How are budget cuts to FEMA affecting citizens in disaster areas? Have the people of Houston been taken care of after their flooding? Puerto Rico? California after the fires? Do Trumpists who are so afraid of socialism realize that disaster aide is a form of socialism?
15
Here are some facts from NOAA.
- over the last 50 years, precipitation in the US is flat. No trend up.
- Rainfall is highly variable from year to year.
- There appears to be no relationship between temps and precipitation in the midwest, or for the entire US. The correlation is zero. I've even tried time lagged correlations -- still essentially zero. Great theory, makes sense, but data doesn't support.
Beyond that -- there appears to be a great deal of variability in trends for temp and precipitation in states and climate divisions (areas the NOAA uses to measure avg temps & precip for areas of a state) -- in the midwest. Enough variability that it makes you wonder if there aren't measurement issues at play here.
Then when you drill down to the actual temp station level and look at the raw data anomaly trends -- you see so much variation it makes your head spin. In the midwest some stations show trends (per century) that are up, others nearby show trends down -- meaning there isn't warming but cooling. Now you can understand temp stations showing slightly different trends over a decade maybe -- but when they are in the same general area and have been reporting for essentially the same time frame -- in an area that is relatively small that seems odd.
I've seen this all over the US -- and the globe. A great example are two stations in Texas 30 miles apart, both 30 miles south of DFW, and one shows temps up, the other temps down.
Bad data.
@Ralphie
Variability is the signal. Evaluate the trend of the coefficient of variation.
4
@Ralphie - Head on over to Texas, Nebraska etc. and tell them this. It will be interesting to hear their response.
4
Or an indication of how serious this really is.
2
This is a people-vs-weather article about situations that appears to be more frequent as established weather patterns change in a more-energetic climate.
One bit they mention should be kept in mind - the flushing of massive amounts of nutrients and herbicides/pesticides off of artificially fertilized fields. This nutrient load is often accompanied by massive runoff of the soil itself, particularly in operations that still haven't adopted no-till practices.
This is a waste of the energy to produce fertilizer, affects drinking water, is a health risk especially for pregnant women, and leads to algal blooms with potential toxins along with the growing anoxic dead zones.
Republicans and agricultural groups fought hard against better regulation of this toxic runoff, claiming that ditches and low-lying areas that are dry part of the year are nobody's business. The current Administration is trying to repeal regulations we need. https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule
Also keep in mind that an increase in floods - on rivers or coasts - will increase accidental release of all of our other chemistry into oceans, lakes, aquifers and drinking water supplies.
Harvey flooded Houston's chemical sites, and flooding also dumps sewage into water systems and can weaken coal ash ponds (most of which are leaching chemicals already).
The "don't regulate us" forces haven't shown much appetite to fix things on their own - though farming seems to be slowly adopting better practices.
13
When will the people in the Midwest wake up to what is not only in the national interest (acknowledging climate change) but also what is in THEIR interest. Do you really want Donald Trump and Republican deniers representing you? Are you really so obtuse that you can't even figure out what is in your own interest.
Your lives are proof climate change is real. The only question is when will you all wake up and demand that people do something about the forces that are destroying your lives?
13
I see comments about these floods being due to climate change. I also notice that the flood of 1952, which were worse than this flooding, isn't mentioned in the article. However, the flooding of 1927 is mentioned as being worse than current flooding.
OK, so if the flooding of 2019 is due to climate change, what was the cause of the floods in 1952 and 1927? CO2 levels?
The bottom line is blaming every normal climate variation (and this flooding is normal variation) is an indication of how weak the argument is for man's influence on the weather.
I see articles blaming hot weather on (man made) climate change, cold weather on (man made) climate change, drought on (man made) climate change, and flooding on (man made) climate change.
The climate changes. It's natural variation. In this case, high snowfall/rain amounts are due to a 'bomb cyclone'. A natural event. It doesn't happen every year, but blaming this bomb cyclone on CO2 levels is an insult to science.
1
Commenters whining about how liberals are hating flood victims? fake news. I've seen zero divisive 'they deserve to drown' talk from the left, and I dare you to reply with any cites (besides your crabby neighbor or FOXprop). I'll start. From Iowa's odious Steve King:
"...here’s what FEMA tells me: We go to a place like New Orleans, and everybody’s looking around saying, “Who’s going to help me? Who’s going to help me?” We go to a place like Iowa, and we go see, knock on the door at, say, I make up a name, John’s place, and say, “John, you got water in your basement, we can write you a check, we can help you.” And John will say, “Well, wait a minute, let me get my boots. It’s Joe that needs help. Let’s go down to his place and help him.”
New Orleans 14 years ago? Really? The entire 9th Ward was flooded on purpose to save downtown and their residents shot as looters trying to cross bridges. Citizens named LaKesha instead of John or Joe? That's pretty infuriating, and it's just like King to dog-whistle about black people in Louisiana AND COMPARING THEM to current flood victims. No one helps each other in Louisiana or CA, Florida or Detroit, is that right? Utter derp.
trump throws paper towels/insults at Puerto Rico, tells us CA fire victims are all lefties, etc. Steve King and others say ONLY the good folks of the heartland are helpful neighbors, then call liberals divisive. There's "A+" trump treatment for some, but not all of us.
Sad.
10
If some people think our economy will be too negatively impacted by climate change prevention, think of the cost to NOT deal with the crisis - from human lives to farms to businesses to insurances to federal emergency funds drying up.
13
Now this is a National Emergency!!!
8
Sad that Senator Ben Sass and veep Pence are too busy saving us from ‘our sins’ instead of doing their actual jobs of serving their constituents. Basic Politics 101.
14
But The Wall will keep all that water from going into Mexico, right? We can keep all the water that God gave us!
17
Don't worry - Trump and FEMA will do a job just as great as the one they did in Puerto Rico.
16
@Cyclist
You mean by throwing paper towels at them???
7
How many of these states have Republican governors?
9
@Hazlit
14 of the 17 states most-affected (i.e., severe potential flooding) have Republican governors.
http://floodlist.com/america/usa/usa-noaa-warns-historic-widespread-flooding-to-continue-into-may
5
Don't expect any help from FEMA or the military since all funding as been diverted to "The Great Stall".
12
I think the phrase “Elections have consequences” should be revised to “Elections have dire consequences”.
Please think about this flood and all the climate catastrophes we are continually experiencing and expecting when you cast your vote in 2020.
19
It's a continuing problem that the US will not enhance their protection systems. Take Columbia TN for example -- the Duck River flooded again this spring, yet the unfinished Columbia Dam that they billed utility customers for over several years sits abandoned due to environmental concerns over a variety of clover and some small fish which allegedly cannot be found anywhre else. Hadd they finished this project, the flood could hav e been avoided.
Just who determines the policy and how to carry it out?
3
I heard on NPR news this a.m. that the floods could affect "up to 200 million people". There was no elaboration on exactly how this will challenge almost two-thirds of the U.S. population. Are they referring to actual flooding itself, or the collateral damage, such as food crops?
It was a shocking revelation, yet there do not seem to be any details backing up the numbers. Has anyone else a link to information about this?
4
Ironic that many of the affected states are the ones that deny climate change?
7
Dear Republican Governor of Nebraska. Maybe in your request for 1.4 Billion dollars from the Federal Government, you should consider using the money to fund Nebraska’s public schools so you can use brainpower and science to deal with reality.
8
I'm really getting depressed reading these comments. It seems that many of the comments from people not from the flooding states are blaming the victims. Many assume that there is a direct line from Trump to this year's flood, in effect that Red States deserve this fate, and some Blue States are just collateral damage.
You do know that floods are natural seasonal events and that in some years they are worse than others...think a perfect storm. That there are a lot of blue voters and some blue states flooding too? You do know that the Midwest is moving towards many of the carbon neutral solutions that we all favor. You do know that midwesterners support victims of hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes, epidemics, and such in their time of need. Sure there are some wackos in the Midwest, but when floods come they are my neighbors and I'll help them as I know they'll help me.
I know it's easy to vent about the way things are, but if you really think about it what good does it do...it just sets an example that thoughtless people can follow.
9
@David Looking at the rising cost of property insurance is there a correlation with more natural disasters happening closer together, Dave? I know some disasters are due to terrain.
1
@David, yep. Could you tell trump that there are trump supporter wildfire victims in California too? Maybe he'll stop setting that example you don't like. It's not Dems demanding spite repymts. NO Democrats advocate prioritizing victims of natural disaster. YOUR president: "FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes." Some citizens are more equal than others, amirite?
Stop whining about Dem meanies!
So it really doesn't matter what commenters here say, David. It's that trump picks and chooses which Americans he favors. Show me any Democrat who says midwestern Americans should drown/not be helped. Ain't there.
What you are hearing are complaints about trump supporters in flooded areas who cheered when trump laughed at Puerto Rico; roared approval at rallies where trump hated on Democrats for funding services when something happens. The folks who take gov't subsidies for their livelihoods, then hate the gov't when it benefits someone else. Steve King, Iowa??
Stop with the pretend division, stop the calls for liberals' civility when trump lashes out with the most vile, insulting, lie-filled threats against all who aren't on his 'side'.
No Democrat is going to row past a drowning republican brother, sister, or pet trapped on a roof. Why oh why do we also have to put up with you punching us as traitors/enemies when you finally get in the boat?
7
@David
The excess flooding is, in part, caused by changes in our atmosphere and are, indeed, also due in part to climate change. Ergo, deniers of the changing Earth and it's climate who support mostly Republican congress people & state politicians (and Trump) have some hand in determining the consequences of that support (read Do-Nothingness re: climate change & CO2).
The Times highlighted a farmer from Percival IA in an article the other day. He'd spent his "life savings of $100k" on refurbishing his flooded land in 2011. Now his house and land are under water again. No, I don't blame him for the flooding, but I wonder why he unwisely stayed put -- as many who live in the flood plains of the Mississippi, e.g., do -- and why he and others in that area did not look to science to help foretell and thus give them guidance on a Better Plan for their future -- in agriculture or in another field so as not to incur such a potentially devastating loss . . . . . again.
4
Don’t worry, maybe next year these states will experience a drought and things will equal out.
1
@New World
You probably won't be so nonchalant when you start to see the prices of your groceries rise.
5
Nebraska produces 10% of its energy from wind. It Is one if the leading states for wind power. Doing something for the planet. But they didn't vote correctly there fore they deserve no sympathy?
We sent money for hay and grain for livestock. Would hope others might do the same.
5
@pamela - I sent money. My tax dollars have been going there for decades.
4
@pamela, who is saying Nebraskans deserve no sympathy? I want to quash that little FOX/republican whine right now. Put up or stop just spouting FOX complaints. It. isn't. true.
Which Democrats use tribal red vs blue according to who voted 'correctly'? Zero. Google Iowa's Steve King, however. Just driving a divisive wedge with all his might!!
After his 'election', I saw a meeting where trump points to a graph with red/blue bars. He points to the red ones and says: "That's us, right?" That hurt, as a liberal citizen; he doesn't consider himself MY president, and I'm the one who's divisive? See also: trumpies' claim that Democrats hate America when they don't applaud him, his inability to allow comedy shows that mock him. On and on. But hey, it's the Dems who are meanies. You got nothing but plastic pearls to clutch.
5
In 1969, Ursula K. LeGuin’ novel The Left Hand of Darkness briefly mentioned carbon dioxide emissions warming a future earth. For 50 years, despite a growing body of evidence, we still dither or deny.
Our descendants will curse us. We deserve it.
5
@Peak Oiler
Thanks for that, however I don't recall seeing mention of global warming due to CO2 emissions in The Left Hand of Darkness. OTOH, it *was* featured in LeGuin's novel The Lathe of Heaven, as driving the growth of the "giant conurbations" of John Day and Frenchglen, two currently small communities in Oregon's dry side!
3
What will be America's response to the proof of climate warming when our Midwest is flooded into a waterworld this spring? NOAA predicts "historic, widespread flooding to continue through May". Major flooding in several of the lower states will expose 13 million people to flooded communities, homes, businesses, flooded lives. Floods galore in our Midwest.
Climate change is already making a crucial difference in our lives on Earth. Will levees be blown up by the Army Corps of Engineers? Will dams burst? How much longer can our president -- who isn't a fit leader for any of the catastrophes facing America today -- continue to claim that climate warming is "a hoax"?
106
This is a story about climate change but also about decaying infrastructure. The adjacent story about flooding in Hamburg, Iowa and the levee says the same thing.
Want a new levee? Raise taxes.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. If we want a world-class economy and world-class infrastructure, we need to pay for it. Europe does, China does, and America used to.
Want to make America great again? Raise taxes!
174
@Eric Trump misappropriates taxpayer dollars to a ridiculous unnecessary foolhardy wall while our countrymen in the midwest drown and their homes are destroyed? I think there is enough money already. It just needs to go to the right places.
29
@Eric,
Don't be silly. The rich need tax cuts more than Midwestern farmers need infrastructure.
12
@Eric - I agree infrastructure needs tax money. But if we would had the same % of GDP military spending as the countries you name, it would free up enough money to fix the US (instead of lining pockets of contract killers, contract builders, dictators - you name it)
8
The GOP leaders of the climate change-denying red states where flooding is expected should have been interviewed and quoted in this article regarding their inaction on the national emergency that planetary warming represents.
2
California was under a major drought just a few years ago. Forecasters said the drought would never end. But the drought did end. California is drought free now. We can thank climate change for that. Colorado was in drought but is having a great snow year. What caused this great snow year? Climate change of course. Texas was under a drought that would never end a few years ago also. They are for the most part drought free because of climate change. Crop production in the US set records last year because of climate change. It is a beautiful day today where I live. What caused this beautiful day? Climate change is the root cause of every nice day.
2
The farmers voted for the hate. They saw Donald Trump as the successor to the "socialist Kenyan" and so voted in record numbers to "make America great again." They, like their new champion, didn't believe in climate change, another "socialist" and progressive idea that President Obama warned us against and even took the lead in assembling an international coalition that attempted to forestall the degradation of the atmosphere by coal-fired stacks and greenhouse gases. The acids in the air are now eating through the natural shields that were in place. This is part of the Koch Bottles plan for us--profits over people--and the farmers went along. Oh Happy Day! Now they're looking at catastrophes on the farm for the next couple of generations at least. Without serious attention to this issue, their livelihood is disappearing. And they listened, like fools, to the pied piper of madness.
Oh, and what about infrastructure? The flooding in the plains and in the urban areas also helps in eroding roads and bridges and electrical grids and railways. Nope; nada; zilch. But $1.5-trillion for the upper crust. Yes, farmers, drink up and toast the guy you wanted in the White House. How's that working out for you--and the rest of us--now?
11
Attribution science is really, really hard. You're basically playing a game of statistical noise cancellation. You take the entire orchestra and winnow down the sounds until you know exactly how many cellists are playing. That's how much of the orchestra is attributed to cellists. Now the question is are they playing b-flat or a-sharp? And so the science goes...
5
not only prime farmland unusable and unknown thousands of livestock dead. also add to that the production of ethanol that is heavily impacted as that is shut down. and all of this will add to increased prices for milk, beef, pork and gas.
oh and the infrastructure of highways and bridges that will be need to be rebuilt; along with the water plants.
billions will be needed to address this catastrophe; but dotard ignores the region and daily rants about building a monument to his ego.
5
Not a climate change denier, but people here and elsewhere aren’t doing themselves or the world any favors by labeling every weather event as global warming or climate change. The flooding in Nebraska was mainly called by excessive COLD during the season. Excessive cold led to excessive snow in the mountains and western Nebraska. On top of this, a massive storm came through, blizzard in western Nebraska, rain in the east on top of frozen rivers and snow which was a perfect storm for ice jams with excessive snow melt that had nowhere to go.
Get a grip people.
@Jeff
This article doesn't claim that anthropogenic global warming is solely responsible for the disaster in the upper midwest. Rather, it points out that all weather is now occurring in a changing climate. In particular, the probability of extreme weather events is increasing, and records are being repeatedly broken. The upshot is that man-made climate change contributed to the high cost, in money and tragedy, of this disaster.
6
ok, I'm really impressed that NOAA predicts more flooding this spring. The rivers are already flooded, snow is melting, there will be more rain. Duh.
How about next year though? Why don't they step up and predict what will happen next year -- or five years from now.
Prediction accuracy declines with increasing scale of time and or space. This holds for home budgeting or flood management.
3
@James But James, the climate scientists are telling us what will happen 80 years from now. So we shouldn't believe their dire predictions?
Actually, I would think that if the climate scientists are right about increasing precipitation -- then they would prefer predicting 5 or even 10 years down the road rather than next year. Extreme variability from year to year in temps and precip, but if precip is increasing -- then they should be able to say with confidence how much additional precip (vs normal) we will see over the next decade say and by extension how much flooding.
@Ralphie The predictions made farther down the road are still made, just with less accuracy. So, climatologists can make inferences based on models regarding a *range* of expected precipitation / temperature patterns. But no, they won't be able to produce a map with the same accuracy seen in this article as one for 80 years from now. Just like I can't make a spreadsheet for a budget for 80 years from now as concise as for 2020.
1
How are you going to plant this spring in water logged fields.
The equipment sinks. Seeds don't germinate, they rot.
Last year some early plantings were washed out in Maryland and had to be replanted at less than optimal times.
We just got 2 inches plus of rain last night. With more expected. 2018 was the wettest on record.
Expect a record crop of mosquitoes, zika, bird flu and other joys from standing water. I've fed my first tiger mosquito already.
Maybe we all can become rice farmers and raise tilapia.
5
Multiple states are experiencing catastrophic flooding? Gee, that might just constitute an actual national emergency.
17
So the predictions Al Gore made in "An Inconvenient Truth" were on target. The truth is still too inconvenient for most of us. Even most Dems do not take much personal action to reduce their energy consumption.
30
@Barbara
Yes, Gore was right a few decades ago.
Hansen was right from the mid eighties on.
Carter (mislabeled malaise speech) and Sagan's Cosmos series in 1980 were right.
5
@Barbara
That’s a bit harsh.
Voters in red states perpetuate anti science global changes to our environment every time they vote for another republican Senator, congress person or president.
Democrats like VP Al Gore and many other politicians are supported by Americans who vote democrat and know we have to take responsibility for the carbon footprint we all leave on the one planet we share.
4
@Barbara: Think what a different world we would live in now had Supreme Court not given the 2000 election to George Bush.
7
Vote republican, vote to deny climate changes, live with the consequences.
We will all pay the price of climate denial. Voters who support republicans more directly.
27
Didn't I just read an opinion piece by some lacky in the administration about how big increases in the military budget would be a great jobs program and help keep America safe?
As an alternative to increased military spending and building a non-functional wall, how about some infrastructure work? Sounds as if there's going to be plenty of need. In fact, the need is going to make Americans safer and provide jobs.
Of course, the contracts will be much more dispersed, so the donations won't be like $1 million to Trump's inaugural by Boeing but still...
43
How ironic, 5 or so years ago, Republicans, decided that the national flood insurance program had become to expensive. At the time, most of the flooding was Hurricane related, and focused mostly on coastal areas. So changes were made, the cost of flood insurance nearly doubled, property values decreased, and rate increase con tin year after year.
Guess what, virtually all congressional Republicans, shortsighted as always, saving a dime here, giving away 1.3 trillion in giveaways, mostly to corporations, and low and behold, where is all the flooding... their districts!
So now, we will see an outcry for "government handouts", that will surely exceed whatever additional revenue that was collected when changing the flood insurance program, in one fell swoop. Gotta love America..huh?
Let's see, if for ONCE both parties come to recognize that floods, mudslides, hurricanes, wild fires are increasing and here to stay and likely will continuer top get worse. The RESPONSIBLE thing to do with Flood and other catastrophic insurance should be borne, by smaller increases across all homeowners insurance policies, so that the load is more evenly shared, because these disasters happen everywhere, even in Red State America.
39
The price of Homeowners insurance will already go up, to cover payouts from recent claims. Your HO policy already doesn’t cover floods. What will probably happen next is that insurers stop covering WIND claims. Remember they are for-profit companies.
You’ll get a nondescript mailer from them which you will never read, and when you need to make a claim they will explain that you were informed of the change.
3
Perhaps designing and building new levees would make a bit more sense than building walls.
57
SC had major flooding a few years ago which was worsened by numerous small dams being overwhelmed and breaking.
The so called "leadership" in the state gave lots of "thoughts and prayers" but no serious consideration to the problem. Nikki Haley was governor at the time.
I wonder how many flooding events we'll have to endure before something is done.
24
Much of the land along the Missouri and Mississippi was floodplain which flooded all the time. When we diked and dammed the rivers, that land was reclaimed. Most of it was converted to farmland. The land was very cheap because it was floodplain and had fertile ground from all the flooding.
Because of climate change, we can't control the rivers any longer. They have overtopped our structures. The farmers need to move back. Nature cannot be controlled. The land need to revert back to wetlands.
I say this not because I have anything against farmers, but the kind of flooding we are having this year will happen again in a few years. It will probably even get worse as the planet heats up.
These devastating floods are the result of human induced global warming. They are an immediate and direct cost. These costs must be weighed against the investment costs of moving to renewable energy. Unfortunately, these kinds of losses are what is needed to get many people to realize that the problem is real and must be addressed.
73
@Bruce Rozenblit Yes it's "...human induced global warming," but it's similar to the commercial stating (paraphrasing) "Who would win last year's Tour de France? A boy on a tricycle or a ten speed?" They're creationist in their ideological thinking. It's like a baby born on a bike just magically appeared. But, they complain about education, taking time to read, to understand, to ask questions to slow down. And we wonder why there's an drug problem in this country.
1
On a large scale we are not coming to grips with the fact that the way we live, in many ways, is not sustainable and change will be thrust upon us whether we like it or not. So much is low hanging fruit: why are so many people driving long distances to work every single day when so much can be done remotely? Why are we producing millions of bottles and cans that get thrown away after one use? Why are we not taxing fuel consumption at a higher rate? It goes on and on. We have some intractable problems, but much could be solved with some creative thinking.
20
I hope that our flooded communities, respective politicians, and federal water agencies like USACOE will embrace green infrastructure solutions and where necessary support relocation to higher ground. Return these floodplains to wildlands to absorb the floods and treat the excessive nutrients and fertilizers from upstream farms. This must be part of the green new deal.
30
@Beth Bardwell, The "flood plains" were at one time it was a great inland sea. Perhaps you and the others need to remember, it is also called "the Bread Basket" of the entire country. Those pig farmers, and corn farmers, and wheat farmers, who are all taking it in the shorts just now, are the very same people who feed us.
What do you think it will mean, later this spring, when there are no crops in the ground and all the $$$ that would go to fix this is going to build a wall. The government ended the shut down, not because they cared about us, they realized that it is "Tax Season" and they needed us to pay our taxes. The next shut down is about to come at a very bad time.
1
Donald Trump wanted a national emergency -- now he's got a real one.
85
@N. Smith
Trump IS our national emergency.
5
@Odysseus
Touche! --
1
I suggest we UN-declare the emergency on the southern border and redirect the billions of wall dollars to relieve and rebuild in the flooded areas of the middle west.
43
I had always thought of climate change as something that would more dramatically impact the coastal states but clearly that is not the case. All those red states, whose voters consistently put climate change deniers in office, are going to be just as devastated by the effects of climate change. By the time they figure it out it will be too late, or perhaps it already is.
61
@Ginger Waltersi am just one of the politically active blue people who lives in the middle of the purple in the red state of southeastern SD. I’m not denying the deniers that live around me however, please do not generalize. I find it offensive and unhelpful. I might be in a small minority out here but like Texas, things are moving and changing. Some fighting support from other parts of the country to keep the change coming WOULD be helpful. ( hence the word United) I mean this with all my heart. I am a Midwesterner ( grew up in South Bend Indiana) and wouldn’t change where I live for anything. There are a lot of plusses to living in a state with only 800,000 people. Lots of room for walking, breathing and praying. I could go on but please just remember us and don’t underestimate us.
21
@Diana: Thanks for posting. Sadly, one aspect of the horrible natural disasters we see is that we all just need to wait our turn -- they affect all of us eventually.
6
This widespread flooding is the direct consequence of the bizarre behavior of the much denied climate change .
Ignorance , incredulity and skepticism are ruining the heartland of the country.
26
@inter nos
So Red Florida is telling Blue Minnesota that Minnesota has bizarre behavior? No, I get what you are trying to say...Wisconsin is the bizarre one.
Rather, I'd look at the situation this way; in the past there was always a build around to the seasonal flooding. Federal policy attempting to tame navigation channels worked until it didn't, farmers drained low lands to increase tillable land, as the population increased the related infrastructure required paved surfaces, and land planning was simply a way to develop land for the highest market value. The carbon thing has only been a recent talking point. [Minnesota's governor is proposing for the state to be 100% carbon neutral by 2050] So when all the conditions point to a difficult flood situation, the local people mobilize and do the best they can and in the aftermath hope that other's help as they can and that we all learn from our past mistakes.
If I was living in Florida, I'd simply think of this as a different kind of hurricane... We are all in this together. Oh, and Wisconsin is a great place to live.
1
@David
The bizarre behavior is related to climate change , not each individual state .
Minnesota is on top of my list for best State .
I am an European spending the winters in Florida and I totally agree with you that Florida “ the red “ is playing with climate change without taking seriously the threat of hurricanes.
Pretty soon Florida will mostly be underwater and they keep on building in flood designated zones .
2
@inter nos
Nebraska produces 10% of its energy from wind power. Is this the bizarre behavior you are talking about?
The latest new normal from climate change. And the worst flooding is in Trump country. When people refuse to vote in their self-interest, the very survival, you wonder if there's any chance we can reverse global warming.
25
Will voters in the Midwest who voted for Trump realize that he and the Republican Party are doing nothing to protect the people from these disasters?
29
Please vote for a real progressive candidate ( not a phony corporate shill ) in 2020 who is truly serious about a green new deal and ending the suicidal grip of the fossil fuel industry. What we're seeing now is just a preview. We should have started a green energy program 20 years ago...our children deserve a future.
37
@Greg
A mini version of green new deal failed in Vermont. Emissions are up 16%. Need a carbon tax right now. No whining no waiting.
1
Well, I am waiting for it. ALL of the states that voted for Trump are flooding. A friend of mine lives in the area of California that recently flooded and FEMA did not declare it a disaster area. Florida got hit with the biggest hurricane ever and there is very. very little by way of Federal help. What are all those folks in the newly flooded areas going to do now that all their tax breaks are gone while corporations and the "elite 2%" are still getting theirs. Just what are those Trump supporters going to do when all the $$$ needed to help them through this is going to build Trump's wall?
46
And yet for the last two decades environmentalists have pushed for elimination of dams in the Missouri River. They are really good at predictions and flood control.
3
@Shamrock
Some environmentalists pushed for a full accounting of the costs as well as the benefits of dam construction. The agencies that built them preferred to inflate the benefits while ignoring all but the direct costs of construction. Now increased flooding, caused in part by man-made climate change, has revealed the limits of the flood-control benefits. The hidden costs of dam construction, e.g. loss of floodplain wildlife habitat, are still being paid. What was your point again?
1
@Mal Adapted
Dams don’t control flooding? So much for science. We are all doomed if dams don’t help control flooding. It’s easy to read all of the environmentalists who have advocated destroying all of the existing dams on the Missouri. But hey who cares if they were wrong, it’s just a flood.
We need a planned, phased withdrawal from the floodplain. Whole towns need to be relocated. It will be very expensive and time consuming but it needs to be done.
It is sheer folly to think we can control what nature is going to do.
20
We may be entering a time when we return to migrant farm workers because it will be impossible to support towns continually subject to inundation. We will have hardened equipment barns built to float if necessary amidst an empty landscape like the Buffalo Commons. Industrial agriculture will swarm onto the land like locusts to plow and plant and then months later to harvest what can be salvaged. Barges will carry crops to dry lands for processing.
Our children remind us there is no Planet B. If our isolationist policies continue on, there will be no Country B either as our fashion models abandon high heels for galoshes on the runway.
Waterworld was a movie. This is real.
14
@Douglas McNeill
I get the idea, but the "buffalo commons" wouldn't be "buffalo commons" if it was swarmed by industrial agriculture. Bison need grassland, not cropland. They might be able to live there but you wouldn't have much in the way of crops for the migrant workers to harvest. And in any event migrant farm workers already harvest a pretty big percentage of the crops in an already increasingly industrial heartland. Remember Willie Nelson in "Honeysuckle Rose"?
5
Mr. Trump has decided that there is no connection between atmospheric carbon emissions and climate change. The President denies that the USA should or could do anything about climate change and wants to pull the USA out of the Paris Climate Accord. Recently, the FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT was released the by U.S. Global Change Research Program. It was funded by the federal government and involved thousands of scientists. It clearly states that climate change is real and is likely to cause adverse weather and flooding. The President was enraged when the report disagreed with his uninformed opinion on the matter. Perhaps those are being flooded out of their homes today and support Mr. Trump's policy towards climate change should reconsider their vote in 2020.
45
The constant political turmoil in Washington detracts from the important news that thousands of citizens are losing land and livelihood.Important infrastructure is being destroyed and will be costly to replace.Mr.Trump has tried to focus everyone on immigration and the southern border because it suits his narrative that there are people we should be afraid of.The ravages of climate are way more terrifying and disruptive to our way of life-we are losing homes, schools, roads, bridges and acres of farmland which we depend on for our food supply.This is what I call a crisis!
52
prime farmland that will not be viable for this year's planting/growing season; leading to more bankruptcies of those farmers who are already drowning in debt, leading to more suicides.
this is where the country's true emergency is.
and where is dotard when he's not attending fundraisers -- spending days upon days in his compound in mar-a-lago.
43
No more federal aid to states without an income tax. They should use their rainy day fund before we steal blue state dollars to fund projects from states that refuse to tax and plan.
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@Deirdre
Yeah, I felt the same way when NJ was sponging off federal relief for Sandy...
Never build on a flood plane. That is how they got to be called flood planes.
25
@Penseur
I agree. Never build on a floodplain.
6
@mark: Yep, that's the correct spelling! I should know better. I grew up in a town subject to floods along the river bank and was always happy that our house was farther up the hill. In later life I only bought houses that were high and dry, even examining the basement on rainy days before buying.
6
A range of critically necessary infrastructures- roads, bridges, dams, etc.- which enable types, levels, and qualities of daily coping, adapting, and functioning, by individuals and a range of interacting wellbeing-lifestyle-systems are already beyond being "at- risk." Relevant data, analyzed and derived, documenting information and created levels, types, and qualities of understanding are available and accessible. Additional relevant questions, coded as "Attribution Science," "Probabilistic Event Attribution" are being queried. Levels of risk to diverse humans, environments, and ranges of additional systems are being raised. Explored. At the same time, in a range of places, that documentable realities are being denied. Distorted. By influential individual and systemic policy makers-breakers who state what they state. Do and undo. As they choose to. With impunity. Unconstrained floods, anticipated as well as not, are flooding. As an unneeded wall to block a virtual political dimensionalized "emergency" is being demanded.By documentable-"personally-unaccountables."
"The center will not hold." Waters rise. Temperatures rise both higher and lower than previously documented.Our globe is at risk.Unaccountability is NOT! All of this enabled by each of US. Alone asnd with others. Gifted with an option, daily, to "Fail better." We seem to choose to fail worse. And worsER. "25 [political-geographical] States..."How many states of failure? How many states of unaccountability?
4
Woo! Imagine how much worse it would be if climate change and global warming weren't fake news and phony! (Sarcasm intended!)
We are seeing the hard and fast real results of Republicanism, pushing money to the wealthy, ending sane pollution control measures, and less-than-benign neglect of infrastructure. Rick Wilson's book is "Everything Trump Touches, Dies" but here we're seeing it's much vaster than that. And it's not new. From Hurricane Katrina to today, we're seeing the deadly results of their consistent policies, denials, and assertions of "alternative facts" (ie, lies).
Here in the Northeast, we suffered greatly as Republicans extorted cuts they long wanted in social welfare programs and regulations in return for Sandy disaster money, something NEVER done to catastrophes in THEIR states!
You cannot undo decades of neglect overnight when the disaster hits. If you and everyone else refuses to support your local fire department, you have a lot of chutzpah complaining when they can't keep your house from burning down!
26
I am outraged on a daily basis by President Bonespurs and his Twitter tantrums. But what upsets me most about this administration is its policies when it comes to taking care of the planet. The Republican Party was already the Know Nothing Party when it came to these issues, but has gotten worse under its current leader.
While Rome burned Nero fiddled; while America drowns, Trump tweets.
49
Nature dosen't always go at a steady pace, it sometime charges ahead with a sickening jolt! We are out of time and need to do something real for the people in these flood areas NOW. Where is all our country's wealth going? We need new infrastructure NOW. How about our politicians start caring about THIS country. Not one penny should be going to any other country until the people of the U.S. are fully taken care of! It's absurd! Who tells their family, sorry I know our shabby roof is about to fall on us, but I must give our money elsewhere!
11
We need to update the metaphor of Nero fiddling while Rome burned: Trump tweeted while America drowned.
There’s a remarkable correlation between a state voting to put a climate change denier into the presidency, and that state about to be flooded.
This is a true national emergency, but our president is focused on a fake emergency on the southern border, and his sick need to obsessively attack a dead American hero.
31
It's okay. Climate Change isn't real and this is all normal.
(The voters of these states have, with their votes, said so over and over again.)
23
Thank goodness climate change is a Chinese hoax; otherwise, I'd be quite worried, as I live in one of the 25 states. But our narcissist-in-chief has assured us this is all a hoax, despite making adaptive changes to his golf resorts for climate change.
63
This is the real emergency. It points to the real threat from an incompetent president with poorly or not at all well staffed federal agencies.
Joint National Guard exercises should be conducted and civilian drills should be mandated. As it is, doubtless in a few months bureaucrats, the president included, will just be standing around offering prayers, lamenting how nothing could be done. Who would have guessed that weather is becoming so pernicious!
The Iowa floods may have been prevented with temporary levees. A comparison of the cost of these levees versus the cost of not having them should be tabulated. Somewhere in there the opportunity cost of the border wall versus real climate change mitigation is fundamental to the picture of a country starting to flounder and flail.
Finally of interest, biologists know that organisms have thresholds of stress they can withstand. Once the stress level goes beyond this threshold, they die. This country can withstand levels of weather (and other) disasters. Rebuilding can actually be an economic stimulus, but after a threshold is reached, when there is no Home Depot left (it too is leveled), we become Mozambique (or Puerto Rico) ourselves. We, I suggest, with our current climate change denying and foolish federal government are headed there.
16
Debating climate change/global warming is tantamount to the ancient discussion of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin; at this point, it no longer matters. The effects are upon us and it's likely too late to staunch this slow rolling disaster, which will indeed be of epic proportions.
So let's stop the debate and turn to mitigation, because I fear that's all we've got left.
27
@Clyde That's like lung cancer patient going in for a treatment while puffing on a cigarette. You can't mitigate while adding fuel to the fire.
2
Its one disaster after another. And a very large number of the people effected will never rebuild or recover. What then?
7
One day we might be the migrants of the future. Where will we go? Will we be welcome with open arms?
As we continue to fuel climate change these seemingly isolated catastrophes (wildfires of California, flooding of the Midwest and coastal regions, expansion of tornado alley, enlarging pockets of drought etc.) will have consequential domino effects.
Destruction of farmland, entire towns, pollution of water sources, and deadly weather will result in food and water shortages, habitable land shortages etc.
But hey, let’s live like there is no tomorrow because maybe that is just what we are in for.
14
Yes climate change is real. What needs to be discussed is the hardening of coastal zones pushing floods further inland. Problem easily solved. Instead of insurers paying out to build the same house destroyed by flood waters multiple times your paid out and rebuilding is not permitted and the area is replanted. A moratorium on all building in coastal zones. The problem must be dealt with on multiple fronts and you just can’t tax or wish your way out of it
13
Note how nothing is making the news from the climate deniers, their not preaching to high heaven anymore there's no climate change. All quiet there, and in the months and years to come there will be continued silence from the deniers.
Because climate change is upon us, and much of it caused by humans, and we're all going to pay dearly for it if we don't get off our duffs! I'm reading "The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells. It is absolutely frightening.
70
And this is just flooding :/ Unfortunately/fortunately a lot of the effects will be experienced by states with high percentages of climate change deniers, so maybe we'll start to see some shifting there.
29
Since we now know that Natural disasters will influence the future of our country so much, what will the so called leaders do about it before it is too late to stem the tide? Try electing people who recognize climate change and the reality of science. Spend as much money on sensible infrastructure as on any other domestic need. I do not fear for myself but the next generation and the ones after. A dystopian future may not science fiction.
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@S. Mitchell
"... before it is too late to stem the tide …"
It is already too late. Global warming and climate change is already on a roll, ramping up, and is already baked in for decades to come.
3
Has a Federal Disaster Zone been issued yet, in the widespread area where many farmers were flooded out, last week? It seems to me like the Trump Administration is ignoring the problem, from many angles.
45
Interesting to read about the use of Attribution science to model the extent of the role of climate change on extreme weather patterns. Look forward to reading more in-depth articles on the application of these methodologies in developing a better understanding of the cause and effects of global warming.
25