Flooding and Freezing: Climate Change Disasters Grow

The Ohio River Valley and eastward have been experiencing an intense cycle of flood-inducing rains and freezing temperatures. Entire towns such as Beattyville (1) in Eastern Kentucky are underwater, a part of the state still reeling from flooding years ago, a combination of intensified weather patterns and erosion from strip-mining in the former coal-producing towns (with workers left to suffer the consequences after enriching the coal companies). The death toll of the storms is up to 15 (2), with deaths in Atlanta and West Virginia, and Kentucky claiming the other 13 lives counted thus far. Infrastructure ill-equipped to deal with the intensity of these disasters is exacerbating the damage, with a water main break in Detroit that flooded approximately 400 homes, then freezing solid entire streets filled with cars, displacing hundreds of people (3). Disaster relief could be even more sparse with a FEMA that has already been stretched thin from wildfires in the Western US and as part of the broader campaign of the Trump administration’s massive restructuring, defunding, and dissolution of federal programs and organizations, exacerbated by bureaucratic confusion and Trump sycophants pushing the line (4).

Climate disasters are growing more frequent and more intense. Bourgeois society as a whole is going through a restructuring in preparation for future war but is demonstrating that it’s entirely unprepared to deal with the consequences of the destruction of the planet’s ecosystem for the enrichment of a small few. As seen time and time again, it is the workers who dug this wealth from the earth who are now being buried, drowning, or crushed, entire families being uprooted and left with few options as the bourgeois government is incapable of meeting the needs of all these workers, building infrastructure that can withstand these modern storms.

[1] Kentucky community works to recover after flooding

[2] Death toll climbs to 15 amid devastating flooding in Kentucky

[3] Floods and frozen cars: Photos show aftermath of water main break in Detroit

[4] FEMA official ignores judge's latest order, demands freeze on grant funding