Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/881255
Luann Kulbashian Associate Publisher luann@healthyindoors.com Marissa Clifford Editor marissa@healthyindoors.com Donna Bungard Marketing Director donna@healthyindoors.com Alice Scolfield Production Manager alice@healthyindoors.com David Daigle Technology Manager dave@healthyindoors.com Shawn Macomber Kristi Herke Dez Wright Audio/Visual Production General Inquiries 888-752-6686 hi@healthyindoors.com Advertising Sales 603-249-9429 advertise@healthyindoors.com Healthy Indoors is a publication of IAQnet LLC Bob Krell Publisher bob@healthyindoors.com Kristi L. Herke Managing Member kristih@iaq.net Carol Weber Business Manager carolw@iaq.net IAQnet LLC 4851 McDonald Road Syracuse, NY 13215 Phone: 888-752-6686 IAQ.net www.healthyindoors.com Vol. 5 No. 6, September 2017 EDITORIAL— September 2017 6 The Eye of the Storm? Bob Krell, Publisher O ne of the first major stories we covered after our launch in 2013 was the one-year anniver- sary of (Hurricane) Superstorm Sandy, which devastated much of the eastern United States. With damages estimated in excess of $80 billion dollars, it didn't seem like it could get much worse. Of course, we now know that it can—much worse. 2017's Hurricanes Harvey and Irma rained destruction on the Caribbean, and on much of Texas and Florida, respectively. The total damage in the continental U.S. alone will likely exceed $250 billion. Puerto Rico, as well as a host of other islands, are in a state of ruin. Millions of people are without electricity, and a huge per- centage of their populations have been left homeless by the twin storms. This isn't normal. We, in the West- ern Hemisphere, are accustomed to significant storms, some of them both destructive and deadly. But, what we witnessed these past few weeks is different. This season has seen two Category-5 hurricanes, and what may amount to unprecedented dam- age. Many scientists believe that the intensity of these storms was fueled, at least in part, by the warming of the oceans, which is likely attributable to the warming trends of climate change. If this is the case, we may be in for far worse scenarios. We need to clean up this current mess and help those in the U.S. and the Caribbean nations that were affect- ed. It will be a long, expensive path to recovery, even barring any further cat- astrophic storms. And, the likelihood of additional damaging weather events looms ever-present. Accordingly, we also need to shift focus to resilient designs and construc- tion that can better cope with extreme weather, while also fortifying our ex- isting building stock and infrastructure in areas that are most susceptible to damage from wind and flooding. We need to take whatever steps we can to curb this planet's warming trend. We're way past the point of politicizing this debate. We need to take action.