Current:Home > MyAmerican Climate Video: When a School Gym Becomes a Relief Center-LoTradeCoin
American Climate Video: When a School Gym Becomes a Relief Center
View Date:2024-12-23 21:12:16
The seventh of 21 stories from the American Climate Project, an InsideClimate News documentary series by videographer Anna Belle Peevey and reporter Neela Banerjee.
HAMBURG, Iowa—Instead of shooting hoops in the gym, the kids at Hamburg Elementary School had to play outside while their gym was used as a donation center for flood victims in the aftermath of the 2019 Midwestern floods.
Except for Gabe Richardson. The sixth grader spent his time in the gym as a volunteer, and helped flood victims in this town of 1,000 find clothes, toys, cleaning supplies and other staples they needed to start rebuilding their lives. Even little things, like loading cars, made him feel he was making a contribution.
“I love to do it, so I do it,” Gabe said.
He remembers the waters rising quickly. Two feet of snow fell in February and then quickly melted when March brought unseasonably warm temperatures. Then the region was hit with a bomb cyclone, which caused two weeks worth of rain to fall in just 36 hours. Levees broke and flood waters whooshed into Hamburg.
There was no time, Gabe said, for people to box up their belongings. “No one knew it was coming,” he said. “But then … it hit and everybody lost everything. It’s crazy.”
Although extreme weather events like this cannot be directly connected to climate change, scientists warn that a warming atmosphere is causing more frequent and more intense that can lead to severe floods. In Hamburg, the flood was exacerbated by a makeshift levee that could not hold the water back.
“It happened really fast,” Gabe recalled, “faster than we thought, because I was just hoping the water could go out as fast as it came in, but it didn’t.”
veryGood! (318)
Related
- Saks Fifth Avenue’s holiday light display in Manhattan changing up this season
- Vanessa Lachey Says She Was Blindsided by NCIS: Hawai'i Cancellation
- Mississippi Senate agrees to a new school funding formula, sending plan to the governor
- Chargers draft one of Jim Harbaugh's Michigan stars, LB Junior Colson, in third round
- Tua Tagovailoa playing with confidence as Miami Dolphins hope MNF win can spark run
- Mississippi Senate agrees to a new school funding formula, sending plan to the governor
- No HBCU players picked in 2024 NFL draft, marking second shutout in four years
- Superbug from human eye drops outbreak spread to dogs
- Man is 'not dead anymore' after long battle with IRS, which mistakenly labeled him deceased
- Billie Eilish says her bluntness about sex makes people uncomfortable. She's right.
Ranking
- North Carolina offers schools $1 million to help take students on field trips
- To spur a rural rebound, one Minnesota county is paying college athletes to promote it
- NFL draft picks 2024: Tracker, analysis for every pick from second and third rounds
- Retired pro wrestler, failed congressional candidate indicted in Vegas murder case
- Shawn Mendes Confesses He and Camila Cabello Are No Longer the Closest
- Shohei Ohtani hears rare boos from spurned Blue Jays fans - then hits a home run
- Gaza baby girl saved from dying mother's womb after Israeli airstrike dies just days later
- South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem writes about killing her dog in new book
Recommendation
-
Mississippi man charged with shooting 5 people after not being allowed into party
-
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Dressing on the Side
-
Prom night flashback: See your fave celebrities in dresses, suits before they were famous
-
Attorneys for American imprisoned by Taliban file urgent petitions with U.N.
-
'Devastation is absolutely heartbreaking' from Southern California wildfire
-
Crumbl Cookies is making Mondays a little sweeter, selling mini cookies
-
California Disney characters are unionizing decades after Florida peers. Hollywood plays a role
-
'Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F': New promo released of Eddie Murphy movie starring NFL's Jared Goff