Hurricane Milton is expected to spare Atlanta, Georgia. But that doesn’t mean Mayor Andre Dickens is taking a risk.
Dickens, along with White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi, spoke to reporter Sheryl Estrada about building climate-ready cities Assets‘s Impact Initiative conference Tuesday. The timing of the conversation was painful; Hurricane Milton, a Category 5 storm as of Tuesday evening, could be the strongest to hit Florida in two decades and is expected to make landfall Wednesday evening.
Dickens is currently preparing for Hurricane Helene, which devastated the mountains of North Carolina last week. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, so we prepared for the worst,” Dickens said. Atlanta was mostly spared from the storm, but Dickens’ general approach to preparation is based on one basic principle: “Take no storm for granted.”
He then explained what he is doing as mayor to prepare for increasingly powerful storms triggered by warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico. His responsibilities include cleaning urban storm drains, building a good communication network and sensitizing residents to prepare as best as possible. “Don’t leave your birth certificate or your Social Security card in your basement,” he said. “You have to tell people these things.”
As Milton headed to Florida, the mayor said he was not taking any chances and was currently taking a “whole of government” approach. Whenever meteorologists start mentioning a storm in the Gulf, the Office of Emergency Preparedness in Atlanta takes preparatory measures, Dickens said. Heading into Wednesday, when Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall, people in Atlanta were encouraged to work remotely to clear roads. Emergency personnel will be on standby.
“Collaboration is so important; I have to know everything, have a good sense of the weather conditions and be able to communicate with power companies and different organizations that help us, and everyone has to have a certain level of resilience,” he said. “Our rail system, our water systems, our hospitals, our disadvantaged communities, our seniors, those experiencing homelessness – do they have supplies? Battery backups?”
Zaidi, Biden’s climate adviser, called Dickens’ approach a “masterclass in leadership on the climate crisis.” He added that the Biden administration has focused on bringing federal approaches to climate preparedness to local governments.
“We’ve tried to put all of these tools in the hands of local leaders and recognize that a big part of it is investment,” Zaidi said. He added that the federal government has invested $2 million in climate preparedness in Georgia alone.
Hurricane Milton could mean catastrophic losses for millions of Floridians, both in terms of casualties and economic devastation. “Milton is likely to cause double-digit billion damage” Wells Fargo said in a research note on TuesdayEstimates suggest these losses could reach $100 billion – or at least $20 billion. Many families are already suffering from high insurance premiums, a problem will only get worse; The average property insurance payment for single-family homes in the U.S. is 52% higher than the pre-pandemic rate.