Inland areas, where people may evacuate to, could see hazardous flooding and heavy rainfall from Idalia, which is set to rapidly intensify to a hurricane this week.
In concert with storm surge at the point of landfall posing dangerous threats, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior researcher at Columbia University’s Climate School, warns that heavy rainfall-related hazards can also occur as far as 100 miles away from where the storm center tracks.
“This is something that we’re seeing more and more, and this is a climate change connection because we’re seeing wetter tropical cyclones and wetter hurricanes,” he told CNN. “So we need to pay more attention to the risks associated with intense precipitation, especially in areas that are distant from the coastline.”
According to the forecast, Idalia is likely to make landfall in western Florida, then cross over the peninsula and re-emerge in the Atlantic south of the Carolinas. Kruczkiewicz said he worries about a second landfall, but even in the absence of it, he said the Carolinas could likely see very intense rainfall.
Moreover, places like Augusta, Georgia, or Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina could also be at risk of severe inland flooding as a result of Idalia.
A 2020 study published in the journal Nature found storms are moving farther inland than they did five decades ago.
Hurricanes, which typically weaken after moving over land, have been raging longer after landfall in recent years. The study concludes that warmer sea surface temperatures are leading to a “slower decay” by increasing moisture that a hurricane carries.
