By Michelle Tanner

It's November 2024, so the bad weather season has passed, right? Well, over the past couple of decades, it's changed. So far in 2024, there have been 18, billion-dollar events! In fact, there is weather forming in the Gulf of Mexico that could impact Texas.

Between 1980 and 2010, Texas averaged two major weather incidents per year. Since then, Texas has averaged 8.5 major weather incidents per year. These incidents include droughts, floods, wildfires, winter storms, severe freezes, tropical cyclones and severe storms—like hailstorms and tornadoes. Each of these major events caused more than $1 billion in damage, using today’s current dollar value.

Over the past four decades there have been 400 confirmed billion-dollar disasters. During the same 44 years, Texas has had 188 billion-dollar disasters or 47% of the largest disasters in that time frame have impacted the Lone Star state.

During 2023, 28 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters occurred in the United States. These events include:

• 19 severe storm events (tornado outbreaks, high wind, hailstorms)
• four flood events
• two tropical cyclones
• one wildfire event
• one winter storm/cold wave
• one drought/heat wave

2024 and beyond

As predicted by the researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) Tropical Weather and Climate Research team, 2024 has continued the trend of more
storms. Thus far the Atlantic hurricane season has generated four major hurricanes Beryl, Helen, Kirk and Milton. In total, there have been nine, named storms thus far in 2024.

CSU predicted there would be at least five major hurricanes this year before the season began. As it turns out, CSU has done well in its predictions
this year, correctly predicting that at least one major hurricane would land along the Gulf Coast (42%), which includes the Texas shoreline. That storm was named Hurricane Beryl.

Hurricanes are only one type of weather incident that could impact Texas. Already this year, Texas has experienced its largest wildfire in history, a hurricane, a derecho, a winter freeze, hailstorms, and multiple tornado outbreaks.

While weather incidents used to be a rarely occurring event, it has now become a chronic event -- always occurring, and constantly impacting communities.

Red Cross stands ready to help

This means that the Red Cross must remain on alert all year long to respond to any weather incident.

However, the number and intensity of these major weather incidents are growing, and we extrapolate the numbers to mean these storms will impact more people.

The Red Cross created a nationwide plan to better position its people and assets to assist communities impacted by these major weather incidents. The Red Cross committed $1 billion in spending to improve its
ability to better respond to impacted communities.

In addition to growing our disaster workforce by recruiting more volunteers and hiring more employees, the Red Cross is fortifying the critical infrastructure and technology that enables 24/7 response to disasters across the country. Some of these resources include our network of warehouses and relief supplies, disaster response vehicles, computer equipment and systems that are used to track and plan service delivery, and employees with significant expertise and experience in disaster relief who support or work alongside volunteers to help people in need.

After disasters, the Red Cross provides several different types of financial assistance for qualified households to help them get back on their feet. Depending on the circumstances of the disaster, this financial aid can include:

• Help replace lost medications and medical equipment, as well as support for mental health and spiritual care resources, in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.
• Help qualified shelter residents who need funds to secure and move into stable housing.
• Immediate assistance to qualified households whose primary home has suffered major damage or been destroyed.
• Bridge recovery assistance, which is a second round of aid for qualified households that have additional recovery needs before other longer-term recovery assistance is available.
• Expanded recovery assistance for qualified households that face persistent and complex barriers after disasters.

Helping families and communities recover after a disaster is a team effort — no one organization can meet every need. We work closely with partners to address the most critical gaps and ensure people are not overlooked.

If you want to join us to help your community after a weather incident, please sign up at redcross.org. If you want to help us build the infrastructure so we are ready to respond to any disasters, please donate.