Why We Stay: A Reflection of Climate Displacement and Natural Disasters
Local activists from Brother Wolf, survey the flooding in the town of Wallace. North Carolina, USA.
Photo Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
The shared experience of a devastating and life-altering disaster changes a community. No amount of time can fully recover the loss that natural disasters claim when wreaking havoc on a community. It seems as though there is a different natural disaster occurring every day in the news.
Tornadoes, forest fires, hurricanes, oh my!
Yet, people decide to stay in these communities that continually get hit.
That begs the question: why do they stay?
One natural disaster in particular that repeatedly breaks apart people's lives in coastal communities is hurricanes. The aftermath of hurricanes is indescribable for people who have not witnessed or lived through such a tragedy. Yet, I can attest to the fact that people still stay. They have no plan to migrate away. After hurricanes have claimed their belongings and comfort, people go back to the remnants of their life, and they rebuild.
One of the more common answers is the ties people have to their land through ancestry. Their family has been connected to the land in one way or another, but that is not always the case. The Out There Podcast features a story on their episode, Why Do We Stay, about an immigrant man from Mexico and how he continues to stay in Ocracoke, North Carolina, even though he has seemingly no ties to the land.
He and his family have experienced many hurricanes while living on the barrier island, yet they have found a sense of community on the sliver of land and feel at home. He explains why he chooses to stay on Ocracoke and build his life there despite the fear of hurricane season.
Inherited, a podcast by Critical Frequency, also explores the memories of a hurricane survivor. Jenna lived in the Rockaways during the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and she tells her experience of watching her home being decimated on the news. Due to the warning issued before Hurricane Sandy hit land, Jenna's father decided for her family to go inland and stay with family during the storm. Jenna says she remembers waking up the following day after the worst of the damage was done and first hearing on the news that there was water everywhere in the Rockaways. Second, she heard there were fires everywhere. She said her home looked like a warzone. Jenna later learned about the injustice of natural disasters and gives an insightful look into the issues of inequality amidst natural disasters in The Sky is Falling episode on the Inherited Podcast.
Floodlines, a podcast by The Atlantic, delves into personal stories related to the government's mishandling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as well as their denial of any blame for the disaster. The story follows multiple lives who were mercilessly turned upside down and around as a result of the hurricane that hit New Orleans, Louisiana. The stories are woven with pain, but there are also hopeful themes splashed throughout. These encouraging stories portray the community of New Orleans banding together like never before to build their home back and achieve justice.
Horses take refuge on a raised porch, surrounded by flood waters. North Carolina, USA.
Photo Credit: Kelly Guerin / We Animals
These are accounts of three hurricanes. They only scratch the surface of the devastation left behind in their wake. There are many more hurricanes that have plowed through communities and many more to come, sadly.
One factor to address in all of this is not only the human devastation but also the environmental devastation that happens as a result of hurricanes. People's lives litter the streets because of the destructive nature of the powerful force.
Furniture, technology, toys, and much more are thrown to the curb. Piles mount up to the sky and line the streets. Whole houses are emptied, and people's living rooms are sitting in their front yard looking out of place in the muddied grass.
Not only is the clean-up effort consolidated to people's houses, but it is far-reaching into the outdoor ecosystems too. Beaches are littered with small plastics, almost impossible to comb through and pick up. The wind is much more accurate than human clean-ups because it effortlessly picks the tiny plastic particles up and carries them up high into the air, then plummets them down into the sea. Trees lie haphazardly along the roadways and in the roads blocking any normal semblance of life.
There is nowhere to look that is not marred by the hurricane's power after it touches the ground.
The sad realization is that natural disasters such as hurricanes are only going to get worse. There is no specific proof indicating that climate change is a leading factor for the increase in the number of hurricanes hitting land. Still, strong evidence shows climate change as the leading factor for the intensity of hurricanes hitting landfall.
The stories told in these podcasts portray the physical, emotional, and mental toll a hurricane takes on the spirit of a community, its people, and its environment. One of the themes that caught my attention while listening to these three podcasts was during the discussion between former FEMA director Mike Brown and the Atlantic.
The focus of the discussion was to hear Mike Brown admit he and others in government were responsible for the lack of preparedness and lack of help after Hurricane Katrina broke the levees in New Orleans, leading to casualties and destruction.
Mike Brown told the podcast presenter,
"Know that somebody's not going to come. The shining knight in armor is not going to come and rescue her when that fear sets in."
He said this about a lady who suffered immensely during Hurricane Katrina. Along with others who have been affected by a hurricane, I push back on this statement because the communities we live in are our knight in shining armor.
Our communities pick each other up in our day-to-day lives, and we keep each other accountable for moving forward to rebuild, and that is why we stay.