Ramblings of a 70-year old: flooding

Showing posts with label flooding. Show all posts

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Sea level rise from Hurricane Nicole washes away many beachfront homes in Florida

Those who reside in beachfront homes in Florida witnessed the damages caused by Hurricane Nicole. The dangerous storm surge and powerful winds damaged or destroyed many of the homes in the neighborhood of Wilbur-By-The-Sea. The authorities deemed “unsafe” at least 49 beachfront properties in Volusia County. These included hotels and condos. Nicole was a Category 1 hurricane and videos showed homes that had crumbled and reduced to wreckage. These are the results of sea level rise due to global warming. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals that sea level in this part of Florida has risen more than a foot in the past 100 years. The worst part is that most of that rise has occurred in the past three decades. ‘We didn’t think it would be this bad’: Beachfront homes in small Florida community washed away by Hurricane Nicole. Scientists and researchers have been warning about the effects of sea level rise associated with erosion and high tide flooding. Florida is witnessing the results.

There are sea walls erected to protect coastal communities from high waves and water levels. Nicole destroyed many of these. In fact, one seawall put up recently, crumbled into the ocean. People evacuated with their essential belongings. They have to rebuild their lives. Just six weeks ago, it was hurricane Ian. It eroded parts of Florida’s eastern coast. This back-to-back nature of storms is making seawalls more vulnerable. As an expert explains - “it doesn’t really take a strong storm – you just need high tides or storm-agitated tides to wash away or put extra stress on the walls. Having these two storms six weeks apart, if you don’t give places any time to repair or replenish, each storm definitely leaves its mark.”

Monday, November 7, 2022

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautions planet Earth is on "the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator"

The COP27 summit kicked off in Egypt and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that planet Earth is on shaky ground. He used strong words and said our planet is on “the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator." This summit is follows a year of violent effects of climate change. He quoted the examples of catastrophic flooding that killed more than 1,700 people in Pakistan and uprooted 1.3 million from their homes in Nigeria. He also mentioned about drought and withered crops in Europe, large scale starvation in Africa, and loss of fish from California to France to China. These are results of rise in emissions and global warming. In his words - "Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish." Those present in the room included heads of state. They were Europe's Ursula von der Leyen, France's Emmanuel Macron and Colombia's Gustavo Francisco. The main purpose of the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh was to inject momentum into the two-week talks. Nearly 200 countries hope to agree on the collective steps necessary to slow climate breakdown. Antonio Guterres said - failing to work together will amount to a "collective suicide pact." COP27: Agree on climate action or face a 'collective suicide pact' - UN chief's ultimatum to world leaders.

Already the world faces fierce geopolitical tensions. These are due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, followed by subsequent food, energy and cost of living crises, and arguments over who should pay for the increasingly damaging impacts of climate change. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the conflict and soaring energy prices are "not a reason to go slow on climate change, they are a reason to act faster." In his words - "Climate security goes hand in hand with energy security." The PM did publicly thank Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el Sisi for his "leadership" at the talks. Simultaneously, he is pressing the Egyptian leader to release imprisoned British-Egyptian political activist Alaa Abd el Fattah. President Sisi was one of many to urge an end to the war in Ukraine. "This war must stop," he said in an emotive plea, adding that not just Egypt but likely the "entire world" was suffering as a result. However, the talks did offer some rays of hope. This is the first time that the concept of compensation made it to the agenda. This was to compensate countries for irreversible losses inflicted by climate change. Examples are - the loss of lives, collapse of jobs and sinking of islands.

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Climate change a matter of concern for the security of Britain

Britain is worried. Its national security appears on shaky ground. This is believed to be a fallout of the failure of the government. A parliamentary report cautions that the reasons for such a situation could be attributed extreme weather events caused by climate change. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy consists of senior MPs and peers. It has urged the government to take control of the major security risks posed by the effects of climate change on critical national infrastructure. These include power, transport, water and communications. The world of today depends heavily on these factors. The report highlight salient issues of the recent past that could be pointers on possible repercussions in future. A few of these are – (i) loss of power to millions in parts of England and Scotland during Storm Arwen in November 2021 due to downing of power lines (ii) loss of lives in Scotland due to derailment of a train in August 2020 and (iii) heatwave of July 2022 when temperatures rose to 104F in the U.K. UK security in danger as govt fails to prepare for extreme weather sparked by climate change - report. The report mentions about finding "overwhelming evidence" that climate change is already having an impact on UK infrastructure and that "no minister has been taking responsibility" for adapting it.

The report follows a series of extreme weather events in recent years. It reveals an "extreme weakness at the centre of government." Moreover, the committee hauls up the ministers of "a severe dereliction of duty" and stresses that "even more severe weather - and consequent impacts - will be prevalent soon." These observations leads the experts to predict that high temperatures are likely to give rise to issues like sagging of electricity cables, softening of roads and increase in the frequency of flooding. These, in turn, might result in frequent failure of railway embankments. Chair of the Joint Committee, Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett, said Rishi Sunak, the new Prime Minister “must pull all the strands of government together to mitigate against potential disasters… This government must finally recognise that prevention is better than cure and move on from their dangerously reactive approach to risk management."

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Hurricane Roslyn, a powerful Category 4 storm, struck the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta

Hurricane Roslyn swept over the Pacific and struck the Mexican resort of Puerto Vallarta. It was identified as a powerful Category 4 storm. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Roslyn had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph but could lose some power. The location of its core was about 65 miles from Cabo Corrientes and it was moving north at 12 mph. Cabo Corrientes is the portion of land that juts into the Pacific south of Puerto Vallarta. Forecasters cautioned that Cabo Corrientes and the Puerto Vallarta region could experience high winds, heavy rains and rough surf. Incidentally, Hurricane Orlene made landfall Oct. 3 near the same region, about 45 miles southeast of the resort of Mazatlan. There is a hurricane warning for a stretch of coast from Playa Perula south of Cabo Corrientes north to El Roblito and for the Islas Marias. ‘Full of Tourists': Category 4 Roslyn Barrels Toward Mexico's Coast. Many tourists were apparently not aware of the approaching storm. They thronged beachside eateries around Puerto Vallarta and smaller resorts farther north on the Nayarit coast where the storm likely was headed.

A receptionist at one of hotels in Puerto Vallarta said that if winds picked up, the hotel would gather up outside furniture “so nothing will go flying.” Of course, even though skies began to cloud up, waves remained normal, and few people appeared to be rushing to take precautions. Swimmers were still in the sea at Puerto Vallarta. As a receptionist at a hotel said - “The place is full of tourists.” The Nayarit state government explained that the landfall of the hurricane would possibly be near San Blas, about 90 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. An official of the state civil defense office said – it was patrolling the areas to alert the people about possible dangers. The neighboring state of Jalisco arranged to evacuate some of its people. Rains from hurricane Rosalyn could result in mudslides and flooding. The U.S. hurricane center cautioned about dangerous storm surge along the coast, accompanied by 4 to 6 inches of rain.