Hurricane Matthew may be gone, but the effects of the deadly winds and floods will be felt in Haiti and the southeastern U.S. for much longer than the storm's five-day stint on land.
North Carolina residents are being told to evacuate as rivers continue to swell and threaten to flood nearby towns. At least 19 people have died in the state as a result of the hurricane, and more than 4,000 people have taken shelter at schools and recreation centers, according to the Washington Post.
As Hurricane Matthew first approached the Atlantic coast of Florida as a Category 4 storm on Oct. 6, the state went into a panic. A state of emergency was declared, and Gov. Rick Scott warned residents to evacuate coastal areas. By the time the storm reached North Carolina days later, it had been downgraded to a Category 1, leading many people to think the threat was minimized.
But as an article from Popular Science reminds us, hurricane categories designated by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Intensity Scale are a measure of wind speed, not rainfall. Winds were to blame for the majority of the damage in Haiti, where more than 1,000 people have died as a result of the storm. But in the U.S.—and North Carolina in particular—Hurricane Matthew’s rains are doing the most damage.
Debates on hurricane measurements are already springing up on the internet, with some using the situation in North Carolina as an example of ineffective methodology. Some experts advocate a complete overhaul of the Saffir-Simpson scale in favor of a new method that takes rainfall into account. Others believe that combining the multitude of threats from a hurricane into a single number would still not be an effective way to communicate a storm’s intensity. No matter the rating system, all threats—wind, rain, storm surge, etc.—posed by these storms should be clearly and concisely presented to the public to ensure they are well-informed and can take appropriate action.
Do you think the current method for rating storms is effective? How could these threats be better communicated to the public? Let us know in the comments or at [email protected].
