On the 26th of September, Hurricane Helene made landfall, with wind speeds of over 140 miles per hour. Thirteen days later, on October 9th, Hurricane Milton hit Florida with wind speeds of 180 miles per hour. These two hurricanes tore apart families and communities, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in damages. Yet, two months later, news media outlets have stopped covering the aftermath of both disasters, opting to focus on the newest attention-grabbing story.
After two months, affected victims are still living with the consequences. The damages from both hurricanes cost over 250 billion dollars. In North Carolina alone, over 100 people were killed, and approximately 126,000 homes were destroyed.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Milton was the most intense hurricane seen in the Gulf of Mexico since 2005, and the fifth most powerful recorded hurricane in the Atlantic basin. Helene on the other hand, was the deadliest inland Hurricane on record and the third deadliest overall, only being surpassed by Katrina in 2005 and Camille in 1969.
The Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, claimed that recovering lost infrastructure would cost over 53 billion dollars. Within only a few days of the Hurricane, 22 shelters were opened for those who lost their homes from the storm. Churches, schools, and businesses additionally participated in supporting those most affected. In total, Hurricane Milton destroyed approximately 12,000 homes, creating damages totaling over 50 billion dollars according to President Biden.
As of early November, the White House and Congress approved over 2.1 billion dollars for recovery efforts in Florida. This includes 931.7 million dollars granted directly to survivors and another 1.18 billion dollars given to fund recovery in the state.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been working tirelessly with local governments and organizations to help those affected, claiming to have restored power to 5.1 million homes, in addition to providing shelter to over 11 thousand displaced families. In Florida, both Carolinas, and Tennessee, the Department of Labor is working to give unemployment assistance to workers who have lost their jobs.
Despite an initial whirlwind of media attention, within only a few weeks, news outlets shifted away from these disasters, and on to the next biggest events. This has revealed a glaring issue in the modern media. Events are quickly buried and replaced by new jarring stories, despite their continuing relevance and impact on thousands of people.
Donald Morton is the IB Global Politics teacher at WFS. Morton says his top news sources are The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and feels he is a 9 or 10 on a scale of how informed he is about current events. He says he has not seen many updates on the recovery from the hurricanes.
Students feel similarly. Steven Kosikowski ‘24 rates himself as a 3 out of 10 in terms of being well-informed. Kosikowski says he “hasn’t heard anything about the hurricanes since they happened.”
Morton says the tendency for news stories to be buried is a “huge problem.” The media has moved on, but the people who live there still need to pick up what’s left behind. While the hurricanes came and went around two months ago, the effects are going to last for much longer. The communities hit will still take months if not years to rebuild, and even after that, the memories of this tragedy will last a lifetime.