As the date of the US elections approaches on November 5, 2024, American politicians and presidential candidates are hoping to provide a more stable climate within the US to ensure a democratic electoral process free from any impediments. This is especially crucial since the final month is a decisive time for determining priorities and shaping voters’ opinions. Consequently, it is entirely undesirable for threats to undermine the stability of the electoral process or, at the very least, to disrupt voting procedures or shift voters’ priorities.
Indeed, the winds do not always blow well for ships. Hurricane Helen struck the southeastern coast of the United States, leaving at least around 230 dead and hundreds missing across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. While those states were counting their losses and attempting to recover, Hurricane Milton hit Florida, resulting in at least 16 fatalities, with estimates indicating that this disaster is the third deadliest storm of the 21st century, following Hurricanes Katrina in 2005 and Maria in 2017.
Security and Changing Priorities:
Hurricanes Helen and Milton threaten the lives of millions of Americans, making discussions about security a top priority in order to free the population from this threat and ensure the safety of Americans. However, traditional concepts of security (military and national) are not suitable for addressing this existential crisis, which requires swift and extraordinary solutions within American society.
The Copenhagen School of Security Studies has provided a theoretical framework to understand new security threats that emerge in societies. On one hand, it has succeeded in expanding the notion of security to include “environmental security,” which can explain how to deal with environmental issues, natural disasters, and human practices that contribute to various ecological deterioration phenomena such as global warming and floods. On the other hand, it considers security as a performative discourse that portrays the threat as existential, necessitating urgent exceptional measures to legislate actions outside the usual political process, which is known as the securitization process.
Thus, the United States has found itself overnight in an extraordinary rhetorical battle to deal with the crises caused by Hurricanes Helen and Milton. The Biden administration faced immense pressure to frame the hurricane scenes within a security context to justify extraordinary federal responses, including calling on residents to evacuate and declaring a state of emergency. Simultaneously, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helen brought climate change to the forefront of the campaign agendas for Trump and Harris, after remaining on the sidelines and being only briefly addressed in the presidential debates this year that predominantly focused on the economy, immigration, and abortion rights.
Notably, the issue of climate change was not a priority for American voters during the current election year. According to the Pew Research Center, published on September 9, 2024, climate change ranked as the tenth concern for American voters, with three out of ten Americans considering it a crucial issue that will influence their voting decisions in the 2024 presidential elections.
Hurricane Helen brought to mind the importance of securitizing climate changes and the response to natural disasters to elevate the handling of such threats from the realm of low politics to high politics. This means creating an urgent elite rhetorical narrative from both the Biden administration to underscore federal response efforts in the affected states and from candidates in the current electoral race, making it unavoidable for Trump and Harris to clarify their visions regarding how to address climate insecurity and respond to natural disasters.
A Devastating Catastrophe and Massive Losses:
The National Hurricane Center noted that Hurricanes Helen on September 26 and Milton on October 9 fall under the category of “major and incredibly dangerous hurricanes,” which reflected the scale of loss affecting southeastern US states, summarized as follows:
The Worst Natural Disaster in a Century: Hurricane Helen unleashed 40 trillion gallons of rainwater—enough to fill 60 million Olympic-sized swimming pools—leading to severe flooding in southeastern states. The hurricane did not only damage coastal areas but extended more than 500 miles inland from the Florida coast. While the US was searching for Hurricane Helen’s victims, Hurricane Milton struck Florida on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, with winds reaching about 160 kilometers per hour, putting immense pressure on the federal government; the US president referred to Hurricane Milton as “the storm of the century, it’s literally a matter of life and death,” a clear indication of securitizing that natural disaster.
Billions in Material Losses: President Joe Biden estimated the losses from Hurricane Milton in Florida at around 50billion.Meanwhile,thecreditratingagencyMoody′sreportedthattheestimatedlossesintheprivateinsurancesectoracrossthesixstatesaffectedbyHurricaneHelenrangebetween50billion.Meanwhile,thecreditratingagencyMoody′sreportedthattheestimatedlossesintheprivateinsurancesectoracrossthesixstatesaffectedbyHurricaneHelenrangebetween8 billion and $14 billion.
Destruction of Infrastructure: The infrastructure faced significant damage, particularly to water, electricity, communication networks, and roads. Storms inflicted severe damage on sewage systems, water treatment plants, dams, and reservoirs that provide drinking water to residents in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. Additionally, storms destroyed cell towers, cutting off mobile networks, and left over 3 million people without power in Florida. Roads and bridges were destroyed, homes were swept away, and rail lines were closed due to fallen trees and debris along the tracks.
Financial Burden on Federal Emergencies: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported that its response to the crisis was dual-pronged as Hurricane Milton strengthened and moved toward Florida. On October 7, 2024, it announced the provision of over $210 million in emergency aid to the affected areas in the southeastern states.
Spread of Rumors and Lack of Certainty: The two hurricanes generated an unprecedented state of panic among citizens in the states, accompanied by a lack of certainty and trust in federal and local state officials’ efforts; misinformation circulated on social media suggesting that Hurricane Milton was “staged” and the weather in Florida was “manipulated.” Posts claiming that the US government secretly controls the weather through weather modification techniques like cloud seeding were seen millions of times on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, which President Biden called “ridiculous.” Furthermore, rumors spread that FEMA would only provide $750 to disaster victims for their recovery, and claims arose that it was trapping residents in Florida and preventing evacuations or was in the process of seizing survivors’ properties.
Extraordinary Efforts:
The Biden administration relied on the securitization process by delivering a narrative linking the disaster to security sectors, including national, economic, personal, community, environmental, and climate security, to facilitate extraordinary measures to deal with this crisis, which constitutes an existential threat to Americans. Some features reflecting the White House’s leaning toward the securitization of the disaster include:
Existential Threat Security Discourse: Biden warned, “Hurricane Milton is a matter of life and death,” while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated that “the entire Florida peninsula is under some form of monitoring or alert” before Hurricane Milton made landfall.
Meeting of US Department of Defense Leadership: The Department of Defense did not hesitate to uphold its responsibility to protect American national security during this disaster, especially as the impacts of the hurricanes made it clear that climate change poses a greater threat than terrorism or authoritarian states, as it causes more significant harm to American lives. Accordingly, on October 9, 2024, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting with senior military leaders to discuss hurricane response efforts and ensure coordination between the department and other government agencies to minimize losses.
Postponement of the President’s Overseas Tour: Alongside the declaration of a state of emergency in Florida, the White House announced the postponement of President Joe Biden’s overseas trip to Germany and Angola to oversee preparations to confront Hurricane Milton and coordinate relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen.
Visit by the President and Vice President to Affected Areas: On October 2, President Biden visited North Carolina, surveying the flood-ravaged city of Asheville, while Harris headed to Georgia. The president also closely monitored Florida after Hurricane Milton, visiting the state on October 13 to inspect the destruction caused.
Deployment of National Guard Members: According to estimates, about 6,700 National Guard members from 16 states across the US were called to provide assistance as part of FEMA’s aid agreements, particularly in the most affected states, where these members participated in search and rescue operations, debris removal, and distribution of relief supplies.
Electoral Battle:
Undesirable Hurricanes Helen and Milton intruded onto the presidential candidates’ agendas: Harris and Trump. However, each attempted to leverage the crisis for personal benefit, turning the natural disaster into a political battleground, characterized by the following key features:
Escalation of Verbal Warfare between Candidates: Former president and current candidate Donald Trump exploited the extensive devastation in southeastern states to accuse Biden and Harris of being slow and ineffective in directing government efforts to address the storm, stating, “This is the worst hurricane response since Katrina.” During a campaign event in Michigan, he claimed that FEMA redirected disaster relief funds to spend on undocumented immigrants in the US. In contrast, Kamala Harris described her Republican opponent as “incredibly reckless,” accusing him of spreading lies regarding federal authorities’ handling of the Hurricane Helen disaster, asserting, “There is a lot of disinformation being circulated by the former president about what has been provided to survivors of Helen.”
Trump’s Rejection of Climate Agenda: Republican candidate Trump refused to show any flexibility regarding climate change following Hurricane Helen, calling it “one of the biggest scams,” directing his supporters at a rally to consider that Democrats only began discussing the environment and climate change after their current administration failed to respond effectively to the crisis, arguing that the climate discourse is merely a cover for their failures.
Harris’s Opportunity to Showcase Leadership: Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris suddenly found herself playing a key role in the response to the hurricanes, a role not typically shared by vice presidents in previous administrations. It is evident she is seeking to leverage this crisis to showcase her leadership capabilities, appearing alongside President Biden in briefings and calling for bipartisan cooperation. She participated virtually in a situational briefing while in Nevada for campaign activities, visited Georgia to assess the areas affected by Hurricane Helen, and was seen assisting in packing relief boxes designated for North Carolina survivors. Notably, Harris is keenly aware that some of the affected states are crucial electorally, as they are battleground states requiring more efforts to win their votes, especially after Trump politicized the crisis by criticizing the Biden administration’s response to the disaster.
Demonstrating Compassion for Victims: Trump visited Georgia to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Helen, attempting to portray himself as a president working to unite Americans during crises, stating, “There is no place for campaigns during crises; when a crisis hits and our citizens seek help, it doesn’t matter. We are not talking about politics right now.” He continued: “We all have to bond together to get through this crisis,” mentioning that he arrived with “trucks full of supplies to help those affected.” Concurrently, Trump launched a GoFundMe campaign for Hurricane Helen victims in Georgia, which successfully raised over $7 million by October 10, 2024. His son also posted on social media confirming that the family opened one of their hotels in Florida to accommodate over 200 individuals providing assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.
Concerns about Election Process Safety: Observers fear that this natural disaster may reduce voter turnout or disrupt the delivery of ballots, potentially hindering accurate voting in battleground states such as Georgia and North Carolina. Hurricanes Helen and Milton impacted daily life in southeastern states, where some polling places were destroyed or rendered inaccessible due to damaged infrastructure, leaving some areas without power, water, internet, or phone service. In this regard, election officials face additional burdens in changing rules and devising plans in the hope that all eligible residents can vote, either by mail or in person.
In conclusion, it is clear that both Trump and Harris have attempted to capitalize on the rhetorical and emotional discourse surrounding this crisis for political opportunities, especially as the hurricanes raised fundamental questions about who would be the better responder as president in dealing with natural disasters, a topic largely overlooked in the 2024 electoral race.
Finally, it can be said that amid a highly polarized political climate, natural disasters have not united the American political elite; rather, Hurricanes Helen and Milton have intensified the sense of polarization following the extraordinary securitization of the climate change issue and the response to natural disasters. This dual crisis has revealed the fact that climate change and natural disasters pose challenges to American national security and require increased funding, urgency, and flexibility to protect those affected. Hence, it is undeniable that these events will indirectly impact the dynamics of the 2024 US elections.
