Hurricane Havoc, Asteroid-Style

Hurricane Helene smashed into Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 storm on September 26th, 2024, the strongest to hit that region, devastating everything in its path, then proceeded to deluge the US Southeast with more than two feet of rain in some areas, causing widespread flooding and massive power outages. Hurricanes with asteroids matching their names have a long history of record-setting, being among the most powerful, destructive and expensive, if their eponymous asteroid is interacting with the Sun when they make landfall. The Sun illuminates what it touches, making us sit up and take notice, and in the case of hurricanes, that’s usually not a good thing.

Such was the case with Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in Florida on 10 September 2017, with the Sun conjunct asteroid Irma (estimated cost $65 billion); and Hurricane Maria, which made landfall in Puerto Rico ten days later, with asteroid Maria exactly ninety degrees from the Sun, which astrologers call a square (estimated cost $115 billion). And such is the case now, with Hurricane Helene represented by asteroid Helena, exactly conjunct the Sun when it roared ashore to wreak its havoc, causing damage estimated as high as $110 billion when all is said and done, easily putting it in the top five most expensive storms.

That Sun/Helena conjunction was squared by asteroid Raine, a phonetic match for “rain,” marking Helene as a rainmaker of the first water. Additional points gave heft to Helene’s passage and effects. The massive power outages are seen in an opposition from Uranus, ruling both electricity and disruptions, to TNO Typhon, named for a mythic Greek Titan noted for spawning hurricanes (which became the root of our word “typhoon”), suggesting that a hurricane-related power problem could be in the offing. That Helene might be a storm of prodigious size, and one to cause historic flooding, was prefigured by Jupiter, the planet ruling increase and expansion, closely opposing asteroid Storm, and conjoined by asteroid Flood. This polarity straddles the Horizontal Axis, with Jupiter/Flood rising in the east and Storm setting in the west, when Helene made landfall, giving the pattern angular force and power.

Ten of the thirteen names remaining on the World Meteorological Organization’s list of hurricane names selected for 2024 have asteroids which exactly match or closely approximate those of their designees. Depending on the timing, if and when these storms form, we could be in for more of the same.

Alex Miller is a professional writer and astrologer, author of The Black Hole Book, detailing deep space points in astrological interpretation, and the forthcoming Heaven on Earth, a comprehensive study of asteroids, both mythic and personal. Alex is a frequent contributor to “The Mountain Astrologer”, “Daykeeper Journal”, and NCGR’s Journals and “Enews Commentary”; his work has also appeared in “Aspects” magazine, “Dell Horoscope”, “Planetwaves”, “Neptune Café” and “Sasstrology.” He is a past president of Philadelphia Astrological Society, and former board member for the Philadelphia Chapter of NCGR.  His two decades of chronicling asteroid effects in human affairs can be found at his website, www.alexasteroidastrology.com.