The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: DeSantis Declares Emergency Over Floods After Cutting Stormwater Funds
Dear Diary. Today I will be highlighting South Florida’s recent floods. Over the last week a week boundary has focused tumultuous rains over that area to the tune of 20+ inches in spots. Folks, this rain episode has climate change written all over it:
Yet conservative governor Ron DeSantis, who is a climate change denier, is not helping residents at all with a fend for yourselves, no help from government in the name of freedom attitude.
Here are more details from Common Dreams:
DeSantis Declares Emergency Over Floods After Cutting Stormwater Funds | Common Dreams
Two people push a car out of one of the flooded streets in Miami on June 13, 2024, after 24 hours of continuous rain in South Florida. (Photo: Jesus Olarte/Anadolu via Getty Images)
DeSantis Declares Emergency Over Floods After Cutting Stormwater Funds
“As I’m sitting here stuck on a Brightline train because of flooding in my district, all those stormwater projects he cut look pretty stupid right now,” a Florida lawmaker said.
Jun 13, 2024
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Wednesday for five counties due to heavy flooding in southern Florida just the day after he cut $205 million in stormwater, wastewater, and sewer projects from the state’s budget.
Heavy rains caused by a disorganized tropical system have inundated southern and western Florida since Tuesday, bringing more than a foot of rain in places and disrupting road and air travel throughout the area. The Weather Prediction Center (WPC), part of the National Weather Service, put southern Florida under a rare 4 out of 4 high risk of flooding on Thursday as rains were expected to continue there, and warned that it could be “locally catastrophic.”
The rains “transformed roads into canals and caused water to seep into homes,” CNNreported, while a tow truck driver in Fort Lauderdale told The Associated Press that abandoned cars everywhere reminded him of “zombie movie.”
The extreme weather prompted state Sen. Jason Pizzo (D-37) to criticize DeSantis’ budget cut.
“As I’m sitting here stuck on a Brightline train because of flooding in my district, all those stormwater projects he cut look pretty stupid right now,” Pizzo told the AP.
DeSantis cut the $205 million from the budget amid other cuts that he made Tuesday in finalizing the state budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year that begins on July 1, Tampa Bay Times reported.
In May, DeSantis signed a bill that removes most references to climate change from state law and streamlines fossil fuel development projects—”Don’t Say Climate Change,” the bill’s critics have called it, including a meteorologist who spoke up against it on air. On the day he signed the legislation, Key West was a record-setting 115°F.
Florida is particularly vulnerable to rising seas and to extreme weather, including hurricanes and tropical storms, made more likely and more intense by climate change.
DeSantis on Wednesday declared emergencies in the counties of Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade, and Sarasota. Two people died and three were injured in a weather-related car accident in Collier County, The New York Times reported. The flooding closed part of Interstate 95 and limited flight schedules at two major airports, Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted that the 2024 hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends on November 30, will be worse than normal.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Edward Carver is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
More:
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is some more new May 2024 climatology (Other reports are archived on prior daily posts.):
Here is More Climate News from Friday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)