1 00:00:07,298 --> 00:00:09,426 [narrator] In September of 2017, 2 00:00:09,509 --> 00:00:12,137 Hurricane Maria churned across the Caribbean 3 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:14,431 and slammed into Puerto Rico. 4 00:00:14,514 --> 00:00:16,266 [thunder rumbling] 5 00:00:19,144 --> 00:00:23,064 [woman 1] That hurricane actually sounded like a beast. 6 00:00:23,982 --> 00:00:27,277 Like a preying, growling beast 7 00:00:28,028 --> 00:00:29,362 destroying everything. 8 00:00:29,988 --> 00:00:33,616 [woman 2] It's horrible to be in that situation when you can't do anything. 9 00:00:33,700 --> 00:00:36,745 [woman 3] I saw my entire 20 years of work 10 00:00:36,828 --> 00:00:37,787 destroyed. 11 00:00:37,871 --> 00:00:40,707 [reporter] Tell me what the last 24 hours have been like. 12 00:00:40,790 --> 00:00:44,377 Hell. This has just been horrible. Horrible. 13 00:00:46,546 --> 00:00:51,009 I had never lived something like that before ever in my life, 14 00:00:51,092 --> 00:00:53,553 and I hope I won't live through it again. 15 00:00:54,888 --> 00:00:58,558 [man] I got into San Juan two days after the hurricane passed. 16 00:00:58,641 --> 00:01:02,604 There was no water, no electricity, for the entire time I was there. 17 00:01:02,687 --> 00:01:04,898 I can tell you firsthand 18 00:01:04,981 --> 00:01:07,650 that going through a hurricane, 19 00:01:07,734 --> 00:01:11,821 where you're afraid for your home, or you're afraid for your loved ones, 20 00:01:11,905 --> 00:01:16,785 that leaves a mark on your spirit for the rest of your life. 21 00:01:19,579 --> 00:01:22,373 [narrator] More and more people are living in the path of hurricanes, 22 00:01:22,457 --> 00:01:26,127 and a warming planet will likely make these storms more destructive. 23 00:01:26,211 --> 00:01:28,963 Even though we may not necessarily see more hurricanes, 24 00:01:29,047 --> 00:01:31,132 the ones we do see will probably be 25 00:01:31,216 --> 00:01:33,468 much more dangerous and much more damaging. 26 00:01:33,551 --> 00:01:36,471 [narrator] So, what can we do to make our communities safer 27 00:01:36,554 --> 00:01:38,848 in the face of this cataclysmic power? 28 00:01:41,643 --> 00:01:44,729 Can we learn to withstand the oncoming storms? 29 00:01:45,355 --> 00:01:48,024 [man 1] Big storm right in the center of the field of view. 30 00:01:48,525 --> 00:01:52,237 [man 2] Hurricanes are accompanied by violent, destructive winds, 31 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:54,155 heavy rains, and high tides. 32 00:01:54,906 --> 00:01:57,867 [man 3] Ships are helpless before the typhoon's fury. 33 00:01:57,951 --> 00:02:00,829 [man 4] Those west of New Orleans are so far lucky, 34 00:02:00,912 --> 00:02:03,123 but for many people, the memories of the big storms 35 00:02:03,206 --> 00:02:05,208 of the '60s are all too real. 36 00:02:05,917 --> 00:02:07,460 [man 5] I'm 61 years old, 37 00:02:07,544 --> 00:02:10,130 you know what I mean, so all of them are really scary, you know. 38 00:02:10,213 --> 00:02:11,965 They ought to be taken seriously. 39 00:02:19,013 --> 00:02:20,348 [playful music] 40 00:02:20,431 --> 00:02:23,101 [Elizondo] In 1959, with the Cold War simmering, 41 00:02:23,184 --> 00:02:25,562 hundreds of scientists gathered in San Francisco 42 00:02:25,645 --> 00:02:27,897 to try and answer a simple question. 43 00:02:28,439 --> 00:02:31,860 {\an8}"Isn't there anything nice we can do with all these nuclear weapons?" 44 00:02:32,527 --> 00:02:34,070 {\an8}They had a bunch of ideas. 45 00:02:34,154 --> 00:02:37,323 Turning a series of blast craters into a shipping canal. 46 00:02:37,824 --> 00:02:40,785 Harnessing a bomb's heat to distill seawater. 47 00:02:41,578 --> 00:02:44,831 {\an8}And detonating a nuke in the eye of a hurricane 48 00:02:44,914 --> 00:02:46,916 {\an8}to try and derail the storm. 49 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:48,751 {\an8}[explosion] 50 00:02:50,003 --> 00:02:52,547 {\an8}That idea has remained incredibly tempting, 51 00:02:52,630 --> 00:02:55,717 {\an8}so much so the US agency that studies hurricanes 52 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,052 {\an8}addresses the issue on their FAQ page. 53 00:02:59,888 --> 00:03:03,266 A major problem is, we just don't have a bomb that is big enough. 54 00:03:03,975 --> 00:03:07,812 This is rare footage of the most powerful nuke ever detonated, 55 00:03:07,896 --> 00:03:10,315 the Soviet Union's Tsar Bomba. 56 00:03:10,398 --> 00:03:12,567 [man speaking Russian] 57 00:03:15,069 --> 00:03:17,655 [Elizondo] It was a 50-megaton blast, 58 00:03:17,739 --> 00:03:19,991 a jaw-dropping release of energy. 59 00:03:21,159 --> 00:03:22,869 But a fully-developed hurricane 60 00:03:22,952 --> 00:03:25,830 can unleash that amount of energy every couple hours. 61 00:03:25,914 --> 00:03:29,125 If you nuked a hurricane, the most likely result would be 62 00:03:29,209 --> 00:03:30,919 a radioactive hurricane. 63 00:03:32,503 --> 00:03:34,339 These storms are so powerful 64 00:03:34,422 --> 00:03:37,258 because they're working on a completely different scale. 65 00:03:37,342 --> 00:03:42,013 They're fueled by enormous swaths of ocean and the spinning of the planet. 66 00:03:42,555 --> 00:03:45,808 {\an8}The sun's rays heat water, which evaporates and rises, 67 00:03:45,892 --> 00:03:49,520 forming towering thunderclouds, and, down near the surface, 68 00:03:49,604 --> 00:03:51,272 a pocket of low pressure. 69 00:03:52,023 --> 00:03:54,817 Surrounding air rushes in to fill this void, 70 00:03:54,901 --> 00:03:57,570 but it's deflected off course by The Coriolis Effect. 71 00:03:58,446 --> 00:04:02,492 Air moving large distances over Earth's surface appears to curve. 72 00:04:03,243 --> 00:04:05,245 That makes the whole system spin, 73 00:04:05,328 --> 00:04:07,497 counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, 74 00:04:07,580 --> 00:04:09,040 clockwise in the southern. 75 00:04:10,208 --> 00:04:13,503 The Coriolis Effect is too weak near the equator, 76 00:04:13,586 --> 00:04:15,964 and the water's too cold near the poles. 77 00:04:16,047 --> 00:04:19,509 But in this zone, conditions are just right. 78 00:04:19,592 --> 00:04:23,346 More than 100 million people are affected by cyclones each year, 79 00:04:23,429 --> 00:04:28,101 and more than one in five people on Earth are in their potential path. 80 00:04:28,184 --> 00:04:31,271 Technically, these are all tropical cyclones, 81 00:04:31,354 --> 00:04:33,439 but here they're known as typhoons, 82 00:04:33,523 --> 00:04:35,608 and here hurricanes. 83 00:04:35,692 --> 00:04:38,319 One of their more common routes cuts through the Caribbean, 84 00:04:38,403 --> 00:04:41,864 and Puerto Rico gets hit every several years. 85 00:04:41,948 --> 00:04:44,450 But that doesn't mean it was ready for the big one. 86 00:04:45,451 --> 00:04:47,620 This is September, 2017. 87 00:04:47,704 --> 00:04:49,872 A couple of hurricanes are menacing the Caribbean, 88 00:04:49,956 --> 00:04:51,874 but Maria was just a gentle eddy 89 00:04:51,958 --> 00:04:54,585 in the river of air spilling off the African Coast. 90 00:04:55,169 --> 00:04:57,797 Storm clouds formed and started spinning, 91 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:00,675 and its eye emerged, a center of eerie calm 92 00:05:00,758 --> 00:05:03,803 surrounded by winds as fast as a high-speed train. 93 00:05:04,387 --> 00:05:09,642 They reached 173 miles an hour, making Maria a Category 5 storm. 94 00:05:09,726 --> 00:05:12,895 It was Category 5, and it had a route that seemed like 95 00:05:12,979 --> 00:05:14,939 it was going to hit Puerto Rico. 96 00:05:15,523 --> 00:05:17,859 [Elizondo]{\an8} Tania runs Taller Salud. 97 00:05:17,942 --> 00:05:20,069 It's a women's empowerment nonprofit, 98 00:05:20,153 --> 00:05:22,905 headquartered less than 20 miles from Puerto Rico's capital 99 00:05:22,989 --> 00:05:25,074 in the coastal town of Loíza. 100 00:05:25,158 --> 00:05:28,536 [Rosario] It was founded as a village of runaway slaves. 101 00:05:29,037 --> 00:05:31,539 Sixty percent of people living in Loíza 102 00:05:31,622 --> 00:05:35,126 identify themselves as Black Afro-Puerto Ricans. 103 00:05:35,710 --> 00:05:37,879 [Elizondo] The town is nestled between two rivers, 104 00:05:37,962 --> 00:05:40,214 the ocean, and a vast swamp, 105 00:05:40,298 --> 00:05:43,968 which helped its residents protect their Afro-Puerto Rican culture. 106 00:05:44,052 --> 00:05:46,012 Loízeños invented bomba, 107 00:05:46,095 --> 00:05:48,681 a fusion of Spanish and African music. 108 00:05:48,765 --> 00:05:54,771 But Loíza's geography also isolated it from the economic progress of San Juan. 109 00:05:54,854 --> 00:05:57,857 [Rosario] It was kind of left out of urban planning, 110 00:05:57,940 --> 00:05:59,609 back in the '50s and '60s. 111 00:05:59,692 --> 00:06:01,944 Racism played a big part. 112 00:06:02,028 --> 00:06:05,531 Nothing was done to provide physical, concrete access 113 00:06:05,615 --> 00:06:09,619 to hospitals, universities, infrastructure in general. 114 00:06:09,702 --> 00:06:12,038 [Elizondo] Poverty and all that water 115 00:06:12,121 --> 00:06:16,167 made Loíza particularly vulnerable when Maria made landfall. 116 00:06:17,251 --> 00:06:19,796 Hurricanes pile the ocean up in front of them, 117 00:06:19,879 --> 00:06:21,631 creating mountainous waves. 118 00:06:21,714 --> 00:06:25,051 {\an8}And this storm surge gnawed away at Loíza's coast. 119 00:06:25,134 --> 00:06:29,180 At the same time, the clouds unleashed their stockpiles of ocean water, 120 00:06:29,263 --> 00:06:32,266 overfilling rivers and flooding whole neighborhoods. 121 00:06:32,892 --> 00:06:37,480 [Rosario] In some places, the flood was five, six feet high, 122 00:06:37,563 --> 00:06:39,148 so it was covering homes. 123 00:06:39,232 --> 00:06:41,484 Some of the flood was sewage water. 124 00:06:42,026 --> 00:06:45,446 [Elizondo] Loíza was one of the hardest-hit towns in Puerto Rico. 125 00:06:45,530 --> 00:06:47,865 Three thousand houses were destroyed. 126 00:06:49,617 --> 00:06:52,120 And Loíza is part of a global pattern. 127 00:06:52,203 --> 00:06:55,123 Poorer communities are often in more flood-prone areas. 128 00:06:55,206 --> 00:06:57,375 That's true in Vietnam cities 129 00:06:57,458 --> 00:06:59,252 and in southwest Bangladesh. 130 00:06:59,794 --> 00:07:02,463 Or they're closer to industrial plants, 131 00:07:02,547 --> 00:07:04,424 like in Houston, Texas. 132 00:07:04,507 --> 00:07:08,469 In 2017, Hurricane Harvey dumped several feet of rain on the region, 133 00:07:08,553 --> 00:07:10,888 breaching its toxic waste sites. 134 00:07:10,972 --> 00:07:14,851 [Newkirk] Hurricane floods can carry contamination to surrounding communities. 135 00:07:15,435 --> 00:07:17,562 [Elizondo] Poor areas are more vulnerable 136 00:07:17,645 --> 00:07:19,981 and they're less likely to get help right away. 137 00:07:20,064 --> 00:07:21,649 Puerto Rico was a key example. 138 00:07:22,233 --> 00:07:24,277 [Elizondo] Satellite images show the island's lights 139 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,404 before the storm and after. 140 00:07:27,196 --> 00:07:29,574 As months passed and San Juan regained power, 141 00:07:29,657 --> 00:07:33,453 more remote areas, including much of Loíza, remained in the dark. 142 00:07:34,036 --> 00:07:35,872 The former governor of Puerto Rico 143 00:07:35,955 --> 00:07:39,208 tweeted a photo of surgery performed by flashlight. 144 00:07:39,292 --> 00:07:41,377 Kidney patients had to take a plane three times a week 145 00:07:41,461 --> 00:07:43,713 to reach a working dialysis center. 146 00:07:43,796 --> 00:07:46,424 Diabetics couldn't refrigerate their insulin. 147 00:07:46,924 --> 00:07:48,217 [in Spanish] It's incredible. 148 00:07:48,301 --> 00:07:51,721 It's a crisis affecting the whole of the country. 149 00:07:51,804 --> 00:07:53,723 [Elizondo] In the weeks and months after Maria, 150 00:07:53,806 --> 00:07:56,058 the death toll continued to climb. 151 00:07:56,684 --> 00:07:58,978 [Rosario] There were lives that were lost 152 00:07:59,061 --> 00:08:02,565 that should have been protected. 153 00:08:02,648 --> 00:08:04,901 Events are natural, 154 00:08:04,984 --> 00:08:07,195 and disasters are political. 155 00:08:07,778 --> 00:08:09,947 [Elizondo] Puerto Rico is a territory of the US, 156 00:08:10,031 --> 00:08:12,617 so they looked to their federal government for help. 157 00:08:12,700 --> 00:08:15,453 {\an8}Without help, the ongoing humanitarian crisis 158 00:08:15,536 --> 00:08:17,747 {\an8}will only get worse. 159 00:08:17,830 --> 00:08:20,500 {\an8}The residents of Puerto Rico are American citizens. 160 00:08:20,583 --> 00:08:22,585 This is a job for the federal government. 161 00:08:22,668 --> 00:08:24,795 [Elizondo] But the feds were slow to send aid, 162 00:08:25,421 --> 00:08:28,299 and then the island government mismanaged its distribution. 163 00:08:28,382 --> 00:08:32,887 [Rosario] A few people that don't face those risks 164 00:08:32,970 --> 00:08:35,806 {\an8}decide over communities 165 00:08:35,890 --> 00:08:41,103 {\an8}with a lot of accumulated expertise on disaster preparedness and management. 166 00:08:41,187 --> 00:08:44,106 {\an8}It's so condescending and also so cruel. 167 00:08:44,690 --> 00:08:47,026 [Elizondo] The aftermath of Maria {\an8}was a tragedy, 168 00:08:47,610 --> 00:08:50,696 but before the storm hit, there was a small triumph. 169 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,533 Thanks to decades of human ingenuity, 170 00:08:53,616 --> 00:08:56,327 the people of Puerto Rico knew it was coming. 171 00:08:57,328 --> 00:09:00,248 The indigenous people of the Caribbean, like the Taino, 172 00:09:00,331 --> 00:09:03,334 had learned to recognize the early signs of these storms. 173 00:09:03,417 --> 00:09:04,794 High, feathery clouds, 174 00:09:04,877 --> 00:09:08,798 and frigate birds coming home to roost at unusual times. 175 00:09:09,423 --> 00:09:12,176 Newcomers to the islands were ignorant of these warnings. 176 00:09:12,885 --> 00:09:15,721 In 1780, a hurricane cut through the Caribbean 177 00:09:15,805 --> 00:09:18,891 and, in a few short days, killed 22,000. 178 00:09:19,850 --> 00:09:23,062 {\an8}But in 1928, when a similarly powerful storm 179 00:09:23,145 --> 00:09:26,607 {\an8}cut a familiar path across Puerto Rico, barometers in San Juan 180 00:09:26,691 --> 00:09:30,319 picked up the drop in atmospheric pressure that precedes a massive storm. 181 00:09:30,861 --> 00:09:33,864 Telegraph cables sent alerts to every district on the island, 182 00:09:34,407 --> 00:09:36,617 and radios broadcast a warning. 183 00:09:36,701 --> 00:09:40,121 {\an8}As a result, the storm had a fraction of the death toll. 184 00:09:40,204 --> 00:09:42,915 {\an8}And our forecasting has only gotten better. 185 00:09:42,999 --> 00:09:45,334 [man 1] From every corner of the Caribbean, 186 00:09:45,418 --> 00:09:48,421 weather information is received 24 hours a day 187 00:09:48,504 --> 00:09:50,214 from island weather stations, 188 00:09:50,298 --> 00:09:54,802 and from planes of the Air Force and Navy reconnaissance squadrons. 189 00:09:55,845 --> 00:09:57,555 [Elizondo] And then, in 1961, 190 00:09:57,638 --> 00:10:00,474 came a pioneering news report on Hurricane Carla. 191 00:10:01,017 --> 00:10:05,354 For the first time ever, TV audiences were shown radar images of a hurricane. 192 00:10:05,938 --> 00:10:08,691 [man 2] There is the eye of the hurricane right there. 193 00:10:08,774 --> 00:10:12,236 [Elizondo] Just seeing the sheer size of the storm on a map 194 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:14,822 inspired thousands to flee to safety. 195 00:10:14,905 --> 00:10:17,199 And on that same exact day 196 00:10:17,283 --> 00:10:19,410 came another huge first. 197 00:10:19,493 --> 00:10:22,997 The TIROS-3 satellite spotted a hurricane from space 198 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:25,458 before humans on the ground knew it existed. 199 00:10:25,541 --> 00:10:29,670 [man 3] It is just the pathfinder for more advanced weather forecasts to come. 200 00:10:31,172 --> 00:10:32,548 [Elizondo] A decade later, 201 00:10:32,632 --> 00:10:35,718 two-day forecasts were off by about 300 miles, 202 00:10:35,801 --> 00:10:39,847 and that number has steadily dropped, down to about 50 miles today. 203 00:10:39,930 --> 00:10:41,891 So fewer people are dying. 204 00:10:42,350 --> 00:10:45,144 In the 1960s, you might have tens of thousands of people 205 00:10:45,227 --> 00:10:46,896 drowning each year in storm waters. 206 00:10:46,979 --> 00:10:49,815 Now, the typical number is in the hundreds. 207 00:10:49,899 --> 00:10:53,611 As well as the forecast has been, all the steps of preparation, 208 00:10:53,694 --> 00:10:56,364 it does not mean there will not be damages. 209 00:10:56,447 --> 00:10:59,283 [Elizondo] Craig Fugate {\an8}was the administrator of FEMA, 210 00:10:59,367 --> 00:11:02,244 {\an8}the US agency that responds to natural disasters. 211 00:11:02,328 --> 00:11:05,748 We've seen track forecast improve tremendously. 212 00:11:05,831 --> 00:11:07,958 Intensity forecast has been lagging. 213 00:11:08,042 --> 00:11:11,379 [Elizondo] There are sometimes sudden leaps in a hurricane's strength, 214 00:11:11,462 --> 00:11:14,632 and it can catch meteorologists by surprise. 215 00:11:14,715 --> 00:11:16,592 Yesterday, it was just a tropical storm. 216 00:11:16,676 --> 00:11:19,428 The intensity forecast showing some big changes. 217 00:11:19,512 --> 00:11:22,181 Nobody really anticipated it being as strong as it was. 218 00:11:22,264 --> 00:11:25,893 These rapid intensifiers, they are extremely dangerous 219 00:11:25,976 --> 00:11:28,604 {\an8}from the standpoint of the public's perception of, 220 00:11:28,688 --> 00:11:30,773 {\an8}"Well, it was only a Cat 1." 221 00:11:30,856 --> 00:11:33,109 {\an8}And then 24 hours later, it's a Cat 5. 222 00:11:33,192 --> 00:11:35,611 {\an8}"If I knew it was gonna be a Cat 5, I'd have evacuated." 223 00:11:36,278 --> 00:11:40,324 [Elizondo] Scientists think this rapid intensification is becoming more common, 224 00:11:40,950 --> 00:11:42,660 thanks to climate change. 225 00:11:43,744 --> 00:11:47,164 I like to say climate change with a "D." It's already changed, 226 00:11:47,248 --> 00:11:51,210 and we're already measuring significant increases in sea level rise. 227 00:11:51,293 --> 00:11:52,920 [Elizondo] Almost ten inches. 228 00:11:53,003 --> 00:11:55,631 Many major cities are already close to sea level, 229 00:11:55,715 --> 00:11:58,217 and the ocean is likely to rise another foot, 230 00:11:58,300 --> 00:12:01,095 maybe several feet, by the end of the century. 231 00:12:01,178 --> 00:12:04,432 Every extra inch adds to a future storm surge. 232 00:12:04,515 --> 00:12:07,727 And that makes the flooding from coastal storms, 233 00:12:07,810 --> 00:12:10,730 but particularly hurricanes, much more devastating. 234 00:12:11,397 --> 00:12:14,942 [Elizondo] And warmer waters are likely fueling faster winds, 235 00:12:15,025 --> 00:12:17,027 and rainier storms. 236 00:12:17,570 --> 00:12:19,780 And as water heats up closer to the poles, 237 00:12:19,864 --> 00:12:23,701 there's some evidence the world's cyclone zones will expand. 238 00:12:23,784 --> 00:12:25,202 But we don't know for sure. 239 00:12:25,286 --> 00:12:27,371 Global warming can have strange effects. 240 00:12:27,455 --> 00:12:31,417 {\an8}For example, it seems to be making hurricanes travel more slowly. 241 00:12:31,500 --> 00:12:33,335 {\an8}[Fugate] You go back to Hurricane Dorian 242 00:12:33,419 --> 00:12:36,881 {\an8}that literally sat on Grand Bahama for days 243 00:12:36,964 --> 00:12:38,841 {\an8}as a major hurricane. 244 00:12:38,924 --> 00:12:43,053 [Elizondo] Tropical cyclones have been causing more and more dollars of damage, 245 00:12:43,137 --> 00:12:45,890 and climate change will likely make that worse. 246 00:12:45,973 --> 00:12:48,601 But the trend we've seen so far is mainly driven 247 00:12:48,684 --> 00:12:52,396 by more people building more stuff in the path of destruction. 248 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:54,815 From 1970 to 2010, 249 00:12:54,899 --> 00:12:57,193 while the world's population almost doubled, 250 00:12:57,276 --> 00:13:01,113 the population in cyclone-prone coastlines nearly tripled. 251 00:13:01,822 --> 00:13:04,450 But not everyone will be able to stay. 252 00:13:04,533 --> 00:13:06,952 You see more and more people have to make decisions about 253 00:13:07,036 --> 00:13:08,871 whether they're gonna leave altogether. 254 00:13:08,954 --> 00:13:11,499 These frontline communities, they're pragmatic. 255 00:13:11,582 --> 00:13:14,168 They understand it's not gonna be physically livable, 256 00:13:14,251 --> 00:13:17,588 but they also are demanding recognition 257 00:13:17,671 --> 00:13:19,673 for what the land means to them. 258 00:13:19,757 --> 00:13:23,969 [Rosario] Loíza is actually called the capital of traditions in Puerto Rico, 259 00:13:24,053 --> 00:13:27,848 and it's a stronghold of Afro-Puerto Rican identity. 260 00:13:27,932 --> 00:13:29,725 [Newkirk] It connects them to their ancestors. 261 00:13:29,809 --> 00:13:32,311 It is more than just a plot of real estate. 262 00:13:33,229 --> 00:13:34,855 Should we let climate change 263 00:13:34,939 --> 00:13:38,025 drive us away from our communities? 264 00:13:38,108 --> 00:13:42,696 In some parts of the country, rebuilding is just not gonna make sense. 265 00:13:42,780 --> 00:13:46,575 In other parts of the country, it may be an engineering solution. 266 00:13:47,117 --> 00:13:49,787 [Elizondo] We're getting better at building wind-resistant homes, 267 00:13:49,870 --> 00:13:51,539 thanks to controlled experiments 268 00:13:53,374 --> 00:13:55,376 and real-world experience. 269 00:13:56,126 --> 00:13:59,713 This is Mexico Beach, Florida, before Hurricane Michael hit. 270 00:13:59,797 --> 00:14:01,507 And here it is after. 271 00:14:02,508 --> 00:14:04,718 Scores of houses were flattened, 272 00:14:04,802 --> 00:14:07,763 but this one survived pretty much unscathed. 273 00:14:07,847 --> 00:14:11,559 Its walls are poured concrete woven through with rebar, 274 00:14:11,642 --> 00:14:14,895 which pushed construction costs up 15 to 20%, 275 00:14:15,479 --> 00:14:18,190 But down the road, some Habitat for Humanity houses 276 00:14:18,274 --> 00:14:20,067 also survived the storm, 277 00:14:20,150 --> 00:14:22,862 thanks to a few much cheaper fortifications, 278 00:14:22,945 --> 00:14:25,865 like metal ties, strategically placed nails, 279 00:14:25,948 --> 00:14:27,449 and sealed shutters, 280 00:14:27,533 --> 00:14:30,578 which added just a few percentage points to building costs. 281 00:14:31,328 --> 00:14:35,916 It's a bit trickier and a little more expensive to retrofit old houses, 282 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:40,212 and it's incredibly difficult to retrofit old cities. 283 00:14:40,963 --> 00:14:45,885 Some wealthier metro areas are pouring billions into building up their defenses. 284 00:14:45,968 --> 00:14:51,098 Osaka is raising its flood-prone airport by adding layer after layer of pavement. 285 00:14:51,181 --> 00:14:54,560 Shanghai has resolved to become a sponge city, 286 00:14:54,643 --> 00:14:58,480 filled with parks and waterways that can absorb or redirect the flood. 287 00:14:59,064 --> 00:15:01,901 And New York City is planning something bold. 288 00:15:01,984 --> 00:15:03,903 {\an8}We will initiate an effort that is 289 00:15:03,986 --> 00:15:06,280 {\an8}estimated to cost ten billion dollars 290 00:15:06,363 --> 00:15:09,450 to extend the shoreline of Lower Manhattan 291 00:15:09,533 --> 00:15:11,368 into the East River. 292 00:15:11,452 --> 00:15:12,828 {\an8}It is audacious, 293 00:15:12,912 --> 00:15:15,247 {\an8}but most of all it is necessary. 294 00:15:15,331 --> 00:15:19,084 [Elizondo] A lot of these big city plans include the construction of massive walls 295 00:15:19,168 --> 00:15:23,047 to stop storm surges, something we've been doing for more than a century. 296 00:15:23,672 --> 00:15:26,425 But it turns out the turbulence these seawalls create 297 00:15:26,508 --> 00:15:29,511 causes the beaches around them to wash away faster. 298 00:15:29,595 --> 00:15:34,058 They also cost a lot to build, and they often need expensive repairs. 299 00:15:34,141 --> 00:15:38,812 There's a lot of human ingenuity at work, but hurricanes still humble us. 300 00:15:38,896 --> 00:15:43,442 One thing that is gonna be way more effective than building giant walls 301 00:15:43,525 --> 00:15:45,527 is wetland restoration. 302 00:15:45,611 --> 00:15:50,115 [Elizondo] In 1999, a cyclone made landfall in East India. 303 00:15:50,866 --> 00:15:54,787 Houses in this village had an average of 7,000 rupees of damage, 304 00:15:54,870 --> 00:15:57,998 nearly a third of what an average family made in a year. 305 00:15:58,082 --> 00:16:01,043 But this village saw only a fifth of that damage, 306 00:16:01,126 --> 00:16:04,254 because it was protected by a mangrove forest. 307 00:16:04,338 --> 00:16:09,343 All over the world, mangroves act like both a physical shield and a sponge, 308 00:16:09,426 --> 00:16:10,886 soaking up floodwaters 309 00:16:10,970 --> 00:16:14,682 and preventing 65 billion dollars in property damage every year. 310 00:16:15,349 --> 00:16:17,851 Of course, cyclones damage mangroves too, 311 00:16:17,935 --> 00:16:21,981 but healthy forests are self-repairing, unlike man-made seawalls, 312 00:16:22,064 --> 00:16:25,734 and they actually reverse erosion, trapping sediments in their roots. 313 00:16:26,318 --> 00:16:30,447 The land around mangroves can gain up to 10 millimeters of elevation every year, 314 00:16:30,531 --> 00:16:32,408 outpacing sea level rise. 315 00:16:32,950 --> 00:16:36,495 And our shorelines are endowed with other kinds of natural barriers. 316 00:16:36,578 --> 00:16:40,290 Wetlands, which, like mangroves, can hold millions of gallons of water, 317 00:16:40,374 --> 00:16:44,044 and reefs, that absorb the physical blow of the storm surge. 318 00:16:44,128 --> 00:16:46,505 Dunes can take a beating for us too. 319 00:16:47,089 --> 00:16:49,800 Puerto Rico's coast once had towering dunes, 320 00:16:49,883 --> 00:16:53,095 but back in the 1950s, when San Juan was booming, 321 00:16:53,178 --> 00:16:56,056 a lot of that sand was taken to build new airport runways. 322 00:16:56,849 --> 00:16:59,393 What was left was degraded by human traffic 323 00:16:59,476 --> 00:17:02,146 and easily overwhelmed by Maria's storm surge. 324 00:17:03,147 --> 00:17:05,441 Now scientists from the University of Puerto Rico 325 00:17:05,524 --> 00:17:08,569 have teamed up with local communities to assess the damage 326 00:17:08,652 --> 00:17:09,778 and restore the dunes. 327 00:17:10,529 --> 00:17:13,240 And similar projects are happening all over. 328 00:17:14,199 --> 00:17:18,370 [Newkirk] More and more folks are thinking about wetlands as places 329 00:17:18,454 --> 00:17:22,833 that are just as valuable to us as high-rise skyscrapers. 330 00:17:22,916 --> 00:17:24,460 That will determine 331 00:17:24,543 --> 00:17:28,088 how much of the eastern and southeast United States we can save. 332 00:17:28,172 --> 00:17:29,757 What I don't want to see 333 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,635 is that the marginalized communities, the poor communities, 334 00:17:33,719 --> 00:17:36,055 bear the brunt of having to be relocated, 335 00:17:36,138 --> 00:17:38,932 while more affluent communities will get the seawalls 336 00:17:39,016 --> 00:17:41,268 and protection systems built for them, 337 00:17:41,894 --> 00:17:45,355 [Elizondo] But that's logical if you're a government with limited resources, 338 00:17:45,439 --> 00:17:47,066 worried about your bottom line. 339 00:17:47,733 --> 00:17:51,862 {\an8}Say you have two families in two houses, in two different neighborhoods. 340 00:17:51,945 --> 00:17:54,490 {\an8}The cheaper house is likely more vulnerable, 341 00:17:54,573 --> 00:17:58,285 but if the government protects that house, and the expensive house gets hit, 342 00:17:58,368 --> 00:17:59,912 repairs will cost more, 343 00:17:59,995 --> 00:18:02,664 the government may have to pay out a lot more in aid, 344 00:18:02,748 --> 00:18:05,918 and if that family moves away, they've lost wealthy taxpayers. 345 00:18:06,001 --> 00:18:08,587 So the crass calculation is simple. 346 00:18:08,670 --> 00:18:11,006 [Fugate] I'll save a lot more money making that investment 347 00:18:11,090 --> 00:18:12,549 where those million-dollar homes are. 348 00:18:13,092 --> 00:18:15,886 The most unequal phase 349 00:18:15,969 --> 00:18:18,430 of any disaster is actually the recovery. 350 00:18:19,014 --> 00:18:21,433 [Elizondo] One study {\an8}of major natural disasters 351 00:18:21,517 --> 00:18:25,062 found that Black and Hispanic households tend to lose money in the aftermath. 352 00:18:25,145 --> 00:18:27,564 Makes sense. But surprisingly… 353 00:18:27,648 --> 00:18:29,608 [Newkirk] White folks in disaster zones 354 00:18:29,691 --> 00:18:32,694 tend to see their net worth increase. 355 00:18:33,237 --> 00:18:36,949 [Elizondo] They actually gained an average {\an8}of 126,000 dollars. 356 00:18:38,075 --> 00:18:41,870 Wealthier families likely have good home insurance to cover repairs, 357 00:18:41,954 --> 00:18:44,832 good health insurance to help their bodies and minds heal, 358 00:18:44,915 --> 00:18:47,835 and the resources to successfully apply for government aid. 359 00:18:48,460 --> 00:18:52,172 [Newkirk] Then they gain the benefits of being able to be back in a place 360 00:18:52,256 --> 00:18:53,423 that is rebounding. 361 00:18:54,591 --> 00:18:57,177 [Elizondo] Low income families, on the other hand, 362 00:18:57,261 --> 00:18:59,179 sometimes lose entire homes. 363 00:18:59,888 --> 00:19:01,640 [Newkirk] They have, say, 364 00:19:01,723 --> 00:19:04,351 property that was passed down among family, 365 00:19:04,434 --> 00:19:06,812 so they don't always have documentation. 366 00:19:06,895 --> 00:19:09,857 [Rosario] There's a lot of informal agreements. 367 00:19:09,940 --> 00:19:13,443 You need the deed in order to file for certain assistance. 368 00:19:13,527 --> 00:19:15,070 So lots of people have lost 369 00:19:15,154 --> 00:19:18,073 houses and land that had been in their families for generations 370 00:19:18,157 --> 00:19:21,827 on a couple hundred dollars of damage from hurricanes. It's common. 371 00:19:22,411 --> 00:19:24,621 [Elizondo] Families {\an8}who can't afford to move 372 00:19:24,705 --> 00:19:26,582 {\an8}find it too expensive to stay. 373 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:29,626 {\an8}[Newkirk] If we're not giving people aid and support in the present, 374 00:19:29,710 --> 00:19:33,714 how do we have faith that the government's gonna give that recovery and relief aid 375 00:19:33,797 --> 00:19:36,466 {\an8}when a disaster hits? It's not. 376 00:19:36,550 --> 00:19:38,677 {\an8}We're glad that all of you are here 377 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:42,931 {\an8}to discuss preparations for this year's hurricane season. 378 00:19:43,015 --> 00:19:44,558 [Elizondo] Back in 2007, 379 00:19:44,641 --> 00:19:47,144 Craig Fugate testified before Congress. 380 00:19:47,227 --> 00:19:49,229 {\an8}Here's the challenge I wanna talk about. 381 00:19:49,313 --> 00:19:51,690 {\an8}We look at a Category 5 hurricane hitting South Florida 382 00:19:51,773 --> 00:19:54,902 {\an8}similar to the Great Miami Hurricane that actually hit in 1926. 383 00:19:54,985 --> 00:19:59,364 [Elizondo] That hurricane killed hundreds {\an8}and left about 40,000 people homeless, 384 00:19:59,448 --> 00:20:01,825 {\an8}nearly a third of the county's population. 385 00:20:02,576 --> 00:20:04,578 And Fugate had run a simulation. 386 00:20:04,661 --> 00:20:08,332 We said, "If it hit today, what does that response look like?" 387 00:20:08,415 --> 00:20:10,417 And we started running the need, 388 00:20:10,500 --> 00:20:13,921 and we couldn't meet it. We just did not have enough resources. 389 00:20:14,588 --> 00:20:17,424 {\an8}There was over six million people in this impact area. 390 00:20:17,507 --> 00:20:20,344 {\an8}As we're going through this exercise, I started realizing 391 00:20:20,427 --> 00:20:23,472 {\an8}we were treating every one of them as a victim 392 00:20:23,555 --> 00:20:26,266 {\an8}who was waiting for somebody to come rescue them. 393 00:20:26,350 --> 00:20:30,020 But every disaster I've ever been into, people aren't waiting. 394 00:20:30,729 --> 00:20:33,440 Neighbors were the fastest response helping neighbors. 395 00:20:33,523 --> 00:20:37,319 [Rosario] There were several women that had set up community kitchens 396 00:20:37,402 --> 00:20:39,655 to cook for 30 to 60 people. 397 00:20:39,738 --> 00:20:42,824 So we asked, "If we bring more food and more gas, 398 00:20:42,908 --> 00:20:46,495 can you cook for 300 instead of 30?" 399 00:20:46,578 --> 00:20:47,746 And they all said yes. 400 00:20:48,413 --> 00:20:50,916 [Elizondo] In Loíza and all over Puerto Rico, 401 00:20:50,999 --> 00:20:54,544 neighbors delivered food and water, kept tabs on the vulnerable, 402 00:20:54,628 --> 00:20:56,338 installed solar panels, 403 00:20:56,421 --> 00:20:59,841 and created a smartphone app to share supplies. 404 00:20:59,925 --> 00:21:03,595 They were coming up with these dramatically innovative ways 405 00:21:03,679 --> 00:21:08,016 of dealing with the lack of government support on the ground. 406 00:21:08,100 --> 00:21:12,562 Government-centric problem-solving is going to fail miserably 407 00:21:12,646 --> 00:21:14,147 in these large events. 408 00:21:14,231 --> 00:21:16,566 The more we can have neighbors helping neighbors, 409 00:21:16,650 --> 00:21:19,820 the better we can focus the limited government resources 410 00:21:19,903 --> 00:21:21,947 on the people that have the greatest need. 411 00:21:22,030 --> 00:21:26,535 [Rosario] We learned that recovery has several dimensions. 412 00:21:26,618 --> 00:21:30,956 That joy and playfulness, 413 00:21:31,039 --> 00:21:34,209 it's a very central aspect of general well-being. 414 00:21:35,502 --> 00:21:38,630 Loíza music is produced in community. 415 00:21:38,714 --> 00:21:42,926 This gives an opportunity for community to come together and play music, 416 00:21:43,010 --> 00:21:44,761 and sing and dance, 417 00:21:44,845 --> 00:21:47,264 and just be together. 418 00:21:47,347 --> 00:21:49,850 Places that have done the best in a disaster 419 00:21:49,933 --> 00:21:53,228 are the places where we have fostered and nurtured 420 00:21:53,312 --> 00:21:55,272 those existing bonds of community. 421 00:21:55,355 --> 00:21:58,775 You see people drawing from that source 422 00:21:58,859 --> 00:22:00,444 to keep going. 423 00:22:00,527 --> 00:22:02,738 [Elizondo] But every resource has its limits. 424 00:22:03,322 --> 00:22:06,033 Four years after Maria, many roofs in Loíza 425 00:22:06,116 --> 00:22:07,993 are still shrouded in blue. 426 00:22:08,076 --> 00:22:10,037 And in the waters off Africa, 427 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:13,540 a new catastrophe could be spinning into existence. 428 00:22:13,623 --> 00:22:18,211 [Rosario] Everything is fragile, and anything can collapse easily. 429 00:22:19,296 --> 00:22:21,673 We don't need another hurricane is what I mean. 430 00:22:29,681 --> 00:22:32,559 [closing theme music playing]