When Hurricane Ike hit Houston in Sept. 2008, I was a 13-year-old with a mother undergoing cancer treatment. She was dependent on oxygen, which meant the eventual loss of power could have been deadly. Unlike past hurricanes, when the danger was somewhat exciting, this time felt anything but.
I was scared, and I remember vividly waiting for the storm to hit, waiting for the electricity to cut out, and praying that my mom would be OK. Luckily, she was. But in the days following Ike’s landfall, we learned of countless families in Houston and surrounding areas that weren’t OK. Lives were lost, homes were destroyed, and local communities were devastated. From that day forward, natural disasters became personal.
In recent weeks, Hurricane Ida slammed Louisiana, as well as parts of Mississippi and Alabama, marking the start of hurricane season almost 16 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans. Similarly, my own hometown of Houston once again made headlines in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey caused historic flooding and damage.
It seems each year we’re breaking new records and witnessing historic, devastating damage to American communities. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, more than 10 major hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S., causing billions of dollars in property damage and cutting far too many lives short. The regularity and severity of hurricanes in the American south is an alarming trend that requires solutions.
When we talk about hurricane season, we talk about it through the lens of climate change. Climate change, however, doesn’t cause hurricanes. Instead, just as in the case of wildfires or other extreme weather events, climate change affects the severity. This is an important distinction because while no amount of climate action will stop hurricanes for good, we can focus on ways to mitigate the damage, save lives, and reduce the negative effects of these natural disasters on our local communities.
A prime example of this is flood walls and other types of hard infrastructure. In Louisiana, for instance, a hurricane risk reduction system put in place after Katrina seems to have worked as intended to prevent Katrina-level flooding in the wake of Ida. Of course, Hurricane Ida still caused massive destruction and knocked out more than a million people’s electricity, but the damage could have been worse without the mitigation system.
Another way we can lessen the damage from natural disasters is by using nature itself. When environmentalists use the term “natural climate solutions,” they often refer to the ability of plants, namely trees, to store carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Natural solutions also help us adapt to other effects of climate change, such as more frequent and severe weather events.
Mangroves, for example, a type of tree with underwater roots, play a crucial role in hurricane risk reduction in places such as Florida’s Everglades. A “wall” of mangroves can actually reduce wave height by 90% during a hurricane and help prevent coastal erosion from powerful waves. While hurricanes still cause damage to these mangrove forests, the trees have evolved to recover quickly from the weather events.
In Louisiana, where Ida hit, organizations such as Ducks Unlimited are working on conservation projects to restore coastal ecosystems such as the Atchafalaya River delta, not only to maintain habitats for maritime species but to slow waves well before they hit the shore. These conservation projects, which are happening all over the country, are also climate adaptation projects.
The beauty of natural solutions is that we can put them into action right now. These nature-based strategies are often more cost-effective than hard infrastructure measures such as flood walls, and they are effective at preventing damage from natural disasters. For example, adaptation measures and natural solutions such as mangrove forests and ecosystem restoration can prevent $50 billion in coastal damage by the year 2030. That’s no small feat, and it’s incredible to think of how powerful nature can be, both in creating hurricanes and protecting us from them.
As hurricane season continues — and it’s not wasting any time with the formation of Hurricane Larry — we should remember that we already have the tools we need to fight nature with nature. Natural resilience tactics are perhaps our best hope of mitigating the effects of natural disasters from Texas to Florida and should be top-of-mind for coastal communities that desperately need realistic and timely solutions.
Stephen Perkins is the vice president of grassroots strategy at the American Conservation Coalition.
