Days after being pummeled with eight inches of rainfall in only just hours — the kind of extreme downpour that supposedly occurs once every 500 years — South Florida continues to be deluged with historic storms and flooding.
The region of the state remains under a flood advisory on Friday after a series of storms dumped between eight and 20 inches of rain over large sections of Florida over the previous three days. Meteorologists expect another two to four inches of rain by Friday night, and some areas may get as much as 10 inches.
This extreme wet weather has left hundreds of people stranded in their homes. This storm system even yielded a tornado that tore through the community of Hobe Sound, north of Palm Beach, on Wednesday, uprooting or destroying at least 20 landmark ficus trees.
According to researchers, climate change both intensifies extreme weather events like tropical storms and floods and makes them more frequent. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican often described as a climate skeptic, has worked to scrub references to the problem from official state documents in his state. Activists like Stevie O'Hanlon, communications director for the Sunrise Movement, argue that kind of denialism will ultimately backfire on the politicians who support it.