Latest news with #Debby
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
USDA grants more than $675M for Florida's hurricane-affected farmers
July 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is unleashing more than a half billion dollars in further aid to Florida growers and businesses in the aftermath of Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was in the Sunshine State on Monday to meet with Florida officials, business, agricultural leaders and producers and signed a $675.9 million federal block grant with the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to provide additional relief for Florida's farmers to cover loses in its infrastructure, citrus and timber industry. In a statement, Rollins noted that American farmers and ranchers in Florida's southeast "have been hit hard and suffered significant economic losses during the last two hurricane seasons." "USDA has worked closely with the State of Florida to ensure those impacted have the relief they need," she said, adding the administration "has our farmers' backs and will ensure they have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable and most abundant food supply in the world." Hurricane Helene's near-record-breaking size and storm surge last year in September wreaked havoc and caused billions of dollars in damage along over 500 miles of Florida's coastline. It ended with over 230 people dead in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia as the storm flooded towns, destroyed roads and bridges, and Helene swept away homes, farms and livelihoods. In June, USDA said Florida's orange crop for the 2024-2025 season was predicted to be its smallest since before World War II, with plummeting orange juice sales down over 50% since 2000. Rollins said Monday in a social media video that Floridians had faced "such difficult challenges over the last decade or so, most recently with all the hurricanes that have hit." "Most importantly, help is coming to our growers," the secretary said in Felda after her meeting with state and local officials. "It's right around the corner," she added. The $675 million federal infusion of dollars for FDACS to administer came as part of funding via the 2025 American Relief Act. On Monday, Florida's agriculture chief stated that his state's producers had endured "back-to-back devastating hurricane seasons," describing the additional federal assistance as a "major victory that will help them rebuild, recover and continue feeding our state and nation." "Food production is not just an economic issue, it's a matter of national security," said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. "And we appreciate the president's consistent support for our farmers." Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
UPI
a day ago
- Business
- UPI
USDA grants more than $675M for Florida's hurricane-affected farmers
1 of 5 | U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins (pictured July 15 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.) said Tuesday that American farmers and ranchers in Florida "have been hit hard and suffered significant economic losses during the last two hurricane seasons." Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo July 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is unleashing more than a half million dollars in further aid to Florida growers and businesses in the aftermath of Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was in the Sunshine State on Monday to meet with Florida officials, business, agricultural leaders and producers and signed a $675.9 million federal block grant with the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to provide additional relief for Florida's farmers to cover loses in its infrastructure, citrus and timber industry. In a statement, Rollins noted that American farmers and ranchers in Florida's southeast "have been hit hard and suffered significant economic losses during the last two hurricane seasons." "USDA has worked closely with the State of Florida to ensure those impacted have the relief they need," she said, adding the administration "has our farmers' backs and will ensure they have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable and most abundant food supply in the world." Hurricane Helene's near-record-breaking size and storm surge last year in September wreaked havoc and caused billions of dollars in damage along over 500 miles of Florida's coastline. It ended with over 230 people dead in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia as the storm flooded towns, destroyed roads and bridges, and Helene swept away homes, farms and livelihoods. In June, USDA said Florida's orange crop for the 2024-2025 season was predicted to be its smallest since before World War II, with plummeting orange juice sales down over 50% since 2000. Rollins said Monday in a social media video that Floridians had faced "such difficult challenges over the last decade or so, most recently with all the hurricanes that have hit." "Most importantly, help is coming to our growers," the secretary said in Felda after her meeting with state and local officials. "It's right around the corner," she added. The $675 million federal infusion of dollars for FDACS to administer came as part of funding via the 2025 American Relief Act. On Monday, Florida's agriculture chief stated that his state's producers had endured "back-to-back devastating hurricane seasons," describing the additional federal assistance as a "major victory that will help them rebuild, recover and continue feeding our state and nation." "Food production is not just an economic issue, it's a matter of national security," said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson. "And we appreciate the president's consistent support for our farmers."
Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Climate
- Montreal Gazette
Opinion: No, bike paths aren't to blame for flooding
In the wake of the last Sunday's torrential downpour, and in apprehension of more heavy rains to come, many Montreal residents are finding themselves, once again, dealing with flooded-out basements and garages and damaged property and vehicles. If it's starting to sound familiar, that's because it is. We experienced 'unprecedented' spring flooding due to precipitation and snowmelt in 2017 and 2019. Flash flooding in 2022 was the result of 60 millimetres of intense rainfall. Tropical Storm Debby dumped over 100 mm on us last year — and now this most recent deluge, which brought down between 70-100 mm, most of it within a 90-minute period. In biblical times, people would have shaken their fist at the sky, demanding an answer from God; today, the city is the locus of our holy wrath. To their credit, Mayor Valérie Plante and the only challenger to her seat — before Craig Sauvé's announcement this week to join the race — Soraya Martinez Ferrada, both trudged out with appropriate somber mien to listen to residents affected by this most recent flooding episode. One of the most sacred duties of a mayor is to be present sur le terrain when tragedy strikes, and they both did so with all due diligence. Their reactions in the media scrums that followed couldn't have been more different, however. Plante proceeded to offer up a word salad describing the multiple forces at play. These include water conduits and a lack of support from other levels of government, but primarily the weather events themselves, over which the city has no control, exacerbated by the deepening impacts of climate change. The explanations she offered were true; what they were not was well-timed. There is an appropriate moment for sharing knowledge, and the aftermath of a crisis is not it, as people are literally still pumping floodwater out of their basements. Here was a political opportunity for her challenger as people want to hear not just why they were struck, but who is to blame, and what is to be done about it. Martinez Ferrada promised, if elected, to act quickly to enlarge the Langelier Blvd. collector (this being only a partial solution as it can be enlarged as much as you like, but if the rest of the drainage network is overcapacity, the water will still come straight back up). She also laid out what else is to blame — pointing the finger at money spent on bike paths. Never mind that $599 million is earmarked for water-related infrastructure in 2025, while a mere $30 million is allotted to bike paths (or just five per cent of the 2025 roadworks budget of $593 million). Unfortunately, bike paths have become a convenient target, political shorthand for everything wrong with the city. In the early 2000s, Al Gore popularized the idea of an 'inconvenient truth' — that our inventions in the name of progress hinge primarily on burning fossil fuels for energy and that this has put our planet's climate into a dangerously altered state of accelerated warming with potentially devastating impacts for humans and indeed for the entire vast, interconnected web of Earth's ecosystems. The inconvenient truth we are facing now has not changed; it's just come into sharper focus. Science tells us global warming will bring down more heavy rainfall, provoke more heat waves and fuel more forest fires as it ramps up and we continue to drag our heels. The flooding we are experiencing is the start of something we know will only get worse. In the face of such a global crisis, it's not only inappropriate to blame bike paths, it's dangerous. If we hope to find a way out, it will be by working together to create long-term solutions that increase soil absorption capacity (think: less asphalt, more gardens and greenery) and divert water toward retention basins where it can drain slowly, at a pace that is manageable for the sewer system. If anything, bike lanes, as an ecological means of transportation reducing automobile dependency, are part of the solution. That's the inconvenient truth.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
This SC city at high risk for hurricanes. It ranks as top storm place in the state
With little more than a month into the hurricane season, the Myrtle Beach area has already had its first brush with a tropical storm. Tropical Storm Chantal hit the Grand Strand during the July 4th weekend, bringing with it heavy rain and wind. Such storm encounters have placed Myrtle Beach among the top 10 cities and islands in the world that are most affected by tropical storms and hurricanes. Myrtle Beach ranks No. 8 as a place to receive brushes or hits in the Atlantic basin, according to a website that provides hurricane history and data across the country. The current rankings are based on 2024 Atlantic hurricane season data, which provides the amount of years between a storm or hurricane affecting the city or island. The ranking method is based on tracking charts dating back to 1871 from every hurricane season in the Atlantic basin, according to the website. Hurricane season typically runs from June through Nov. 30 each year, and NOAA is predicting an above-normal storm season for this year. Myrtle Beach is affected by a storm every 1.82 years, according to data. Last year, the coastal city was brushed by tropical storms Debby and Helene. It is the most impacted area in South Carolina due to many brushes of systems hitting North Carolina, the site said. Cape Hatteras and Morehead City in North Carolina were ranked No. 1 and 2 on the list of cities. Wilmington, North Carolina, which is about an hour from Myrtle Beach, was ranked No. 4. Horry County also has been ranked among the top counties in the United States that will be most affected by this year's hurricane season. While the county received an overall rating of 33 among U.S. counties that are most likely to be in harm's way, Horry County was ranked No. 11 for its hurricane risk, according to LawnStarter. Solve the daily Crossword
Montreal Gazette
16-07-2025
- Climate
- Montreal Gazette
Hanes: Brace yourselves for Thursday — destructive weather is now the norm
By It wasn't a typhoon. It was just a regular old thunderstorm. But when it barrelled through Montreal on Sunday after days of a heat wave, a record amount of rainfall poured from the skies, flooding basements and inundating underpasses. Homeowners from Ahuntsic-Cartierville to St-Léonard found their belongings floating. An octogenarian had to be rescued from his nearly submerged vehicle by Montreal police. And it could happen all over again on Thursday, weather forecasters have warned. We've now reached the point where climate change has made what was once extraordinary ordinary. Severe weather isn't a once-a-decade or even once-a-year occurrence anymore. During our hot, humid summers, it has practically become a weekly phenomenon. Last August, hurricane Debby, which had been downgraded to a post-tropical storm by the time it arrived, doused Montreal with up to 150 millimetres of rain in some parts of the region — a wet month's worth in a single day. It caused a record $2.5 billion in damages, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, surpassing the 1998 ice storm as Quebec's costliest event. Montreal had a prelude to Debby's destruction last July, when the remnants of tropical storm Beryl drenched us with up to 100 millimetres of rain in some places. Sunday's torrential rain brought 80 millimetres to Trudeau airport in less than an hour. Yet the fallout from this nameless thunderstorm was much the same. On a St-Léonard street where water poured down sloping driveways, filling subterranean garages and basements, it's the second or even third year in a row residents have experienced this kind of flooding. Some unlucky folks had just finished renovations to recover from the previous deluge, only to now have to start all over again. The mental and financial toll of dealing with this kind of damage can't be overestimated. Many will be out tens of thousands of dollars for work not covered by insurance. Premiums will rise. Their home values may sink due to the repeated flooding, which they would have to report on their seller's declaration. Plus there's the trauma of having your possessions ruined, your home — your sanctuary — made inhospitable. More and more people are having to go through this rigmarole once. However, some are having to endure it multiple times. The city is advising homeowners to protect their property. Some are installing sump pumps, ceramic tile or epoxy flooring that can be more easily cleaned up after water infiltration. But it costs money. Tenants may have no choice in the matter if their landlords don't act. And those living in basement apartments can end up losing everything. There's been talk of outlawing basement apartments or 'garden suites,' as partially below-grade condos are often called, due to the risk of water damage. But the housing crisis makes it impossible to scrap these units altogether. The borough of St-Laurent has restricted the use of some basements for certain purposes in response to flooding. And there are new regulations for downward sloping driveways to avoid them funnelling rainwater into homes. There's only so much residents can do to avoid infiltration of their dwellings. During last summer's storms, sewers backing up into people's homes was a primary cause of many flooded basements. Despite hundreds of millions being invested in water infrastructure, deferred maintenance in decades past has set the city behind. Now it's hard to keep up with the repair backlog. And each major weather event weakens aging water mains, which can lead to breakages — or even geysers. Now sponge parks and sponge streets that use naturalistic design to absorb runoff are all the rage. But it takes time — and money — to transform all the asphalt and concrete of the cityscape to mitigate the impact of climate change. And it's not just water infrastructure that is stressed by heavy rainfall. Highways, parking lots and underpasses are also under strain. Highway 40 came to a standstill in the West Island on Sunday because of pooling water. Last summer, storms resulted in the temporary closure of the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge and Highway 13. The bottom line is we should expect more of the same — and more often. Destructive thunderstorms and diluvial rains are now the norm rather the exception. Brace yourselves: The same conditions that preceded Sunday's deluge — a heat wave followed by a cold front — are brewing again for Thursday. The skies are expected to open. Let's just hope it's not a disaster déjà vu.
