Tropical Storm Idalia Barreling Towards the Gulf of Mexico With Bullseye On The Tampa Bay Region
Idalia likely to become a life-threatening hurricane heading for major populated areas in Florida, the Gulf Coast and the Southeastern Atlantic coast
The National Weather Service in Key West, Florida reports that while the center of Idalia is expected to pass well to the west of the Florida Keys, there is still a potential for tropical storm conditions over the Lower Keys and the waters in the vicinity of the Dry Tortugas.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) warns that there is a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundations along portions of the Florida Gulf Coast where a storm surge warning is in effect, including Tampa Bay and the Big Bend region of Florida. The agency’s official notice warns that hurricane conditions are expected along the Florida Gulf Coast with destructive winds when Idalia moves onshore.
Massive amounts of rain are predicted for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and the North Carolina coast. The potential flooding area includes Tampa Bay, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, S. Carolina, and Wilmington, N. Carolina, which will affect a population of approximately 5.6 million people. The NHC expects tropical force winds to hit Florida over the course of the day Tuesday.
Infrastructure to withstand tropical storm force winds, hurricanes and flooding in the United States is notoriously poor and underfunded, even with President Biden’s so-called “Build Back Better” legislation that was intended to remedy such poor infrastructure conditions. The BBB legislation allocated $19.1 billion to Florida, but none of these funds, yes, zero dollars, are earmarked specifically for hurricane or weather-related purposes. The vast majority of the funds are for road and bridge repairs (which might be tangentially related and possibly used for flooding washouts), electric vehicle charging stations, cyber-security, airport improvements, water infrastructure (which might be related but there is no specification that this is for natural disasters), and wildfire protection.
There is no money earmarked for providing relief funds to residents, working class neighborhoods, and low-lying communities that will suffer the most from devastating hurricanes, tropical storms, and flooding.
The working class must continue to organize in order to take power into their own hands, reorganize society on a socialist basis that puts human lives first and rejects the capitalist structure of society. As devastating storms and fires continue to increase with capitalist-fueled ferocity, the task of the working class could not be more urgent.
Looks like it's going to make landfall in the Big Bend area, a region that has never experienced a hurricane in recorded history!