waves, wildfires or droughts. So, Hurricane Ian was just the latest ping-pong volley in the climate change controversy. Impartial science cautions that climate change is transforming weather and warns that global warming is the culprit for supercharging extreme weather around the world. The facts: the oceans and the air are warmer and more water vapour in the atmosphere makes sea levels higher. And, according to the science of weather tracking, warmer oceans not only mean bigger and stronger hurricanes, they also inflict larger storm surges. While snowbirds enjoy flocking to Suncoast hot spots such as Naples, Fort Myers, Port Charlotte and Sarasota, there are more than 3,200 kilometres of shores in the Gulf of Mexico – from Key West to Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. And they are no strangers to violent storms. The threat of hurricanes is very real for Floridians and seasoned snowbirds. The sixmonth “hurricane season” is from June 1 until November 30, and the peak of the season is between mid-August and late October. out of the ground like flimsy matchsticks, shearing off roof shingles, mangling fences and screened pool enclosures and pelting bizarrely horizontal heavy rain like the fierce blast from a firefighter’s pressure hose. A puzzling fluke of nature that, while some places were devastated, others survived unscathed. Annie had it right. “The sun’ll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.” Remarkable. Soothing. Uplifting. Inspirational. The people! Longterm locals and seasonal snowbirds rallying together and comparing stories, scrounging for water and gas and hoping for even just a few cellphone signal bars. Road crews, caravans of utility trucks and contractors and clusters of chipping-in volunteers with chain saws and work gloves sprung into action. A comforting and real-time revelation that, when the going gets tough, the tough – and the stressed but gritty, resilient and caring – get going. While getting-ready-for-the-seasonal-exodus snowbirds anxiously watched CTV and CBC for Florida hurricane damage reports and updates, early snowbirds and locals who were hunkered down had impromptu huddles on ravaged streets and parking lots. The disbelieving but relieved chit-chatty buzz ranged fromArmageddon-ish shock and awe, comparing personalized highlights, to hearing about the tragedy of casualties and obliterated lives and homes, particularly in hardest-hit and snowbird-popular neighbourhoods such as Fort Myers, Port Charlotte, Venice, Englewood and North Port. In the week following the jolt, as cleanup crews started the massive job of hauling away high curbside piles of branches, chain-sawed tree trunks and twisted aluminum, the media pivoted to what/when/where/why postmortems. Predictable blame-putting about the misleading weather forecasting system failing to give adequate and accurate warning, and also exacerbating the touchy topic of exorbitant Florida property insurance. For locals and snowbirds alike, the familiar and trendy new chestnut about global warming and climate change rang truer than ever, and closer to home. After all, climate change is usually mentioned (and blamed) in media coverage of most hurricanes, torrential rainstorms, floods, frigid cold spells, heat Special Report Photo: Sarasota Herald-Tribune CSANews | WINTER 2022 | 15
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