IN THE EYE OF
THE HURRICANE
Hurricanes can devastate Gulf Coast communities. Petrochemical plants and their pollution can make hurricanes more common, more dangerous, and more costly.
As the petrochemical industry continues to propose dozens of new facilities and expansion projects along the Gulf Coast, we assessed hurricane data over a decade to determine just how often these proposed facilities were in the path of disaster. The map below shows how often named storms over the last ten years would have intersected with a sampling of more than 90 petrochemical industry proposals in Texas and Louisiana.
From bad
to Worse
Gulf Coast communities know all too well the risks and dangers when a storm rolls through their hometown. Over a decade, disasters hurricanes and tropical storms have become a fact of life — and researchers predict hurricanes in the Gulf will only become more common and more severe. If built, proposed petrochemical facilities could take Gulf Coast disasters from bad to worse.
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A Building Crisis
The Trump Administration is attempting to eliminate basic safeguards for communities living near these petrochemical facilities. As the petrochemical industry proposes to expand, communities in the path of disaster could lose protections from devastating pollution before, during, and after a storm.
Methods & Data Sources
We assessed 13 hurricanes and tropical storms from 2013-2024 and measured impacts within 20 miles of the facility location using hurricane data from NOAA. We compiled cost data from NOAA.
- Oil & Gas Watch
- guycarp.com: Climate Change
- science.org: Increased U.S. coastal hurricane risk under climate change
- pubs.acs.org: Climate Justice Implications of Natech Disasters: Excess Contaminant Releases during Hurricanes on the Texas Gulf Coast
- pbs.org: When hurricanes hit, flooded industrial sites and chemical releases are a silent, toxic threat
- grist.org: There’s a hurricane-sized hole in Texas air quality data
- csb.gov: U.S. Chemical Safety Board Urges Chemical Companies to Prepare for Harsh Hurricane Season
- vitalsigns.edf.org: Hurricanes' hidden risk: toxic chemicals
- healthygulf.org: Report Shows More Than 2,200 Pollution Reports After Ida
- sciline.org: How do hurricanes impact the environment?