EDITORIAL: Batten down the hatches, another bad hurricane season looms

The Day, New London, Conn.
·2 min read

May 21—So, it is going to be another active hurricane season, say the experts, with more storms than average and more of major intensity status.

Great, just great.

This isn't just a passing curiosity for folks in these parts. This is a coastal community. Sometimes these tropical systems travel up the Atlantic Seaboard, where Connecticut and southern New England stick out like the chin of a prize fighter inviting a blow.

The 2020 hurricane season was a record breaker (was there anything good about that year?) with 30 named storms. Forecasters ran out of names and turned to the Greek alphabet. The last, Hurricane Iota, made landfall in northeastern Nicaragua in Mid-November as a Category 4.

Last Aug. 4, Tropical Storm Isaias visited Connecticut and caused more damage than anticipated, with 1.1 million electric customers losing power, some up to nine days at a time of swelteringly hot temperatures.

Eversource was widely criticized for insufficient preparation and poor response. It led to a utility reform bill that will tie compensation to utility performance and require the payment of partial compensation due to the loss of foods and medicines when power is not restored in a reasonable time.

Earlier this month state utility regulators handed down a $30 million civil penalty against Eversource, the maximum under law, because of its poor response to Isaias. The cost cannot be passed on in electric rates.

So, yes, these tropical systems, even those of sub-hurricane status, can be a big deal. It is hard to comprehend the damage that will be inflicted to our highly developed coastline when another major hurricane, on the scale of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, again makes a direct hit on the state. And it is a matter of when.

These natural disasters also have national policy implications. A fairly direct line can be drawn between an increase in Central American refugees at the U.S. border and the economic outfall from the pandemic and the devastation caused by Hurricanes Eta and Iota, which ravaged sections of that region in 2020.

Preparation is all that can be done. With warming seas tied to climate change helping fuel cyclones, the trend lines are ominous. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts that the June through November hurricane season will see 13 to 20 named storms, with 6 to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to five major hurricanes.

Here's hoping none connect with our chin.

The Day editorial board meets regularly with political, business and community leaders and convenes weekly to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Tim Dwyer, Editorial Page Editor Paul Choiniere, Managing Editor Izaskun E. Larrañeta, staff writer Erica Moser and retired deputy managing editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and editorial page editor are responsible for developing the editorial opinions. The board operates independently from the Day newsroom.