Climate Change and Hurricane Political Cartoons

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Home Prices Soar in Disaster Prone Areas

U.S. counties at the greatest risk of hurricanes, earthquakes, and other catastrophes saw the fastest home-price appreciation, a new report says.

Hurricane Maria's Rampage Demolishes Puerto Rico

“We will find our island destroyed,” Abner Gómez, Puerto Rico’s emergency management director, warned before Maria’s eye had cleared the island. “It’s a system that has destroyed everything it has had in its path.”

Hurricane Irma May Speed The End of Florida Orange Juice

The most recent estimates of the widespread damage to Florida's already diseased trees put the fruit loss statewide as high as 70%

Hurricanes are far from Florida Citrus' only struggles. In 2005, a stubborn and debilitating disease called huanglongbing, or citrus greening, was discovered in Florida groves. The disease, which causes bitter and deformed fruits, has since reduced Florida orange and grapefruit revenues by $4.64 billion, according to Jacqueline Burns, the dean for research at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences. It’s also believed to have cost the state economy an estimated $1.76 billion in job losses.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the discovery of the disease coincided with one of the worst hurricane seasons Florida had previously seen. Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne in 2004 slashed orange crops by a third. Growers suffered several more years of near record-low yields after that as injured trees and groves recovered.

Now, many fear the damage from Irma could be even worse.