How Americans affected by extreme weather events feel about the future

Published: Aug 26, 2024 Duration: 00:06:28 Category: News & Politics

Tags : Climate change extreme weather

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♪♪ amna: The punishing heat hitting much of the U.S. This week and the downpour that Hawaii is enduring are the latest in what has been a relentless summer of extreme weather. We spoke to different people in part of the country about the impact of these events and how they are thinking about the future. >> 6-8 inches of rain in 24 hours. >> We bought a generator. I never thought I would need a generator. >> As a farm, this year has been a very difficult year. >> Right now with the triple digits we are hitching, it is dangerous to be outside between 11:00 and 3:00. >> My name is Liz and I live in Tempe, Arizona. >> My name is Ben and I live in Houston. >> My name is Natalie from reidsville, North Carolina. >> I am a senior social scientist for climate vulnerability. A dangerous season is the term we use. It starts in may through October. The concerns are the increased frequency of extreme weather events that can occur back to back that can threaten the population on an almost regular basis. By may 7, almost 33% of the population had been under one extreme weather alert. This jumped to 50% by may 20. And by June 22 the number had reached 95%. >> My family has been here for generations beyond when this place was a state or even a territory. I grew up outside. Right now, you don't see kids playing outside. >> I am eight months pregnant and one of the things I discussed with my doctor when my feet started to swell is what is causing it? And my doctor shared with me, the heat will cause it to swell. If you are starting to swell now and I was 3-4 months now, my feet will swell for the rest of the pregnancy. It was hard to accept. I bought ice packs that I wrap around my feet for the swelling. >> Last July my home received 32 inches of water on the first floor. We spent the next days emptying everything out of the home and piling it in the front yard. And a few weeks later we watched it get taken away by cranes and dumpsters. In -- the basement flooded again and in July the basement flooded again. Having to figure out how to pay a mortgage and rent and get the money from FEMA -- I've spent so much time and energy trying to recover and not feel like instead of the disaster happening to me. >> As a property manager in Houston, taking care of single-family residential homes, we are managing things like sinks, doors needing to be adjusted and small repairs but in the last two years we have shifted to a disaster recovery company. We are taking care of power outages and electrical surges, floods. It has been very challenging. We are shifting from living and enjoying to preparing and bracing. All of that affects quality of life. How much we spend enjoying looking out the window versus stressed about packing a to go back. None of that is exciting or fun. >> Just looking at July, we had 20 or more days of 90 plus degrees on top of the heat we also had a drought condition. With the hurricane that came through August 8 we got probably a little more than 80 inches of rain. I've been out on the farm eight years. I've had to deal with a tornado, two storms. It is a challenge. It is very difficult. >> One of the most sobering things that scientists have said is we are not looking at the worst of quiet -- climate change but we are looking at the minimum impacts that we will see. >> Arizona is in my blood. It is my roots. My family has been here for generations. It is hot but I would never want to live where it is cold. I love the state and where I live. But it is getting harder to stay. >> I'm finding it very hard to make a decision of tearing down a 140 year house or I elevate it and have to deal with fixing it for the next two years. Will it be high enough for the next time it happens? I think about these things too much. It wakes you up in the middle of the night, wondering what to do. >> Not once have I considered moving until this year. Seeing the power outages, the damaged homes, the excessive heat where ac cannot keep up anymore, it sparked me and my partner to look somewhere else to live. We recently put an offer on a house in the seattle-tacoma area. We are looking to make a big move because we want stability back. >> I don't CN ending at all -- I don't see an ending at all because each year it gets progressively worse. You have to be proactive, resilient and you have to think outside of the box now. How do we as farmers sustain long-term? I don't have the answers to it and it is even stressful to think about. ♪♪

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