This year’s hurricane season has developed at a record-breaking pace. There have been over twenty detrimental storms thus far, including four named hurricanes, all which have left thousands of people with damage. Hurricane Delta occurred earlier this month. According to the CNN (cnn.com) article “Hurricane Delta Leaves At Least Four Dead and Knocks Out Power for Hundreds Of Thousands,” the hurricane was a category-2 storm that fell along the recovering Louisiana Coast. Louisianans are now facing the brutal repercussions of Hurricane Delta, which made landfall just six short weeks after the horrific Hurricane Laura. 

Hurricane Delta tore through the Louisiana area, leaving a trail of destruction. According to The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, the hurricane destroyed 42 homes. Debris was scattered throughout the state due to the winds that reached up to 100 miles per hour. There was severe flooding throughout the state, with the southwestern corner of the state experiencing the worst of it, receiving seventeen inches of rain. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power for many days. Those are just a few of the ruinous effects of Hurricane Delta. According to the CNN article, the entire state was left in shambles: power lines were down, over one hundred roads were closed, many traffic lights were out, and wildlife was left displaced throughout the state. These catastrophic consequences have affected the citizens of Louisiana immensely. Many citizens endured unfortunate damage to their homes and within their communities.  

Unfortunately, hurricanes have wreaked havoc throughout the world for years. When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, New York residents were in a similar situation. When asked if her family has done anything to prepare for future hurricanes since the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, junior Julia Reis commented, “After experiencing the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, my family has made an effort to prepare for another potentially damaging storm. Considering that power loss was one of the most significant issues during Sandy, we made sure to purchase a generator to power our refrigerators if a hurricane or detrimental storm were to occur again. Now, we tend to keep flashlights nearby, one upstairs and one downstairs, in the event of a power outage. We also cut down a large tree in our backyard to prevent it from possibly causing any damage during a storm.”

Not only did Hurricane Delta cause massive amounts of destruction to the state, it also posed tornado threats to Louisiana and surrounding states. According to the CNN article, there was a possibility for tornadoes across the Carolinas, and there were five tornadoes reported in the Atlanta metro area. In Covington, east of Atlanta, a suspected tornado left one person with minor injuries. That same tornado also damaged a homeless shelter, which displaced 30 people. 

With this year’s hurricane season being especially brutal, one cannot help but wonder when another hurricane will hit New York. When faced with the question: “Do you feel prepared if a Hurricane hits Lynbrook?” junior Emma Leighley said, “I feel pretty prepared because most of the hurricanes that we have had in the past weren’t too bad. We did lose power for a good amount of time, but it is something that everyone has had to live through, and we all came out ok. Hopefully, this hurricane season won’t cause much more destruction like there has been in the past.” Junior Kate Dooling added, “As scary as hurricanes are, I do feel pretty much safe because, if I am in school, we have emergency evacuation drills and are prepared for situations like this. If I am at home, I also feel safe because I have a safe place I can go in my house.”

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, thousands of people evacuated to shelters. The worst consequence of the hurricane was the death of four people. According to the Louisiana Department of Health, “An 86-year-old man died in St. Martin Parish after a fire started as he was fueling a generator in a shed… A 70-year-old woman died in Iberia Parish in a fire likely caused by a natural gas leak following damage from the storm.” The other two people tragically died in the Gulf of Mexico after being caught in the extreme rip currents caused by the hurricane. 

Hurricane Delta caused overwhelming amounts of damage in many forms, and Louisianans will be recovering for quite some time. The devastation of Hurricane Delta was extreme, in part because Louisiana was still recovering from a previous hurricane. It is important for people to be prepared for this hurricane season and more to come.