The Facts
Hurricane Ian's death toll has reportedly climbed to 87 as of Sunday, with 83 fatalities in Florida, where Ian made landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm on Wednesday. Four other deaths were reported in North Carolina, where the storm strongly impacted on Friday.
Rescue crews searching for survivors in Ian's path of destruction in southwest and central Florida have helped more than 1.6K people so far. As of Monday afternoon, about 600K Florida customers still had no power and many have no access to clean tap water.
The Spin
Narrative A
Hurricane Ian is another example of a devastating cyclone turbocharged by human-induced climate change. Warming ocean water and atmospheric changes have fueled powerful storms; just this week alone, speculation on this phenomenon has included Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Fiona in Canada, and Typhoon Noru in the Philippines.
Narrative B
While the media and climate activists choose specific events to claim that hurricanes have become more intense and more frequent due to climate change, long-term trends prove quite the contrary. Hurricane Ian is a natural disaster – and its consequences may be catastrophic – but instead of blaming climate change, we should enhance our disaster readiness to protect communities from an array of threats.