But I thought Wales liked water?

Flooding across the pond in Wales is making news today as residents watched defenses fail.

Rain in the UK has led to flooding in Northern Wales when the floods manged to avoid all the flood defenses in place within the Glasdir estate.

What's funny about this article is it outlines what seem to be very good Hazard mitigation techniques for avoiding such floods. Later on in the article it talks about all the regulations put in place, and that it is not normally a severly flooded area.

Another funny thing about the article and flooding is that the residents and property developers dont know how the flood got past their defense systems. Some hypothesize that the flood waters went around the defenes, other thing it was groundwater rising up, and yet other suggest that the defenses were simply not enough and the flood waters toppled over them.

No matter what the cause, the developers are interested in figuring out where they went wrong and fixing the system they have in place to keep instances liek this from happening again.

Normally we can critisize people for living in low areas and blame that on their property damages, but if this article is true, a lot of the property was supoosed to be well suited for flooding possibilities yet sustained damaged this past week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-20533926

Aliens, Dusty Aliens.

Environmental Hazards is the name of the class, however this title does not specify that we simply are interested in looking at Earth's environment so for my latest blog post I'm going to take us to Mars.

As we explore other planets and eventually send manned spacecraft there it's important to gain a better knowledge base of these potential planets, especially about their environments.

A mars rover landed early in August and has since been collecting data and exploring the planet. Recently it came under the influence of a major environmental hazard, a massive dust storm on the planets surface.

The dust storm was first noticed by NASA on November tenth and they have been following it ever since. Both Martian (the other one was landed in 2004) rovers have built in weather stations and they saw drops in air pressure as the storm moved across the region, they also experienced and increase in nighttime temperatures because the dust storm absorbs more sunlight than Martian typical planet surface. The warming effect can be felt 16 around the dust storm and that's what the rovers are experiencing currently.

We last saw dust storms this big in 2007 and prior to that in 2001. Dust storms like this pop up on Mars seasonally, and the Martian year is 2X as long as earth's year.

Scientists view this as a great opportunity to learn more about Martian Dust Storms. They see this as a time to examine the processes behind the Dust Storms and why some get so big-global scale, while others pop up and die off right away.

As we already know a lot (and yet not enough) about the environment that we currently live in, there is a new set of rules and circumstances we must think about as humans travel to new planets.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/24/mars-dust-storm-nasa-rovers-opportunity-curiosity_n_2184423.html#slide=more238062

China is watching....

Caught a news blurb the other day about a weather related development in China, which seems to be somewhat of a hot topic these days.

On monday China launched it's third environmental satelite. They hope to use this sattelite and the other two to develop it's abilitys for monitoring their environemtn, and forecasing future disasters.

This is an important development for a country that is developing and expaning so fast, especially being one of the top most populous countries in the world. China has a lot of land to cover, and as we here in the U.S. know, that means a lot of different environmental factors happening is many places at once.

China says that the sattelite will be used specifically for disaster planning, air distribution and reconstruction if necessary. It's hard enough to predict disasters before they happen but having another eye in the sky definitely helps them out.



http://www.rttnews.com/2008613/china-launches-environment-satellite.aspx?type=gn&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=sitemap

Just Blowin' Trees

for Some, Sandy was the worst stom on record. It destoryed the most, and uprooted so many idividuals. 10,000 were lost in NYC and never have a hope of regaining their home, or life again. In new jersey 113,00 died and some were even 100+ years old.

I'm talking about trees.

Sandy's lesser known victim were the trees. While humans and their perils are the main focus of damage reports coming out of Sandy, Trees get somewhat forgotten. As I said earlier, an article from the Wall Street Journal lists the tree casualty number about 10,000 in just New York City. Call me an Idiot, but I didn't know there were even 10,000 trees in New York City.. Ok well I had to have known that...

New Jersey reports over 113,000 being destoryed state wide some of whom probably contributed to some local power failures in certain neighborhoods.

Experts can use the knowledge of Sandy to decide where and how to replant these trees, like planting smaller growing trees under and near powerlines. It gives an do-over with tree planting where conflicts between trees and city infrastructure were occuring.

It also took down some 'favorite' trees in Central Park, which will take on a new look come spring when new trees are being planted.

Just another way Sandy is affecting the New England area, and in ways nobody really could have thought.


http://online.wsj.com/article/AP23c1f43071d24cbea7d1adc7aa75f198.html

Extra Credit Post - Geography Bee

Recently, classmate Nick Topper and myself attended the Geography Bee for pure enjoyment and extra credit, provided I blogged about it.

The bee was interesting, opening up with a question about the insanely annoying toddler/pre-teen/I dont eve know how old Hone Boo Boo and ending discussing the recent election.

Ezra put together some good Human geography questions, while Ryan put together quite a few elections questions, Dr Anand threw some Anthropology questions in there as well. Unfortunately teammate Topper and I didn't fare too well, getting the boot in the first round (and we call ourselves Geography Majors....) but luckily for myself Scott picked me up on Free agency and we finished in 3rd place overall.

Sandy Update- Still Without Power

This article from CBS news is about 90% people complaining about the lack of power in the Long Island area, and 10% of why it's out. But still, worth reading...

Almost 13 days after Sandy made landfall, some residents are still without power. There have been rallys across the Long Island area where people are voicing their opinions loud and clear about their lack of power. Some calling for the energy company to just "fix a pole"... as if it were that easy.

It truly is unfortunate that we are seeing these people without power almost two weeks later but I feel it's important to look at this story from a mitigation aspect not just to appease the complainers.

The article goes on to discuss how many NYC power companies, similar to most individuals, were simply not ready for the storm. According to the aricle, they are a bit lost, and there is no coordinated effort to bring energy back. Companies like Long Island Power Agency and Con Edison have already restored power to nearly 98% of the almost 2.7 million without power just last week. It's not like they're not making progress, its just not quite fast enough.

This is a good way for energy companies to learn how NOT to prepare and react to a natural disaster like Sandy. Although in disasters hitting metropolitan areas, restoring power to that many people can definitely be a challenge.

Hopefully the citizens outlined in the story will regain power in the next few days, and the further recovery process can begin.









http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57548066/sandy-tempers-heated-among-new-yorkers-still-in-the-cold/

Sandy Update:Power and Voting Concerns

Finding out where to Vote seems small in compared to figuring out where you're going to sleep the next night, but that's what a lot of East Coast residents are faced with this voting season.

Hurricane Sandy displaced many from their homes, be it destruction or just evacuation, and now it's a struggle to figure out where to vote in this Presidential election.

These days we need electricity to aide in the voting process, and officials are confident that it wont be an issue come voting time except for in the most severely hit areas. At this point residents were lined up in polling stations that were not their own. 'Refugee' voters were able to vote in different areas if their hometowns were inaccessible on Tuesday. In some neighborhoods temporary polling places were set up to best serve their residents, and lines of people were in front of these temporary tents and structures. Buses even provided free bus services for citizens to get to these polling places.

It's nice to see the priority given, within reason, to voting in the election. Something as important as the presidential election is clearly treated with high importance, and people's reaction to the adversity is promising.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57545592/sandy-victims-concerns-voting-housing-power/?pageNum=2

Sandy: FEMA thumbs up or thumbs down?

Sandy Update for you guys. Coming from recent CNN article about FEMA.

After sandy ravaged parts of the East coast earlier this week, we can now reflect on some of the immediate disaster reaction.

After being heavily, and rightfully so, criticized in response to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA has done a much better job with the relief efforts with Sandy.

Katrina marked the end of FEMAs old methods, the article describes new requirements for FEMA head honchos,

"One of the post-Katrina reforms passed by Congress was to require that FEMA administrator have an experienced chief, said Bruce Lockwood, an officer with the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers. "It couldn't be just a political appointee," Lockwood said. "It had to be somebody who had a practitioner background in emergency management or public safety field. It had to be somebody who knew what they were doing before they got into that position.""

This is definitely important to note. The position could have been used as a political tool for higher-ups to reward loyal campaign aides, but now that is not a possible outcome. The new administrator must be someone with some credentials.

One aspect to the new FEMA is called "leaning forward". This tool is used where FEMA puts medical supplies, relief supplies and people in place BEFORE major disasters happen. That way, when the disaster hits, they are far better prepared to act fast.

"The agency is now aimed at "leaning forward," moving supplies like food, water, generators, blankets and cots into an expected disaster zone ahead of time, said Lockwood, the deputy emergency management director in New Hartford, Connecticut. "Before, they would have to wait for a call from a state before they started moving material," he said. They still need a request from a state to distribute those supplies, but "They have things on the ready in a very immediate location."

Efforts like 'leaning forward' has paid off for Sandy relief efforts and FEMA has been praised for their diligence and hard work by many political figures on the east coast (of both parties, I might addd). FEMA is however, not with out criticism. Staten Island Borough President is unhappy with FEMAs supply of knowledge to the citizens post disaster. He says that FEMA did not do a good enough job helping the citizens figure out where to retrieve supplies from after the storm hit. A huge agency like FEMA can only do so much, and obviously you are not going to please everyone, every time.

It's good to see some good news coming out of Sandy aftermath. Although still a huge effort and serious undertaking, it seems FEMA did a fairly good job with disaster mitigation in the wake of Sandy. Far better than it did during Katrina at least.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/01/us/sandy-fema/index.html

Sandy: Wake-up

Found a good article about Sandy that puts some numbers to relavent information.

The author draws lines between hurricanes Sandy and Katrina in discussion of the idiot way we chose to live in such low lying coastal areas, when hurricanes are an annual affair.

Sandy looks to be one of the most costly storms in U.S. history. With a massive part of our financial and cultural center on the east coast, how can we cope with such destruction.

The author of the article moves to relating climate change to the occurance of two major storms clustered in the span of less than a decade,

"How, at this point, can anyone deny the scientific consensus about climate change? The traditional dodge — that no single weather event can definitively be attributed to global warming — doesn’t work anymore. If something looks, walks and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Especially if the waterfowl in question is floating through your living room."

Some facts that the author lists:
Katrina Costs:$100 Billion
Sandy Estimated Costs: $50 Billion
Insured Propery Value along East coast: $9 Trillion
~50% of All americans live within 50 miles of the sea
~1 in 3 Live in a coastal county
That's 41 Million on Atlantic Sea Board
and 14 Million on the Gulf Coast (and rising)

These facts, valid or not, bring up interesting reflection points and also provide intersting apocolyptic 'what-if' situations.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-will-hurricane-sandy-be-our-wake-up-call/2012/11/01/eb50acd6-2447-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html