--- title: "Hurricane Ian Turned Florida’s Water So Vile That It “Looks Like Root Beer”" description: "Hurricane Ian has rendered Florida's once beautiful blue-green waters into a horrible brown sludge that \"looks like root beer\" and smells like \"dead fish.\"" date: "2022-10-19" modified: "2022-10-19" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/hurricane-ian-florida-root-beer" categories: - "Environment" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "environmental destruction" - "hurricane ian" - "hurricanes" - "the digest" --- # Hurricane Ian Turned Florida’s Water So Vile That It “Looks Like Root Beer” ![Hurricane Ian has rendered Florida's once beautiful blue-green waters into a horrible brown sludge that "looks like root beer" and smells like "dead fish."]() *\Image: RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images\* ## Green Sludge Hurricane Ian may be gone, but it has left a big mark on Florida's environment, haunting residents. According to *[CBS News]()*, there have been at least 20 reports of "environmentally hazardous issues" likely spurred by Hurricane Ian's landfall between September 28 and October 2. Among the reports that *CBS* cites is the leaking of diesel, gasoline, and battery acid, a pipeline releasing 2,300 gallons of bleach, and an "unknown green sludge" causing respiratory issues in residential areas. "In Sarasota Bay, normally this time of year the water is beautiful blue-green, gorgeous," Dave Tomasko, executive director of the [Sarasota Bay Estuary Program](), told *CBS*. But after the storm? He says it "looks like root beer, smells like dead fish rolled into compost." ## Stormy Stench Further inland at the apartment complex where the sludge was first seen, the stench is reportedly so bad that it pervades even indoors, causing at least one resident to leave due to breathing problems. But apparently, the EPA and other emergency authorities are too busy to help out. "We've been crippled," Stanley Rupinski, president of the complex's homeowner's association, told *CBS* after trying to reach out to the relevant agencies. "And this is something that's really beyond our control. There's really nothing we can do as people to get this out of here." ## Breathing Crisis Scientists working on the ground, like Tomasko, were equally horrified by the ensuing runoff from Hurricane Ian. As he collects water samples across Florida's coast, Tomasko worries that the already depleting oxygen levels in the bottom of layers of water could culminate in an "oxygen crash," like in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley in 2004, when there was no oxygen for "up to 100 miles upstream for about three months." "And this is worse than Charley," Tomasko said. "We don't really know what this is gonna do." "We don't know how resilient our systems are gonna be," he added. **More on Hurricane Ian:** *[ISS Astronaut Snaps Photo of Florida Draining After the Massive Hurricane Ian]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()