For years those of us in Florida have been told that “Storm Surge is the biggest killer” in Tropical systems. Helene proved a once-in-a-lifetime event for this.

We’ve had lots of once-in-a-lifetime events in Florida recently.

• Hurricane Ian in 2022 with its epic winds and storm surge. “Worse than Charley or Donna” for Florida Gulf Coast we were told.
• The Fort Lauderdale rainstorm of April 2023 which stranded thousands at the airport (myself included) and dropped 27 inches of rain on the area in a matter of hours. Was called a “once in 500 year event.”
• Record storm surge from Idalia in the Big Bend region.
• Tallahassee Tornadoes of May 2024 were called “once-in-a-lifetime” event for the capital city.
• June 2024 southern Florida rain. “Once in a hundred year meteorological event” is what I had to put in press statement about the scrubbing of multiple ICC Cricket World Cup matches in Fort Lauderdale. This particular event which was being watched worldwide (or at least in English speaking countries) led many abroad to reach out to me about my safety.
• Debby in August 2024 dropped record amounts of rain on Southwest Florida, the Tampa Bay Area and ultimately areas of the Big Bend and Northeast Florida. “Once in a hundred years” was something I heard out of several mouths just six weeks ago!
• Now Helene, the most epic and destructive of all the events listed here. 15 foot storm surge up around the Big Bend, Tampa Bay basically overflowing into people’s homes and even Southwest Florida which had already had two abnormally bad meteorological events in the last two years. This isn’t to mention that southeast Florida, more than 250 miles from the center of the storm had several reported wind gusts of over 60 MPH – more in fact than they reported from Cat 4 Ian which made landfall within 85-90 miles of parts of Broward and Palm Beach.

So without getting too preachy, why exactly would all this happen within a two year period?

Climate Change and Sea Level rise. Are our leaders in Florida ever going to get their blinders off and deal with this reality?

Sorry CFO Patronis, EV driving Pinellas County residents aren’t the reason for our troubles (he apparently made some allusion to this on national TV). It’s you and people like you that deny the reality of what’s happening in front of our eyes.

As I have talked about repeatedly, we’ve had epic storms hit this state before- 1926, 1928, 1935, Donna, Dora, Betsy, Andrew, Charley, Dennis, Wilma. But since Hermine in 2016 we’ve seen something totally different in size and scope if not wind speeds. The reasons are obvious.