Vox on hurricanes, climate change, and storm surge

I know I promised that I'd post the third of three entries composed of comments I left at other blogs about zombies by tonight.  I'm not doing that because I'm still hospitalized and so I don't have either the access to my notes or the energy to edit them properly even if I did.  That's O.K., as something easier to post and more topical to write about -- hurricanes -- from a source I trust -- Vox.

Vox posted two videos about hurricanes in advance of the landfalls of both Harvey and Irma.  The first was How climate change makes hurricanes worse.

Here's what we know about climate change and hurricanes.

That's the climate side of the issue.  The second video, Why a storm surge can be the deadliest part of a hurricane, shows the weather side.

It can start before a hurricane even makes landfall.
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What really concerns experts, though, are places that don’t experience a lot of hurricanes but are still vulnerable to storm surge.

This map shows that in the event of a big hurricane, based on the characteristics of the shoreline, the coasts of Northwest Florida and Georgia would be at comparable risk to the Gulf Coast.

These areas have shallow water, which means sea level can rise faster and water can reach further inland making the flooding worse. But they’ve seen fewer hurricanes than the Gulf Coast and they are likely to be less prepared.

So when a major hurricane like Irma hits low-lying areas like these, the storm surge can be the first and deadliest thing headed their way.

That's the natural disaster news for the day. With luck, the Sunday Entertainment feature will return tomorrow.