricanes will have increased
The area where it landed has a low population. Another reason why damage is not going to be anywhere near a record.
Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr. has all the answers you’ll ever need.
So…more than Katrina? Hmmm.
Well its 18 years since Katrina and inflation will have increased the cost of everything 🙂
Like most MSM, they are signed up to propagate the climate hysteria – like most sensible people, I ignore it
Unfortunately there a lot of stupid people out there – if there wasn’t the Guardian and Independent wouldn’t exist. Surveys show an increase in belief in global warming during the summer as the media pour out their heatwave lies.
Biblical reporting by the BBC …I thought Florida was going to be completely flattened, and now its not even on the news
To to the “Independent”: Hurricane’s are not “climate” events.
So far this year, Idalia is the ONLY hurricane to make landfall (Franklin was a Tropical Storm when it made landfall early in it’s development).
Hurricane Don, the only other hurricane so far in the Atlantic Basin, would never have been counted prior to the satellite era (~ 1979 and after). It was a mid-Atlantic record short duration minimal Cat 1 hurricane while far from any land mass. It weakened back to Tropical Storm status almost as soon as it became a minimal Cat 1 Hurricane.
Idalia made landfall as a Cat 3 hurricane after briefly becoming a Cat 4 while over a pool of warm water that seasonally collects in that area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Idalia made landfall in the sparsely populated “Big Bend” where Florida’s “panhandle” meets the Florida peninsula. That area is the least populated region of Florida’s coastline (by far the longest in the contiguous 48 states). The storm fairly rapidly diminished to a Cat 1 before becoming a Tropical Storm after crossing into Georgia.
The “Independent” displays it’s abysmal ignorance when it comes both to “climate” and “hurricanes”.
Starting in 2017, there have been just seven hurricanes to make landfall in the USA prior to September 1st. Three of those seven were in 2020. One each in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023. None in 2018 and 2022.
One landfall hurricane in late August is hardly reason to start playing “chicken little” and shouting “Head for the hills! The Hurricanes are coming!”
The brazen foolishness of the climate alarmists is truly pathetic.
I’ve yet to see any land based anemometer readings at above a Cat 1. Perhaps you know of some?
Actually, no. And it’s good to check the reporting stations. Nicole was claimed to be a hurricane that made landfall last year just south of Vero Beach. It was never a hurricane at any place in Florida… no NOAA reporting station recorded sustained winds of hurricane strength over Florida during Nicole. It was all hype. Most stations in the vicinity of Vero Beach didn’t even register sustained tropical storm force winds (39 mph or greater).
There is enough factual hurricane stuff here for The Independent to write a good factual story and help to recover some of their credibility, but I suppose they would still prefer to write their fairy stories and suffer the embarrassment.
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What about the horrific deaths rate from that Mexico Californian hurricane and the Florida one?
Simply awful, millions at risk. Total one unfortunate Mexican, poor fellow.
Hands down, the most costly disaster in the US this year is & will be the Biden Administration.
If you are brainless enough to build a normal American house (flimsy wood frame and aluminium cladding with no flood water protection) any where near the Florida coasts where a Hurricane or major storm might come ashore then you deserve all you get. Like the fools who build in the woods in the west coast fire belts of California and north a bit. Insurance companies should, even must, refuse them. Make it illegal to insure there?
To offer insurance in any of those areas is actually “moral hazard” which is to say: encouraging people to take risks which will almost certainly go wrong and soon. The insurance companies are wrong to encourage the fools. No one but a clown would build and live in such places. Only in America!
I disagree. Insurance should be available but it should fully reflect the risks and so be expensive if needed. When taking out building insurance here you are asked about flooding. I have never had to do this but was interested in a property that was protected by a bund from the river and this was tested the year before.
The cost of insurance in Florida is high and hurricane losses are limited in their coverage. Better built homes (above the flood zone, concrete block, no gable end roofs, hurricane impact windows, etc.) have reduced premiums from those in dangerous areas and not built to limit storm damage.
You make my point exactly Bob, build well and in safe areas and you have a much better chance.
But most don’t.
The premiums may be higher but it still loads the rest of that once great nation (Trump dreams of making it great again – Hmmm!).
Malcolm,
1. Florida has building codes . . . which reflect reality.
2. Florida has 1350 miles of coast line. The odds of any one spot – the place where someone decides to build a house – being touched by a strong storm are quite low.
3. The cost of private insurance reflects reality. Government insurance, not so much.
The Independent is not independent of the alarmist narratives, it’s a part of the elitist blob, it’s 23 year old climate journos, with degrees in macrame or basket weaving, are not the investigative sleuths they once were, they just repeat the official blob narrative, job done, salary paid
Spot on target!