Water, Water Everywhere
Here are some recent articles about floodwaters:
A River's Unthinkable Rise
Rick Smith, of The Gazette: "What had been unimaginable the day before became reality as rain pounded anew on the city and its river. Early Thursday, breaks in temporary additions made to the earthen levee at the Time Check Neighborhood sent water toward the more than 1,000 homes and businesses in that northwest Cedar Rapids neighborhood. Some residents were still there, not having left with the city's mandatory evacuation order of the day before. Firefighters in boats spent the early morning rescuing those trapped inside."
A flood is not "unthinkable" unless you're talking about the top of a mountain in a low-rainfall zone. If you live in reclaimed swampland, or floodplain, or coastal areas then it's not unthinkable but obvious. If there is water in your vicinity, it can rise and cause you problems. That's the dilemma of human civilization, because you don't dare settle out of ready reach from it either. Apply brains and technology, and try to keep politics from killing you.
The Capitol Times | Right Responses to Flooding
The Capitol Times writes, "Floods are characterized as natural disasters.
But what man does defines the extent of the disaster."
This article contains some excellent advice on ways to reduce the damage of floods and other natural disasters -- all variations of plan ahead.
Floods Threaten World's Corn
Stevenson Jacobs of The Associated Press reports: "Floods that have inundated the Midwest could reduce world corn supplies and drive food prices higher at a time when Americans are stretching their grocery budgets and when people in poor countries have rioted over rising food costs."
I've been watching this play out locally, where some fields never got planted because it was too muddy and others have huge patches of dead or stunted crops. The climate is changing. One nascent pattern is showing more violent, less temperate weather that includes heavier summer rains. That's a problem because standing water in the fields will kill crops -- and controlling runoff isn't easy either.
Don't think this kind of news is a fluke. It's not. It's a sign of global climate change. It will get worse.
A River's Unthinkable Rise
Rick Smith, of The Gazette: "What had been unimaginable the day before became reality as rain pounded anew on the city and its river. Early Thursday, breaks in temporary additions made to the earthen levee at the Time Check Neighborhood sent water toward the more than 1,000 homes and businesses in that northwest Cedar Rapids neighborhood. Some residents were still there, not having left with the city's mandatory evacuation order of the day before. Firefighters in boats spent the early morning rescuing those trapped inside."
A flood is not "unthinkable" unless you're talking about the top of a mountain in a low-rainfall zone. If you live in reclaimed swampland, or floodplain, or coastal areas then it's not unthinkable but obvious. If there is water in your vicinity, it can rise and cause you problems. That's the dilemma of human civilization, because you don't dare settle out of ready reach from it either. Apply brains and technology, and try to keep politics from killing you.
The Capitol Times | Right Responses to Flooding
The Capitol Times writes, "Floods are characterized as natural disasters.
But what man does defines the extent of the disaster."
This article contains some excellent advice on ways to reduce the damage of floods and other natural disasters -- all variations of plan ahead.
Floods Threaten World's Corn
Stevenson Jacobs of The Associated Press reports: "Floods that have inundated the Midwest could reduce world corn supplies and drive food prices higher at a time when Americans are stretching their grocery budgets and when people in poor countries have rioted over rising food costs."
I've been watching this play out locally, where some fields never got planted because it was too muddy and others have huge patches of dead or stunted crops. The climate is changing. One nascent pattern is showing more violent, less temperate weather that includes heavier summer rains. That's a problem because standing water in the fields will kill crops -- and controlling runoff isn't easy either.
Don't think this kind of news is a fluke. It's not. It's a sign of global climate change. It will get worse.