The Color of Climate
When Climate Disasters Hit the Covid-Stricken South, Poor POC Will Suffer Most
And they’re on the way right now
This is The Color of Climate, a weekly column from OneZero exploring how climate change and other environmental issues uniquely impact the future of communities of color.
Last Sunday, tornadoes, high-speed winds, hailstorms, and torrential downpours hit Mississippi for the second week in a row. It’s one of several states in the American South — along with Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama — that are starting to see severe weather patterns as we enter the warmer months.
There was hail in Dallas. There was a tornado near New Orleans. There was both hail and a tornado near Houston. And it’s just the beginning — researchers at Colorado State University project that there will be eight hurricanes in the United States this year, four of them major.
This is typical weather in the South—though climate change is making these types of weather events more severe—but this is far from a typical year. The coronavirus has killed thousands of people in the South and infected tens of thousands more since the first American case was reported in late January.
