September 10 marks the peak of the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane season from June 1 to November 30. However, this season, the height seems much less clear. In a Tuesday, September 10 CNN article, Eric Zerkel writes that a “hyperactive season” shows no signs of slowing as it continues to terrorize those in the Atlantic Ocean. According to CNN, “hurricane activity has been above average in every respect.” There have already been three major hurricanes this season, double the average for this time of year. Two named storms have made landfall in the US. On August 30, 2023, Hurricane Idalia made the strongest landfall in 125 years when it hit Florida’s Big Bend Region just above Tampa.
On the morning of August 30, 2023, Hurricane Idalia landed in Florida as a “high-end category three” storm with speeds up to 125 mph, according to the Associated Press (AP). According to the AP report, when making landfall in Florida, Idalia began toppling trees, tearing off roofs, and even blowing over a gas station canopy. Fishing towns in Florida’s Big Bend were flooded and essentially swept away as the storm raged through. According to CNN, the destruction and fear continued as Idalia broke into a tropical storm and rushed through the coastal areas of Georgia and North and South Carolina, closing businesses, delaying flights, and flooding roadways.
As Communities across Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina recovered from the devastation left in the wake of Idalia, another hurricane, Hurricane Lee, was forming in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the BBC, Hurricane Lee intensified from a category one to five storm. This is the third fastest escalation in 40 years, said BBC. The escalation of Hurricane Lee was astonishing to climate scientists. Scientists expected Hurricane Lee to make landfall as a level five hurricane; experts projected Lee to tear through Bermuda at around 85 mph on Friday, September 15, before continuing to Maine and Canada over the weekend. Bermuda and Maine were already under a state of alert on Wednesday, September 13 as Hurricane Lee approached.
In a Fox Weather report published Saturday, September 16 authorities in Florida and Maine were cited as already reporting fatalities in connection with Hurricane Lee. In Fernandina Beach in Florida, a 15-year-old boy drowned swimming in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, September 13. Later that week, on Saturday, September 16, a falling tree killed a 50-year-old man while he was driving his car in Searsport, Maine. The region was under a tropical storm warning with sustained winds of 39-73 mph at the time of the incident. Ultimately, high winds and extremely strong rip currents associated with Hurricane Lee have caused destruction and fatalities across the East Coast.
An unusually active hurricane season continues to threaten the eastern United States and nations in the Atlantic Ocean. How do these storms affect students studying at Andrews whose families live in areas affected by these storms? In a June 16, 2022, Frontiers in Psychiatry journal article, researchers examined the relationship between familial stress and the impact on student’s academic performance. In this article, researchers found that familial pressure has a negative effect on depression levels, either leading to or increasing depression in students. While the scope of the study primarily focused on students’ relationship with their parents and the support they receive from their parents and home. The study does evaluate how stress at home can affect students. This research shows that Andrews needs to understand and exceptionally support students whose families have been affected by these storms.
Warm water in the Atlantic has caused this unusually active and aggressive hurricane season. NPR reports that a “hotter earth makes storms more likely to get big and dangerous,” describing these storms as “climate-driven.” As these storms are affected by climate circumstances around the world, it presents the question of how we share in causing the environment for these storms.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.