Kathy Zucker

Award winning writer • startup founder • mom of 3

Climate Change

Finding Light in the Darkness

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Many years ago, I gave Kindle Paperwhites to all three of my children. The whole family reads the same books, which at this point number in the thousands. Eleanor is reading along with Emily’s college coursework. If you look in Eleanor’s backpack, you will find her Paperwhite with duct-taped corners, a water bottle, and various Crocs charms.

I first used a Kindle Paperwhite in 2012. It turned out to be an essential emergency tool since the battery lasts for a month on a single charge, plus incorporated lighting allows you to read in the dark.

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Works Cited

Jolly, Jennifer. “Hurricane Florence: What you need when disaster strikes.” USA Today, 14 Sept. 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/09/13/hurricane-florence-tech-you-need/1297831002/.

Hurricane analysis and breaking news for real life impact

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In 2013, I was interviewed by international news outlets for my work on hurricane analysis and breaking news. I have been studying the weather in New York City for over forty years. As a lifelong athlete, I use tide charts and satellite data to measure storm surges to determine water safety on an ongoing basis. When a named hurricane forms near Africa, I track its strength and progress until I can decisively eliminate the threat of impact on the New York harbor. In both 2011 (Irene) and 2012 (Sandy), there were hurricanes that made ground in New York City and caused enormous amounts of damage. Because I had the data at my fingertips, I was able to create a SMS text message group to provide the latest information to local residents. I was the only one in the area to warn people to move their cars to high ground because of the high probability of saltwater flooding due to a storm surge breaching the banks of the Hudson River. I continued to provide updates throughout the next week despite a regional power outage because I had stockpiled backup batteries and phones that had internet access. Once a day, neighbors would turn on their phones to get the latest hyper local information from my text group since I posted requests on Twitter and then relayed responses on the SMS group.

I continue to experiment and learn with each hurricane season. I had my building gas-powered generator rewired with outlets to provide electricity the next time a hurricane knocks out power. I have also experimented with innovations such as solar freezers and chemical ice packs to preserve food off-grid. Ocean water is getting warmer, which fuels more frequent tropical wind activity – in 2024, Hurricane Beryl made history as the earliest named storm ever to appear. Long-term fresh water storage and NASA nanofiber filters are a corollary area of study that I have been developing since hurricanes cause water main breaks.