Floods

After a series of severe storms Tuesday caused extreme flooding, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has declared a state of emergency in Buchanan County. Initial reports indicate more than 100 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Representatives with the Army Corps of Engineers met with Wilson County officials on Tuesday to discuss area floodplains and how the county can more effectively stand up against damaging flood scenarios.

The state is working on deploying a Hydrology Information Center like the one in Iowa, after a period of severe drought followed by unprecedented flooding, to get a handle on the trend of warmer, wetter weather.

To mitigate the effects of climate change and environmental racism that impact certain hotter and more polluted areas of the city, a group in Stockton, Calif., has secured funding from a state grant program.

Instead of sandbags, a nearly 2,000-foot-long temporary wall of boxes made of chain-link, lined with fabric and filled with gravel, was placed between the highway and the railroad tracks for flood protection.

One at a time, community members stepped up to a microphone to confront state, county and city decision-makers with difficult questions about what could have been done to reduce the impact of the mid-November storm.

Hawaii’s rains will continue as long as the stream of moisture through the atmosphere continues to drag over the islands. Residents have been warned to stay away from “streams, rivers, drainage ditches and culverts.”

After already spending a year learning remotely during the pandemic, students and educators at the middle and high school in New Jersey went back to the same virtual pattern after the town was rocked by the remnants of Ida.

A growing body of research shows that storms are growing stronger faster, a trend that will challenge coastal cities’ ability to safely move residents out of danger zones — and climate change may be a factor.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in Whatcom and Skagit counties, as well as the Olympic Peninsula, all areas that recorded as much as 4.5 inches of rainfall between noon Saturday and noon Sunday.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee promised to use state and federal funds — including funds from President Biden's recent infrastructure bill — to ease the effects of climate change.

The proposed budget includes several resilience efforts that, when put together, show an approach where the state will try to help local governments better prepare themselves for future flooding.

County responders are comparing this flood event to the severe flooding of 2009, when both the Skagit and Samish rivers overflowed and caused damage to homes, farms and infrastructure, according to a news release from the county.

Power was out in the border town of Sumas and at scattered locations throughout Whatcom County as breezy winds and torrential rain from a Pineapple Express swept Western Washington on Monday, Nov. 15.

Communities along south Baltimore’s Middle Branch of the Patapsco River have long benefited from the waterfront but are now facing increasing risk of flooding and the negative effects of the warming climate.

The lawmakers say their goal is to ensure the program is sustainable financially, accountable to taxpayers and affordable to policyholders. The bill will place guardrails on FEMA's new Risk Rating 2.0. system.

A new radar system promises to improve weather predictions, providing additional warning time to prevent flooding and more accurate forecasts for heavy rainfall, down to a specific low-lying highway or neighborhood.

That money will pay for a checklist of items, including assessing erosion at the toe of the earthen dam caused by seepage, evaluating gaps in metal sheet piling, installing survey monuments and assessing underwater components.