Large Storms Cause Texas Floods

Floods and Texas. We generally don't associate the two, rather it's normally drought and Texas. However, school has been canceled and rescue teams diploid near Austin, Texas following huge storms starting Wednesday. Reports in Wimberley, Texas were of 14 inches of rain since Wednesday, and Austin Energy reported 12,000 customers without electricity. 3,000 people were evacuated from San Marcos, Texas which is 30 miles south of Austin. Emergency personnel went door-to-door on Thursday encouraging residents to leave to avoid heavy flood waters from the Blanco River. This is a perfect example of mitigation. While many may see this as just a precautionary measure, getting people out before expected floods occur will absolutely decrease potential flood problems. This is also is a great example of being prepared to take action wherever you are for any type of hazard. Specifically, rain storms and drought can really hit anywhere at anytime. From an outsiders perspective, I wouldn't assume a huge flood like this to hit Texas. Obviously it did though, and the reaction of the people seems like it was effective according to this article.
 http://www.weather.com/news/weather-severe/flash-flooding-texas-austin-halloween-photos-reports-20131031

Massive Storm Hits UK Coast

A combination of heavy rain and strong winds hit the United Kingdom coast today in one of the largest storms to hit the nation in quite some time. A 14 year-old boy is believed to have died after being washed away from the strong waves. Flights and trains have also been delayed due to the storm, and winds were measured at up to 80 miles per hour. I was shocked to see in the picture above that civilians are walking so close to the shore during the flood. Also, one part of the article that I found particularly interesting is that the article clearly says the UK doesn't get hurricanes due to its geographic location. 80 mile an hour winds and massive waves seems pretty close to hurricane type conditions though, and just goes to show a country always has to be prepared for hazards. Overall, the country should move on pretty quickly from this type of hazard. Much of that can be contributed to the overall development of the UK as one of the leading countries economically in the world, in contrast to some of the previous countries mentioned in this blog. However, this goes to show that no matter how developed a country is, how prepared they can be, hazards can have an affect anywhere. It's how quickly and efficiently a country can respond to the hazard, as well as the overall preparedness. http://www.weather.com/news/st-jude-day-storms-uk-braces-severe-weather-20131027

Evacuation in India Saves Thousands of Lives

Very rarely so far have I had the opportunity to write about a success in terms of planning for an environmental hazard. The government of India finally gave me that opportunity over the weekend, when it evacuated performed its largest evacuation of people people in the nations history, in response to a threat by Cyclone Phailin. The cyclone did indeed hit, and 17 were killed, but the death tole could have been far worse had it not been for the evacuation. Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground in Michigan, stated that changes in infrastructure, weather forecasting, and emergency servicing all contributed to the low number of deaths. This part of India is no stranger to tropical cyclones as 26 of the worlds 35 deadliest cyclones have occurred in the Bay of Bengal. Now, the biggest long-term problem is the rice production lost. Nearly 600,000 hectares of the state's rice area was affected. This is equal to 15% of the state of Odisha's rice planting area, which could affect a large amount of local farmers. This loss has the potential to be a big blow to rice productions, and the 17 lives lost should not be forgotten, but the potential affects that could have occurred cannot be forgotten. The Indian government deserves a great deal of recognition for their actions and keeping their people as safe as possible.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-13/nine-killed-as-cyclone-strike-shuts-power-roads-in-india.html

Aqua Alta Flood hits Venice

                                                            A personal photo from Venice.

In my time in Europe, Venice was probably the biggest surprise city to me. I really can't explain why, I guess I just didn't have really high expectations, and it turned out to be one of my favorite cities to visit in Europe. You absolutely get the feel while you're in Venice like there is no other place like this in the world. Also, perhaps my favorite thing about Venice, is that there's really nothing to do in Venice. That sounds bad, but it's what makes the city. There's no must see monument or museum, it's just the city itself that's such an attraction. All I did for the day I was there was walk around the city, and that was perfect, and it made for an awesome experience. With all this being said, as a visitor you can absolutely see the potential for flooding problems. As I said, Venice is unlike any other city in the world. I didn't know the exact numbers until I read this article on current flooding problems in Venice, but the city is 118 small island connected by 160 canals. That's crazy! Aqua Alta floods are caused by a combination of high tides and strong winds. In the case of Venice, the Mediterranean surrounds the entire city, and the risk of flooding is just part of living and visiting there. At this point, it's tough to say what Venice can do to prevent this type of hazard or what type of mitigation techniques can be used. The city essentially a bunch of buildings that are hundreds of years old surrounded by a large body of water. The city probably wasn't a wise decision to build in the first place, and Aqua Alta flooding is just a part of Venice. The article does bring up an extremely interesting point though: More damage is done to these ancient building by the vibrations of cruise ships than by flooding. While we may think that this flooding puts the city in extreme danger, the vibration of cruise ships, something that happens daily, has more of an impact. I don't think too many people would have guessed that, but what are the chances that cruise ships will stop going to one of the most beautiful cities in the world? My recommendation, see Venice while you can. Who knows how much longer these buildings and this city will be standing. It's definitely a city that's worth seeing, and it is truly unique.
http://www.weather.com/travel/acqua-alta-strikes-again-venice-photos-20131009

Tropical Storm Danas Threatens Japan and South Korea

The goal of this blog is to not just focus on hazards in the United States, but throughout the world. It would be a pretty poor blog if I just focused on one country, when environmental hazards are obviously a worldwide problem. In an attempt to expand outside of US hazards, I read an article on tropical storm Danas which was threatening both Japan and South Korea and still could cause major problems. Even with the attempt to get away from affects of a hazard on the US, I read that more than 18,000 American military and their families live on the Japanese island of Okinawa, which was right in the target lines of Danas. The storm did not make a direct hit on the island, and no reports of immediate damage were reported. Tropical storms, which lead to more commonly known hazards such as hurricanes and typhoons, are a major type of hazard in this region of the world. These hazards can be especially affective because of the populations and land mass of some of these nations. For example, Japan has a very large amount of people in a very small country in terms of land. When hazards hit, there's not too many places to run for safety. Also when you look at the location of these countries, many are bordered by oceans, creating the potential for very large hazards. It appears tropical storm Danas will not be as severe as once though, but winds were still measured at 145 miles per hour. Those types of speeds could do serious damage if they hit the right area, and unfortunately for many Asian nations, it's a reoccurring problem. http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/typhoon-danas-leaves-okinawa-moves-toward-japan-and-south-korea-20131008

Fighting Wildfire's the Wrong Way?

This is my first post that is not about a specific hazard, but rather a potential problem with the way we fight a certain type of hazard. The article I read was legitimately very interesting to me because it raised a lot of potential problems about the way we fight wildfires. The article begins by discussing the way we measure the strength of wildfires by the death total or property loss that comes out of them. It references the 32 people that have lost their lives this year so far fighting wildfires, 19 of which were in the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona this past June. This fact leads to probably the strongest statement in the article: "The U.S. fights wildfires like it once fought wars." This is a bit extreme, but it does make a good point in that we attack wildfires head on with overwhelming manpower. The cost most certainly adds up, as the federal government budgeted $2 million last year to fight wildfires, but has already crossed that dollar amount this year. This is not to say that fighting wildfires don't deserve this type of funding, because when lives and millions of dollars in property value are at risk, they most certainly do. However, do we need to fight every single wildfire out there? This is what the article suggests we do. As I learned in my visit to Yosemite, wildfires are allowed to burn at times with the benefit of burning some plants so that forests don't become overcrowded. I don't believe that every wildfire we instantly run to and fight with all available manpower we have until it's put out, but maybe we should let nature take it's course a little more often. I think where the article makes a very strong point is that if we continue to fight the majority of wildfires we're just encouraging people to move closer and closer to forests at risk for fires. This brings in the engineering paradigm, as well as the swiss cheese model, in that we're almost telling people to move closer forests, which is just setting them up when that fire occurs for property loss to occur, and in the worst cases death. So maybe we have to change our approach. Maybe we let a few more fires burn, not only to save money, but to remind people of how dangerous it is to ignore hazards and the potential affects they have.
http://science.time.com/2013/10/04/let-it-burn-changing-firefighting-techniques-for-a-warming-world/

Death Total Rises in Mexico After Storms

I read an article on a tropical on twin storms that hit the the Pacific and Gulf Coast of Mexico at the same time a month ago, and how they're still finding bodies of those killed in the storms. There are a few different topics we've covered in class that can be related to this storm. One, the preparation, specifically the engineering paradigm of hazards, was not prepared for this storm. The article mentioned the area hit hardest was a remote village in the state of Guerrero where bodies are just beginning to be recovered. While the storms hit hard, the perfect example of the swiss cheese model is what ultimately caused the wrong problems. Mudslides were what caused the majority of house damages and deaths, and these slides were caused by the severity of the storm. A heavy storm is one thing, but when you pair that with the formation of mudslides, this is an example of multiple situations coming together to form an environmental hazard. The death tole has risen to 157, and nearly 175,000 homes have been lost. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article which points right to the engineering paradigm is the president of Mexico has ordered an investigation on which officials gave permits to build in banned areas like the riverbeds affected. Obviously, if there were no houses in these areas, the loss in both property and lives would be smaller. However, there was approval, and people that should have never been allowed to live in an area with such a risk ultimately lost their lives because they were allowed to live in this area.
http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/mexico-storm-deaths-continue-rise-after-tropical-systems-and-mudslides-20131003