After a period of extreme drought, 2023 brought heavy rains to California. In a three-week period alone in January, nine atmospheric rivers—corridors of moisture concentrated in the atmosphere—pummeled the state with rain, leading to landslides, flooding, and levee breaches....
After a period of extreme drought, 2023 brought heavy rains to California. In a three-week period alone in January, nine atmospheric rivers—corridors of moisture concentrated in the atmosphere—pummeled the state with rain, leading to landslides, flooding, and levee breaches.
California wasn’t alone: Florida saw historic flash floods in April. In May, the Mississippi River reached historic heights, causing flooding. In July, Vermont was hit with catastrophic flooding after days of rain. September marked the wettest month in New York City in more than a century. And intense rain affected other areas across the world: Unrelenting rain led to hundreds of landslides in China in September, and torrential downpours sent deadly floods through Italy in October. These storms were all examples of how climate change can intensify the water cycle, with warmer temperatures increasing the amount of moisture in the air.
A landslide brought on by heavy rains caused four ocean-view apartment buildings in San Clemente, California, to be evacuated and shuttered due to unstable conditions. Weeks of rain loosened the soil in Orange County, which tumbled down near railroad tracks that run next to the beach below. [Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images]
A collection of images from Getty photographers show the extent of these disasters—and provide an important record of these extremes. “Covering natural disasters as a photographer requires you to be in the middle of dangerous situations that the public is usually fleeing from,” Getty Images staff photographer Justin Sullivan said over email. “Our visuals from these disasters provide communities with up-to-the minute conditions on the ground and serve as a record of history.”
Angel Vega sits in his car waiting for a tow truck after it stalled in flood waters in Hollywood, Florida. The region recorded rainfall totals of more than a foot. [Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
For years, these photographers have covered climate extremes, from droughts and tornados to wildfires. Covering rain and floods can be especially challenging, as it’s both hard on photographers’ electrical equipment and, Sullivan added, “dangerous to navigate fast moving flood waters that are often filled with chemicals and other debris. You can easily be knocked off your feet if you’re not careful.” When covering flooding, Sullivan often uses a drone as a way to safely show the scale of the disaster.
A vehicle drives through floodwaters in the reemerging Tulare Lake in California’s Central Valley. Tulare Lake, once the largest fresh-water body west of the Mississippi River, disappeared when waters were diverted by agricultural interests to irrigate crops in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Atmospheric rivers caused significant flooding in the lake-bed area with more than 100 square miles of farms and other land flooded. [Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images]
It can be heartbreaking to look at images of roads overrun with water, people wading through floods, and land broken away by heavy rain. Sullivan hopes that people see these photographs and can prepare themselves for the possibility of it happening to them. After all, climate change is making these disasters more and more common. And these photographs are evidence of that. “Documenting these disasters gives us context and something to measure against as our world continues to change,” said Sullivan.