Hurricane Melissa is one of the strongest storms ever recorded.

This massive hurricane made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5, reaching top wind speeds of 185 miles per hour and producing a storm surge of 13 feet. So far, it’s left nearly 80% of the island without power, driven catastrophic flooding on islands along the hurricane’s path, and killed over 50 people in Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

And that’s just the beginning.

With rescue and recovery efforts only just getting underway, it will be a while before we know the full extent of the damage. But if one thing’s clear, it’s that climate change was a key contributor to this catastrophe.

According to Climate Central, the warm ocean temperatures that fueled Melissa’s rapid intensification were made 800 times more likely by climate change. Scientists also estimate that climate change contributed to a separate wind speed increase of 10 miles per hour, boosting the hurricane’s destructive potential by 50 percent.

Numbers like these are concrete proof that climate change is supercharging storms…

…But we’re less able to handle them than ever before.

With every database they delete, every piece of climate legislation they roll back, and every staffing and budget cut at NOAA and FEMA, the Trump administration is limiting our ability to understand what we’re up against, adequately respond when disaster strikes, and mitigate future impacts.

And it’s not just our safety at stake. The Trump administration’s actions are jeopardizing the well-being of our neighbors and other countries around the world.

In the past, USAID would take the lead on responding to crises like Melissa, preparing for hurricane season months in advance, pre-positioning supplies and resources, and coordinating with officials in Jamaica and neighboring islands. But with the agency dismantled, that advance planning just didn’t happen—and in the hurricane’s aftermath, we’ve only sent a few dozen relief workers to help.

The small percentage of our budget it costs to run USAID meant little to us—but it made all the difference for so many other countries around the globe. Now, those nations will be left without the resources they need to improve their residents’ quality of life, address pressing health crises, and prepare for and recover from climate-fueled disasters.

So where does that leave us?

We can’t fix our government overnight, but that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. We can use our CAN platform to highlight how climate change fueled this catastrophe, keep connecting the dots between global heating and extreme weather, and remind our elected officials that the climate crisis is already on our doorstep—and it’s not going anywhere until we do something about it.

Let’s get to work!