79°
60º | 75°
Mayor Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) wants more people in the country to put their focus on climate change and the impact it's had on natural disasters following the devastation left behind by Hurricane Ida.
Turner, who also serves as president of the African American Mayors Association, put out his call for action on social media.
"As officials work to help people in hard-hit areas recover from the storm's devastation, we must also acknowledge that climate change is strengthening storms worldwide – making powerful hurricanes like Ida even more destructive," Turner said in a statement he shared on Twitter.
Turner said something needs to be done to prevent destruction, like what happened during Hurricane Ida, from happening again in the future.
"If we don't take serious, immediate action to combat climate change, and repair our crumbling infrastructure, future generations will suffer greater consequences that we see today," he said in the statement.
Ida made landfall along the state's southeastern coastline at Category 4 strength around noon on Aug. 20, which was also the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, according to CBS News.
"The wreckage Hurricane Ida left in its wake in the Southwest, mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S. is heartbreaking. Hundreds of thousands of people remain without power and reliable access to clean water. Many have been told not to return to their homes until the situation on the ground gets safer," Turner said in a release posted on the African American Mayors Association website. "Our hearts go out to every person affected by this horrendous event."
Ida was labelled as one of the biggest storms to hit Louisiana since 1850 by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-LA), CBS News reported
According to the African American Mayors Association, more than a million homes and businesses in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were left without power after the storm.
Ida's remnants caused widespread flooding in the Northeast, as well as claimed at least 50 lives, CNBC reported.