The Devastation Caused by Hurricane Dorian

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/opinion/letters/hurricane-dorian.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “‘This Storm Is a Beast,’ Then Silence” (Op-Ed, Sept. 5):

Erica Moiah James’s Op-Ed has broken my heart as a Homestead, Fla., survivor of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The sound of the wind and the devastation and isolation we felt were once again brought to my consciousness.

“What can I do to help?” was my first thought at the end of the article. These are our neighbors, and their beautiful islands are places I have enjoyed for many years. Keep the story alive with more reporting about their plight.

Dana GreenbergRedland, Fla.

To the Editor:

Re “Erroneous Claim by Trump and the Map to Back It Up” (news article, Sept. 5):

I know how hard it is to admit when we’ve made a mistake. It’s embarrassing, and at times can be damaging to a relationship or a career, but admitting a mistake is obviously the right thing to do.

There are, however, people who can never admit making a mistake or being wrong, and at the head of that list is Donald J. Trump. His most recent blunder, saying that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, when all the weather services said it was not, could have been simply a misstatement or a misunderstanding. But the new forecaster-in-chief insisted that he was right, going so far as to show a Sharpie-altered weather map of Dorian’s path to include Alabama.

The only parallel I can draw is a child altering his report card to make a grade of 62 look like an 82, attempting to avoid the scorn of a parent. This, however, is the president of the United States.

Henry A. LowensteinNew York

To the Editor:

In “Hurricanes Are Getting Worse” (newsletter, nytimes.com), David Leonhardt rightly stresses the link between the rise in climate-related hazards (floods, storms, heat waves, droughts) and human-made global warming. But when disasters like Hurricane Dorian strike, there is 24/7 coverage on every detail of the storm’s path, but little discussion of climate change accentuating these extreme events. This neglect comes at a huge cost to society.

For one thing, missing this link flies in the face of mounting scientific evidence of a higher probability of extreme events occurring with global warming.

Moreover, highlighting this climate disaster link in real time when calamities hit is a powerful way to flag the human hand in “natural” disasters, helping change mind-sets on the role of climate change and spur climate action.

Vinod ThomasBethesda, Md.The writer is a former senior vice president of the World Bank.