31
Mar
Why you’re paying for everyone’s flood insurance
Two members of the Natural Resources Defense Council explain how the taxpayers, coastal homeowners and climate change are all connected.
31
Mar
Why you’re paying for everyone’s flood insurance
Two members of the Natural Resources Defense Council explain how the taxpayers, coastal homeowners and climate change are all connected.
29
Nov
Grand Canyon flood brings back beaches
The goal of flood was to help restore wildlife habitats inside Grand Canyon.
14
Nov
Venice submerged by record-breaking flooding
A family wading through a flooded Venetian street wear trash bags around their legs to keep dry on Nov. 11 during an ‘Acqua Alta’ in Venice. In some areas of Venice, the flood water has reached 5 feet — the 6th highest level since records began in 1872. This is the 4th time since 2000 that Venice has been submerged by record high flood water.
05
Sep
Laser imaging captures Hurricane Isaac flooding in 3-D
The technology used is similar to radar but uses light waves instead of radio waves.
22
Aug
Climate vs. weather: Extreme events narrow doubts
Heatwaves, drought and floods that have struck for the third summer running are narrowing doubts that man-made warming is disrupting Earth’s climate.
21
Feb
Ready, set, float: Amphibious House gets go-ahead in U.K.
Designed for when climate change rears its ugly head and those lovely views of the Thames become threatening, the Amphibious House rises from its foundations and floats when overcome with floodwaters.
27
Jan
TVA piles sand bags on top of dams to try to prevent flooding. Nuclear Regulatory Commission balks at shoddy, temporary fix with high stakes nuclear power plants. The first climate-related nuclear power plant shut down occurred very recently, only in 2007(!). Since then, there have been, by my count, five more climate related nuclear power plant shut downs in the US.
These shut downs occurred for two reasons, drought and floods. Nuclear power plants depend on a large water source to cool the reactors down. When the water source, usually a lake or big river, runs too low and too hot, the power plant has to shut down. Same precaution occurs when there is a flood - the plants have to shut down for safety purposes.
These climate issues were not anticipated in the original designs of the plants. Now the plants are vulnerable to climate impacts, threatening human health and the environment with a serious radiation disaster. See my previous posts on nuclear plant shut downs in the U.S. here, here, and here.
The TVA manages several nuclear power plants in the southeast U.S. They’ve begun to try to control droughts and flooding with what seems to be a patch work or short-term fixes, such as sand bags. The Tennessean newspaper reports:
“Sand baskets that the Tennessee Valley Authority installed at dams to protect its nuclear plants from a worst-case flood could fail, according to a federal nuclear oversight group.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the baskets are not capable of standing up to the impact of debris barreling down the Tennessee River in a massive flood.
“There is potential for this debris to damage the baskets or push the individual baskets apart, causing a breach,” an NRC letter dated Wednesday to TVA says. “There would be no time to repair the baskets because the flood would already be in progress.”
Still, the baskets are considered adequate for the short term.
The sand-filled, wire mesh baskets were placed around Cherokee, Fort Loudon, Tellico and Watts Bar dams and earthen embankments to raise them a few feet after it was determined.”
05
Dec
Web helps Bangkok’s flood-hit pets find relief
Tens of thousands of pets and stray cats and dogs have been stranded as water levels rise in Thailand.
30
Nov
Australia experienced record flooding in late 2010 and early 2011, after unusually heavy rains washed through the landscape after many years of drought. Pictured here is Queensland, Australia, before and after flooding. The water is usually black in this kind of image, but the sediments from the river tainted them blue in this 2011 post-flood photo from NASA.
Aftermath of 7 natural disasters as seen from space
You don’t want to miss this: We’ve got before-and-after images from 7 natural disasters on Earth captured from space.
04
Nov
A zebra wades through the recently flooded Safari World in Bangkok, Thailand on Nov. 2. Safari World, which has been open since 1986, has been forced to move some of their animals to higher ground as floodwaters flowed into the park overnight.
MNN’s photos of the week
via climateadaptation