Storm Debby and Little Debbie
Storm Debby and Little Debbie
A category one hurricane results in $12.3 billion in losses. Sweet.
Storm Debby
On Saturday, August 3, Tropical Storm Debby passed over of Cuba at 45 mph, gaining strength to become a Category 1 hurricane as it approached Florida.
The lowest rated category of hurricanes is defined by winds of 74-95 mph and the National Hurricane Center warns a Category 1 storm will have “Very dangerous winds [that] will produce some damage: Well-constructed frame homes could have damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters. Large branches of trees will snap and shallowly rooted trees may be toppled. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in power outages that could last a few to several days.”
I would suggest that this description is outdated, as storms have changed.
The National Hurricane Center’s emphasis on wind being the greatest danger in a Category 1 storm is no longer correct. Why? Because with a warming planet, these storms carry more water, which makes them travel more slowly. Storm Debby crawled across Florida and up the East Coast, often at little more than a fast walking pace, lingering and dumping more water than possible compared to Category 1 storms of the past. The winds were not the greatest threat, it was flooding.
Little Debbie® tasty treats
The precursor to Little Debby® the brand and sweet snack giant came when O.D. McKee began selling cakes for a Becker’s Bakery out of his truck in 1933. In 1935, he created the “Oatmeal Creme Pie,” two oatmeal cookies with a layer of creme in between them.
Times were hard. During the Roaring Twenties, America’s wealth more than doubled. Gross national product grew by 40 percent. An affluent consumer culture was created. Others remained poor, of course. People were shown the same advertisements, bought the same goods, listened to the same music (jazz was born, that was good!) and danced the same dances. This was the beginning of the homogenization of culture (not good), with an emphasis on material goods being happiness (even worse).
Wild speculation in the Roaring Twenties also brought the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Low wages, proliferation of debt, a struggling agricultural sector and excess of large bank loans that could not be liquidated were also factors. Sound familiar?
In 1957, the McKees built a modern factory in Collegedale, Tennessee and a new line of snack cakes and pies were developed. In 1959, the first Nutty Bars® wafer bars were sold, “starting a crunchy, peanut-buttery craze that lives on today!” Wowee.
In 1960, the Little Debbie brand was created based on O.D. McKee’s granddaughter. Let me be clear, I’m not picking on the McKee family or the Little Debbie brand. This is a classic rags-to-riches American success story. Doubtlessly, the McKee family came from hard scrabble times to build their wealth, and now they employ thousands of people, 6,300 according to this article from 2020. Glassdoor reviews of jobs look generally favorable, with an average rating over 4 and the company is a Tennessee cultural icon as an important part of the economy since 1934. That’s all good stuff. I had no idea, just a vague memory of Oatmeal Creme Pies as a kid being a treat at my grandparent’s modest lake home, (in actuality a trailer, they knew hard scrabble, too), where I got sunburned every summer on their tiny beach.
The problem is the Earth herself has changed, and we need to change with her, for her, for ourselves or our extinction may very well await. Among many other problems, factory scale production of unnecessary goods needs to be reigned in. We don’t have the carbon budget for it.
Storm Debby, the damages
In total, Storm Debby is estimated to have inflicted $12.3 billion dollars in damages. Of that number, just $1.4 billion is covered by insurance as estimated by Karen Clark & Company, specialists in catastrophe risk modeling. These kinds of events hurt all of us, directly or indirectly in lost businesses, lost jobs, homeowners who don’t recover, and taxpayer programs to get people on their feet again. Those are dollars that could be spent on better healthcare and education, and improving infrastructure instead of merely repairing it.
Additionally, at least eight people died because of the storm, which can be directly linked to fossil fueled climate change. The hotter Atlantic Ocean made this storm more devastating from increased evaporation than it would have been in the past. The burgeoning field of attribution science can prove this.
This is why the descriptions of storm categories need to be updated pronto, with widespread information campaigns. That’s a bare minimum. Certainly, Floridians are jaded to the traditional effects of Category 1 storms at this point. They need to be told conditions are different now, and the new dangers impressed upon them. Climate change denier Ron DeSantis isn’t going to do this, but the fact is, governments should be coming clean, warning us constantly about climate change with powerful campaigns everywhere. This is what government did in WWII, and this is no less than a WWII moment. Where is the message? We should be rallying together. Business as usual is ending one way or another. We can have it this way, with floods fires and demonic wrath, or actually make and implement a plan to get climate change under control. Did you know 50,000 died in Europe last year because of climate change? Heat, the silent killer.
FEMA needs to get on board, too. The huge losses that property owners are suffering from Storm Debby in most cases are because flood insurance wasn’t required. Flood plain maps are outdated with the changed nature of storms breaching dams and turning creeks into rivers.
With the speed climate is changing, updating maps is likely to prove challenging, but must be done.
Storm Debby was probably a nationwide yawn, but I see it differently, as yet another warning from our ever more volatile planet, a storm that in years gone by would have been far less destructive. Little Debbie is a fairly innocuous holdover from a world that isn’t coming back. We must take action to make sure what we have left is protected as much as possible. It’s going to be a rough ride. The first order of business is to get Harris/Walz elected. Trump, who turned back 125 EPA regulations while in office, has solicited bribes from the oil industry, and they’re giving by the fistful. If he and fake hillbilly misogynist J.D. Vance get elected, it’s game over for democracy, religious, racial and sexual orientation tolerance, women’s bodily autonomy and my main topic, hope for an inhabitable Earth. Thank you for reading.
With all due respect, because I like your writing and we all need to read it: a candidate who won't intervene to stop a genocide, and that applies to both corporate candidates, is not going to bother enforcing any other laws, either, and will certainly not be divesting from fossil fuels, war, or big ag, especially after they manufactured your consent. The United States is pumping out way more oil and oil-adjacent products than anyone needs or wants, and it won't stop until we cut way back on our consumption. Those corporate party maniacs will kill us all by storm, disease, or famine. We need to look after each other and stop wasting our attention on national elections. Get a solar generator before Biden's import tariffs kick in, and before they become scarce. Store some drinking water, just in case. And please keep writing.
So, so true. I'd add that we not only need to take steps to get climate choas under control (a future endevour) but a plan to survive the curve we've already set in motion (our present). Preferably a plan that is owned and implemented from the ground up, not monetised by business and forced from the top down.