Mother Nature in 2022 once again proved to be a force to be reckoned with, impacting millions of Americans with weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, devastating floods, record temperatures, and extreme droughts.
Here are five of the biggest and wildest weather moments in the US this year:
Hurricane Ian devastates the Southeast, but Americans unite to lend a hand
Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm in southwestern Florida in late September, killing more than 120 people across the Sunshine State before moving through the Carolinas and causing total damage estimated between $40 and $70 billion.
Ian was the second deadliest storm in the continental United States in the 21st century since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Yet during the scenes of destruction and despair, poignant stories emerged of Americans coming together to help each other and the police.
In Bonita Springs, Florida, good Samaritans were seen on video carrying an elderly man to safety through rapid flooding after the man became trapped inside his car. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office also released body camera footage showing five deputies creating a human chain and venturing into 10-foot-deep floodwaters to rescue a woman in Orlando.
Fox News’ own Steve Harrigan pulled a rescue himself, pulling a man out of rising floodwaters in North Port, Florida, to safety.
Lightning strikes outside the White House, killing 3
A lightning strike in Lafayette Park outside the White House on August 4 killed James Mueller, 76, and Donna Mueller, 75, a Wisconsin couple, and Brooks Lambertson, a 29-year-old bank executive. Los Angeles years. Angels.
Amber Escudero-Kontostathis survived the blast, suffering second-degree burns all over her body.
Lightning struck Lafayette Park near the White House on August 4, 2022.
(Fox 5 DC WTTG)
The 28-year-old was hit on her birthday when she was supposed to be on her way to a celebratory dinner.
Escudero-Kontostathis later told Fox5 DC that he now “really cherishes every moment, every interaction because you don’t really know when it’s going to be the last.”
Incredible floods close Yellowstone National Park
Record flooding in iconic Yellowstone National Park in June washed away roads and bridges and prompted the evacuation of more than 10,000 visitors from one of America’s most popular tourist destinations.
The north entrance road is flooded after flooding in Yellowstone National Park on June 18, in Gardiner, Montana.
(Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service via Getty Images)
The rush of water was caused by heavy rain and melting snowpack and forced park officials to close all entrances before beginning to reopen them a week later.
Trees were uprooted and washed away, rivers burst their banks and ripped away large chunks of road, bridges were destroyed and houses were washed downstream from their foundations.
Video captures a house falling into the Yellowstone River amid flooding and mudslides in Gardiner, Montana
(Angie Lilly/Reuters)
More than 80 people were rescued from flooded camps and small towns. Surprisingly, no one was hurt.
6 Sets of Human Remains Found in Drought-Stricken Lake Mead
A prolonged drought in the western US this year led authorities to discover bones and human remains in Lake Mead, part of Nevada and Arizona, which is receding.
The most recent discovery was in October, when a diver found “what appeared to be a human bone in the Callville Bay area,” the National Park Service said.
A dive team was then dispatched the next day, confirming the sixth find since May of human remains in Lake Mead.
A thick white ring shows the dramatic decline in water levels in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir that has reached its lowest water levels since it was created by damming the Colorado River in the 1930s.
(REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs)
In one of the discoveries, a body was found in a barrel near the port of Hemenway. Authorities later determined that the deceased had died of a gunshot wound and ruled the death a homicide.
NASA has released images of Nevada’s Lake Mead in July showing the rapid decline in lake water since the year 2000. The lake’s capacity was measured at just 35% at the end of August.
Catastrophic flooding in eastern Kentucky causes 39 deaths
Devastating flooding in Kentucky over the summer caused 39 deaths and President Biden declared a federal disaster.
Some eastern parts of the state received 8 to 10 1/2 inches of rain over 48 hours in late July.
As the rain lashed the Appalachians, the water poured down the sides of the hills and into the valleys and gullies where it swelled into creeks and streams that ran through small towns. The torrent engulfed homes and businesses and destroyed vehicles. Landslides stranded some people on steep slopes.
The Kentucky National Guard, Tennessee National Guard, West Virginia National Guard, Kentucky State Police, and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources completed a total of 1,334 rescues between July 28 and July 2. of August.
A house rests on a bridge near the Whitesburg Recycling Center in Letcher County, Kentucky on July 29, 2022.
(Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The flooding also spread into western Virginia and southern West Virginia.
Sarah Rumpf, Stephen Sorace, Bradford Betz, Audrey Conklin, Julia Musto and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
