Climate Action
Extreme Weather Events Are Anti-Life
August 29, 2025
With recent disasters like the flash flooding in Texas which killed over 135 people this July, it is worth looking at how other regions in the U.S and around the world have recovered from flood and storm events. In coastal regions prone to flooding, clear learnings have emerged over the past two decades — prompt action from national and international governments is always central to the best recovery and future prevention efforts.
Even countries which are used to floods, like Bangladesh, are struggling to cope with recent weather events due to their increasing frequency and severity. Those floods, along with tropical cyclones like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and Cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique are real world climate disasters.
They hold valuable lessons for how to mitigate and manage these types of catastrophic weather events and point to why the actions of the present U.S. Administrations are undermining vulnerable communities’ ability to survive them.
Hurricane Katrina Devastates Mississippi and Louisiana
Today is also the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and with conversation stirring around the documentary Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, the discussion surrounding how race, poverty, and government response intersect in the face of climate disaster has never been more urgent.
Katrina exposed deep structural inequalities and today, as disasters become more frequent, those same communities remain the most at risk. The lessons of Katrina must not only be remembered, but acted upon.
In August 2005, tropical storm Katrina formed in the Bahamas before racing across the Gulf of Mexico, gaining strength to hit Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. By the time it made its final landfall in Louisiana on August 29th, it was a Category 3 hurricane, meaning its sustained wind speed was clocked at 125 miles (201 kilometers) per hour.
Thanks to record-breaking storm surges, New Orleans’ flood levees failed, devastating the city’s infrastructure. 80% of the city, most of which sits below sea level, was submerged. Katrina inflicted $125 Billion worth of damage and is regarded as one of the costliest weather events in US history. Over 1,830 people died in the tragedy, and hundreds of thousands were displaced.
Storm waters overwhelmed the New Orlean’s sewer system and washed their contents into the streets; the floodwaters were filled with disease as well as dangerous chemicals like lead and arsenic from the soil. As evacuees clustered together in makeshift rescue centres, floodwaters remained high, disease spread, and a public health crisis began. After 4 days, the national guard was deployed to hand out desperately needed food and water.
The entire region was in desperate need of relief, but the U.S. was not simply prepared to deal with the aftermath — even receiving international aid became an issue. In the following weeks and months, Mexico and Canada both provided troops to help with rescue, recovery and the clean up, but strict regulations restricted the amount of foreign aid that could be accepted and spent. This meant that the vast majority of the help offered — including USD 400 million in oil — was not used.
Hurricane Katrina led to systemic reforms — the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became its own entity within the Department of Homeland Security, elevating its ability to respond to climate disasters. Ten regional FEMA offices were created to increase effectiveness at disaster relief. Disaster funding, including “pre-disaster mitigation,” was also streamlined and made more reliable.
These policy changes each addressed a real world problem that Katrina exposed. As extreme weather events in the U.S become more frequent and fierce, though, many of these improvements are being rescinded by the actions of the current U.S. administration’s proposed elimination of FEMA.
Super Typhoon Haiyan Hits the Philippines
While they have different names, hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all forms of tropical cyclones. When tropical cyclones are near the Americas, we call them hurricanes; in the West Pacific they are called typhoons, and otherwise they are simply “cyclones.”
On November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan — known locally as Yolanda — made its first landfall at Guiuan, Eastern Samar, in the Philippines. It hit the area as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 196 miles (315 kilometers) per hour. Its record-breaking winds and storm surge wreaked havoc across the country, killing 6,300 people. Many communities were completely razed, with nearly all the deaths occurring in the capital city of the province of Leyte, Tacloban.
The widespread removal of mangroves forests in the area exacerbated the storm’s destruction. Mangroves’ complex root systems can reduce storm surges by stabilising the soil, which is why local community initiatives have worked to replant them following the typhoon. This is also why EARTHDAY.ORG actively supports the planting of trees in other regions of Southeast Asia, including mangroves, with the Canopy Tree Project. For similar reasons, many farmers have turned to bamboo, which provides easy building materials in addition to preventing erosion.
Following the typhoon, the country also worked with USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) and other international organizations to create an early warning alert system called PhilAWARE. Its effectiveness was proven in December 2021 when it warned 400,000 people to evacuate in advance of the landfall of Category 5 Typhoon Rai (with wind speed 160 miles or 257 kilometers per hour), saving many lives.
PhilAWARE demonstrates why international cooperation is so key in creating effective, government-run disaster mitigation systems. Organizations like USAID made a real positive impact on disaster preparedness in the Philippines.
On July 1, 2025, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio officially announced the closure of USAID. Millions of human lives, many of them babies and children, will now be lost as a result, an anti-life decision by a government that claims to be staunchly pro-life.
Cyclones Idai and Kenneth Wreak Havoc in Mozambique
On March 14, 2019, Beira, in Mozambique was hit by the Category 2 Cyclone Idai — made doubly shocking as Africa rarely experiences tropical cyclones. The storm brought death and destruction across Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar. The immediate death toll was over 1000, and the storms’ initial destruction was compounded by outbreaks of cholera and malaria.
Just weeks later on April 25, 2019, Category 4 Cyclone Kenneth hit northern Mozambique with wind gusts of up to 140 miles per hour. Kenneth killed a further 45 people and leveled 45,000 homes.
Relief after these cyclones came largely from generous international sources: USAID and other United States organizations played a “leading role” in coordinating relief efforts. USAID deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team and scaled aid to tens of millions of dollars, including food aid and program support. The U.S. Department of Defense contributed material and logistical help during initial relief efforts.
UNICEF (the United Nations agency for children) provided much-needed water and vaccines to those affected, aiding over 1.5 million people in total. International aid was coordinated by the Mozambican government and the UN through the Mozambique Recovery Facility (MRF), again largely funded by USAID, which is now closed.
The U.S. Turns Its Back on Hope
Until we can mitigate the worst effects of climate change and the subsequent and inevitable extreme weather events that it triggers — climate disasters will be inevitable. Mass casualty events are becoming increasingly commonplace.
As we have seen, short-term relief and long-term resilience require both prompt government action and international cooperation. The United States has, until recently, been a leader in this regard. Now, even though the country is the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change, we appear to be taking less responsibility for it than ever.
As the climate crisis accelerates, we need well-coordinated disaster response capabilities. Contact your Congressional representatives to vote no on H.R. 3347, the Sovereign States Emergency Management Act, that aims to abolish FEMA. Urge them to invest in climate resilience and improve response capabilities instead, because no one should face a catastrophe alone.
Climate disasters are going to continue until we can stop using fossil fuels and shift to energy that doesn’t destroy the planet. If you live in the United States, you can write to your state lawmakers asking them to invest in renewable energy. Otherwise, sign our renewable energy petition to make your voice heard by leaders around the world.
50 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency was created after 20 million Americans demanded action from President Nixon to protect the planet, on that first Earth Day. It set in motion regulation that reigned in the worst excesses of the fossil fuel industry.
The time to act is now. Do it for your children’s health. For all of our children’s health. No matter how rich or how poor, how powerful or how exploited, we all share the same planet.
If you care about the environment, and are in the U.S., we need your voice. Add your name to our public comments on the EPA’s intentions to gut the agency’s ability to regulate pollution due to climate change, also known as the Endangerment Finding.
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