Miami, Apr 29 (EFE).- “Communication of the real dangers of hurricanes has never been good enough,” Jonathan Petramala, a “hunter” of meteorological phenomena who has just released a shocking documentary about the hurricane, told EFE. Ian with a clear message: Flee from danger.
“Hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, wildfires…I’ve seen it all,” Petramala says by phone from Texas, where he traveled to capture a tornado on camera.
Petramala and his partners at Climate Productions, Brandon Clement and Andy Coates, premiered “Price of Paradise: Surviving Hurricane Ian” this Friday at the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida.
With just over a month to go before the hurricane season in the Atlantic basin officially begins (June 1-November 30), this documentary becomes a reminder of how powerful and dangerous the forces of Nature are.
PUT EARTH IN THE MIDDLE
It also shows the risk of not complying with the recommendations and evacuation orders of the authorities when these forces are unleashed, which is why Petramala would like to screen the film in schools and community centers in Florida, one of the areas that suffers the most from the ravages of hurricanes in USA
“We made this documentary to change the way people think about hurricanes,” says Petramala, who is the film’s screenwriter and producer.
“We hope viewers leave ‘Price of Paradise’ with a deeper understanding of the human impact of these storms and how close life and death can be with every decision we make,” he adds.
The images of “Price of Paradise: Surviving Hurricane Ian”, especially the one taken with a camera placed on a telephone pole in the place where Ian entered Florida territory on September 28, 2022, are shocking, just as or even more than the testimonials of those who risked their lives by staying in their homes in Ft. Myers Beach and lived to tell the tale.
“In the video you see a house floating on the water and moving away in the image. There were two people and their dogs inside that house and they miraculously survived,” says Petramala.
Not so lucky were the 55 people who drowned as a result of Ian, which in total caused 156 deaths in the US.
Ian made landfall on September 28 with maximum sustained winds of 250 km/h (155 mph) and a storm surge of 17 to 20 feet (5.1 to 6 meters) that came ashore and caused extensive devastation in that part off the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
THE WATER BEATS THE WIND
Petramala and the team from the company ClimateProductions first recorded Ian’s passage through western Cuba and then moved to southwest Florida following the hurricane, which before making landfall in the southern state had winds of up to 257 km/h , corresponding to category 5, the maximum of the Saffir-Simpson scale.
“Most of us, if we close our eyes to think about hurricanes, we think about the wind, but the reality is that water is the most dangerous thing,” says Petramala confidently.
When asked if it is because of the climate crisis, he answers: “water has always been the most dangerous thing, but the communication of the real dangers of hurricanes has never been good enough”.
Until now, it was too dangerous for hurricane “hunters” to capture images of the storm surge, but thanks to the remote camera “we were able to see it in real time from the beginning to the peak and after the water receded.
Petramala indicates that the debate has been open for some time about whether weather bulletins and warnings when there are hurricanes on the way should emphasize the danger of rising seas, but stresses that the important thing is to prepare and evacuate on time in case that the threat is severe.
“I have covered disasters all over the country. No human being I’ve talked to since then has said, ‘I’m glad I stayed,’” she stresses.
Ana Mengotti
