Freak Weather

In the recent past, there has many cases of freak weather. There have been many publications by scientists looking at extreme weather changes around the world such as hurricanes in the Caribbean. Hurricanes occur in tropical waters. It is a storm that is called tropical cyclone. Hurricane Maria formed in 2017 in Puerto Rico (National Ocean Service, 2017), a Caribbean island. It damaged approximately 70,000 homes and destroyed the infrastructure of the island. The worst damage was felt in the many lives that were lost. It was classified as a category 5 with a high wind speed of 175 mph.

The damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is still felt up to date, a few years later. After this natural disaster, many families flew the island and went to look for a better life in the United States. Thousands of families were left homeless and some communities were completely destroyed. In 2018, the government of Puerto Rico reported that hurricane caused an estimate of 2975 deaths. In 2017, the number of deaths was estimated at 64 (National Ocean Service, 2017).

The surviving population was left in dark and with no access to water as electricity was cut off. Over 3 million people were left in a crisis seeking humanitarian assistance. More than 80% of Puerto Rico’s over lines were destroyed by the storm. It was ranked as the worst storm to strike Puerto Rico in close to a century. The total damages caused were estimated at a price of approximately 94 billion dollars. An estimate of $780 million loss in agricultural productions was also recorded. The island was still struggling with poverty and food security before and hurricane Maria made the situation worse. The island is working towards recovery and its people are committed to doing what it takes to realize full recovery. Puerto Rico still relies on support and humanitarian interventions to achieve its goals of recovering from hurricane Maria.

References

National Ocean Service. (2017, September). Hurricane Maria flooding damage assessment images. NOAA’s National Ocean Service. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sep17/hurricane-maria.html