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Hurricanes cause extreme chaos and devastation each Summer as they pummel The South from Florida to Texas and occasionally find their way up the East Coast to New York. The hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast states often build off the coast of Africa or deep across the Caribbean, and grow in strength until these massive storms hit our coastlines.
The good news is we often have days if not a week to plan for the arrival of these storms. The bad news is there’s no way to stop them from making landfall and causing millions (billions??) of dollars worth of damage.
For the past few years, I’ve floated this idea to anyone that will listen: we should allow large corporations to sponsor/brand hurricanes. They can slap their name on ‘Hurricane MegaOil presented by Big Pharma’ and then a large portion of $$$$ spent on that hurricane coverage would go directly to the relief efforts. To me, this seemed like such an easy way to funnel money to the people who need it after a hurricane hits.
But the White House is thinking bigger. They want to prevent these storms from ever making landfall in America and a new report says the idea of using nuclear bombs to disrupt these storms has been floated, according to Axios.
This idea of using nuclear bombs, the most powerful weapons ever created, was reportedly floated at the White House during a recent hurricane briefing:
Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, “I got it. I got it. Why don’t we nuke them?” according to one source who was there. “They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” the source added, paraphrasing the president’s remarks.
Asked how the briefer reacted, the source recalled he said something to the effect of, “Sir, we’ll look into that.”
Trump replied by asking incredulously how many hurricanes the U.S. could handle and reiterating his suggestion that the government intervene before they make landfall.
The briefer “was knocked back on his heels,” the source in the room added. “You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, ‘What the f—? What do we do with this?'”
What’s even wilder is according to the article on Axios, this isn’t the first time the idea of using atomic bombs to thwart hurricanes has been raised at the White House during this administration. A 2017 National Security Council memo mentions the President suggesting ‘bombing hurricanes’ as well:
The source added that this NSC memo captured “multiple topics, not just hurricanes. … It wasn’t that somebody was so terrified of the bombing idea that they wrote it down. They just captured the president’s comments.”
The sources said that Trump’s “bomb the hurricanes” idea — which he floated early in the first year and a bit of his presidency before John Bolton took over as national security adviser — went nowhere and never entered a formal policy process.
When asked about these nuclear bomb-hurricane comments, the White House said they “don’t comment on private discussions that the president may or may not have had with his national security team” which is the exact answer I’d expect in this situation.
According to Axios, President Trump isn’t the first person to come up with this insane plan and it’s been around for generations. The idea of using atomic bombs to blow up hurricanes has been around since an Eisenhower scientist brought it up.
This would not work. It’s asinine. But it still keeps making its way into meetings as an idea despite the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration having it listed on a public fact sheet titled “Tropical Cyclone Myths Page.”
Despite the fact that this wouldn’t work and it’s the most absurd idea in the history of mankind, we are still talking about it.
For the full report, you can click here.