flood watch

[kenneal - lagger]

That photo shows why they build, or at least did build, adobe houses in New Mexico. There's no shortage of clay in that soil! In there's too much for cob building which is why they adopted adobe preshrunk brick construction.

[emordnilap]

We should also have a 'drought watch' thread...

Yeah, go ahead, I was going to.

BTW, that article is seriously scary, innit? In many ways, droughts are far worse than floods.

[ujoni08]

Ha ha, Biff! It's a bit soggier than that around here, I tell you.

Those cracks are seriously deep in New Mexico, though. I can see serious problems ahead for places like that and also e.g. Colorado, Arizona, California, etc.

[emordnilap]

'Himalayan tsunamis'

Meanwhile, it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild homes, lay new roads, replace destroyed bridges and restore power lines, Bahuguna estimates.

“Around 200 of my bridges have been washed away, nearly 5,000 roads damaged, connectivity to 4,300 villages snapped — electricity and water supplies disrupted, telephone lines collapsed,” the chief minister told Reuters.

In some ways the epicentre of the tragedy, Kedarnath, looms largest in the minds of many experts. Around the region, countless other areas face similar threats.

“When you talk about glacial lakes, in Nepal alone there are more than 1,400 lakes, and if you talk about the whole Himalayan Range . . . there are about 20,000 glacial lakes,” Pradeep Mool, who monitors the risk of glacial lake outbursts for the centre.

More than 200 of these lakes have been classified as potentially dangerous. Precious few of these lakes even existed a few decades ago.
“When I look at some of the lakes, especially in the Nepal Himalayas, where I have done detailed field work, it’s shocking how fast they have grown,” Mool said.

“In the case of Imja lake, for instance, there was no lake there at all 50 years back. When I ask the people, they say ‘It was a tiny pond when I was a kid.’ Now it’s already about 580 metres wide and 2.3 kilometres long and about 100 metres deep.”

That’s particularly ominous as torrential monsoon rains swept across Uttarakhand again last week, hampering the rebuilding effort with new deadly landslides.

More here.

[biffvernon]

I can see serious problems ahead for places like that and also e.g. Colorado, Arizona, California, etc.

I think best guess in a warming world is for more rainfall over the globe on average with the sub-tropical dry zones intensifying and shifting a bit polewards. So the the areas north of the Sahara - the Med - and the Mexico/ southern USA gets drier, whilst sub-Saharan Africa gets wetter.

It's to do with Hadley Cells and such-like.

We've had more rainfall than we needed today where I was out for a walk.

[kenneal - lagger]

We had none when a lot was forecast. What we have had has only wet the top inch or so although it has promoted a good deal of growth. That would coincide with the 1000 litres that we have collected in our rain water butt (1000ltrs from our 40 square meters of roof equates to 25mm of rain) We've pumped most of that to other IBC containers so we're ready for some more on Friday, I think it was.

If the breach in the moraine is complete it would be safe to rebuild in the same place as long as no other glacial lake feeds their particular river. Otherwise they should be looking at moving all those affected communities further up the sides of the valleys if that is possible without destabilising the valley sides.

The ways that the moraine could be overtopped are so numerous that they must assume that all the lakes will go at some time in the future. In a region like the Himalayas, which is moving upwards at a rate that exceeds the rate of erosion, there is bound to be an earthquake at some time in the near future even it the weather doesn't get to the lakes first.

Not a region I would chose to live in. But then I've got the choice and the villages don't.

[emordnilap]

Pakistan monsoons and resultant floods washes away houses.

Apparently, these floods are a 'surprise'.

Saleem Shaikh and Sughra Tunio are Islamabad-based journalists specialising in climate change and development issues.

On a cursory inspection, Pakistan's National Climate Change Policy referred to in the article aims to deal with the effects of climate change rather than tackle the causes. I suppose that comes as no surprise, really.

[emordnilap]

And the latest from Burma is that 25,000 people have now been displaced by floods.

[emordnilap]

Five inches of rain in an hour in Kansas city. Impressive.

[emordnilap]

And now...the world's "grandest swimming pool".

Yesterday brought Venice some of the worst flooding it's undergone since 1872, when the first records were logged. By Monday morning, nearly 70% of the city was submerged in waters nearly 5 feet in height, with scores of tourists and locals skipping atop elevated boardwalks hoisted above the water's surface.

[...]

The deluge was the largest to hit the city since 2008's record-setting floods. The construction of the MOSE project, a mechanized floor barrier system to protect the city from high tides, will be completed in 2015, and it's hoped that it will prevent events such as this weekend's.

Note: adaptation, not prevention. While again, it's no surprise, it is a failure.

[emordnilap]

No one flood or series of floods can be blamed on CC

I understand. As one blogger wrote, if you need evidence of climate change, watch insurers.

Such as Munich Re.

[emordnilap]

Flooding kills two in Urals.

[emordnilap]

11 people killed in Sudanese floods.

80,309 individuals displaced, 7,376 homes completely destroyed and 4,403 households partially damaged.

More here.

[raspberry-blower]

Russia's Far East hit by biggest floods in 120 years

Up to 100,000 people may be evacuated from flood-hit regions in Russia’s Far East. Water levels at local reservoirs have already reached historic highs, and officials say the floods raging in the area are expected to continue rising even further.

Floods are currently affecting over 32,500 locals living in over 5,000 homes. Over 17,000 residents have already left the area over the disaster.

[Billhook]

Flood insurance scheme inadequate, says study

Government's Flood Re scheme underestimates number of properties at risk due to climate change

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... uate-study

Quote:
"As many as 800,000 homes in England and Wales are likely to be at significant risk of flooding in a decade, even on optimistic assumptions of fewer homes being built in flood plains, with the number rising to 1.5m by 2050. That compares with about 370,000 homes at significant risk in 2008 in England and Wales.

But the government's new "Flood Re" insurance system, devised with the insurance industry, assumes that only about 500,000 properties will be at risk. The £180m a year scheme is to be paid for by a £10.50 levy on all home insurance, from homeowners who are not at elevated risk of flooding as well as those who are.

The LSE study found that these risk assumptions could put the new scheme – set to come into force in 2015 and last to at least 2035 – in danger of failing vulnerable homeowners.

The authors found: "The design of the Flood Re scheme has not taken into account adequately, if at all, how flood risk is being affected by climate change. For this reason, it is likely to be put under increasing pressure and may prove to be unsustainable because the number of properties in future that will be at moderate and high probability of flooding has been significantly underestimated."
___________________________________

How's that for an official response to the rising impacts of climate destabilization ?
Ignore the climate destabilization component of the problem,
get a photo op where a new scheme is announced,
and call it problem solved !

Some of these bastards-in-office deserve to drown ". .pour encourager les autres . . ."

Regards,

Lewis