Renown hurricane forecasters link North-central Africa to the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history

MORRIS, Minnesota — Ten years after Hurricane Andrew, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, experts have warned that the country could be hit by a worse hurricane unless urgent steps are taken to re-vegetate the Sahel in North-central Africa.

The U.S. lost 43 people and suffered damages estimated at $30 billion when Hurricane Andrew struck south of Miami, Florida, on August 24, 1992. Experts predict that damages could reach $80 billion if a similar hurricane were hit the U.S.

“If just $1 billion could be spent to re-vegetate the West African Sahel, we would save $80 billion in damages and lives that could be lost to another hurricane,” said Dr. Abdullah A. Jaradat, research leader at the North Central Soil Conservation Research Lab in Morris. The lab is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Sahel is a semiarid region in North-central Africa south of the Sahara desert. It spreads across Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea and other countries in the region.

Research conducted by renown hurricane forecasters William Gray and Christopher W. Landsea of Colorado State University showed a strong correlation between the dust generated from the degraded soil in the Sahel and hurricanes that form in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Dust rising from bare soil in the Sahel in small bursts of wind remains airborne for days or weeks and is transported during the summer monsoon season into the eastern Atlantic, causing sufficient energy to accelerate (generate?) severe storms and energize the formation and maintenance of hurricanes.

By employing methods used in the U.S. to cure the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the re-vegetation of the Sahelian wastelands over a 5-year period would suppress the dust, the scientists said.

The researchers said their work proved that the Sahara desert did not cause hurricanes. “Sahara sands contain little dust,” they explained.