Hurricane Florence

I remember discussing the hurricane rainfall and flood frequency issues just about a year ago when Hurricane Harvey nearly drowned Houston. Too much water in too short time – water as rainfall, water as storm surge, the reduced capacity of gravity drainage flow because of high sea level, etc. Or water for an extended period of time. And one should not be surprised if the scenario becomes a recurring problem – in years to come in all storm/hurricane prone countries.

If one goes into some gov websites, such as: https://msc.fema.gov/, https://www.usgs.gov/ and https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ one would find many assisting literature/advices on storm, flood zoning, frequency, vulnerability, etc. But somehow there remains a gap between the scientific understanding and caution, and the actual implementation of housing and other civil engineering projects. If such gap exists what are the reasons? Perhaps one may look into different factors like:

• Lack of adequate and realistic zoning, local codes and regulations – or enforcing them.
• Lack of public education and convincing, or in not taking account of their genuine concerns and experience (they have the first-hand knowledge of suffering and what happens to them).
• Lack of understanding of developers, civil bureaucrats, politicians and governing bodies – and applying their powers to override or veto scientific and engineering concerns, advices and cautions.
• Inadequacy of conventional flood and rainfall frequency estimate routines in light of the probable enhanced storminess and rainfalls due to climate change.
• Role of insurance companies in the decision-making processes.
• Incompetence of engineers in understanding the problem – and in taking care of all different factors during the planning, designing and implementation processes.

I remember discussing the hurricane rainfall and flood frequency issues just about a year ago when Hurricane Harvey nearly drowned Houston. Too much water in too short time – water as rainfall, water as storm surge, the reduced capacity of gravity drainage flow because of high sea level, etc. Or water for an extended period of time. And one should not be surprised if the scenario becomes a recurring problem – in years to come in all storm/hurricane prone countries.

If one goes into some gov websites, such as: https://msc.fema.gov/, https://www.usgs.gov/ and https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ one would find many assisting literature/advices on storm, flood zoning, frequency, vulnerability, etc. But somehow there remains a gap between the scientific understanding and caution, and the actual implementation of housing and other civil engineering projects. If such gap exists what are the reasons? Perhaps one may look into different factors like:

• Lack of adequate and realistic zoning, local codes and regulations – or enforcing them.
• Lack of public education and convincing, or in not taking account of their genuine concerns and experience (they have the first-hand knowledge of suffering and what happens to them).
• Lack of understanding of developers, civil bureaucrats, politicians and governing bodies – and applying their powers to override or veto scientific and engineering concerns, advices and cautions.
• Inadequacy of conventional flood and rainfall frequency estimate routines in light of the probable enhanced storminess and rainfalls due to climate change.
• Role of insurance companies in the decision-making processes.
• Incompetence of engineers in understanding the problem – and in taking care of all different factors during the planning, designing and implementation processes.

I remember discussing the hurricane rainfall and flood frequency issues just about a year ago when Hurricane Harvey nearly drowned Houston. Too much water in too short time – water as rainfall, water as storm surge, the reduced capacity of gravity drainage flow because of high sea level, etc. Or water for an extended period of time. And one should not be surprised if the scenario becomes a recurring problem – in years to come in all storm/hurricane prone countries.

If one goes into some gov websites, such as: https://msc.fema.gov/, https://www.usgs.gov/ and https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ one would find many assisting literature/advices on storm, flood zoning, frequency, vulnerability, etc. But somehow there remains a gap between the scientific understanding and caution, and the actual implementation of housing and other civil engineering projects. If such gap exists what are the reasons? Perhaps one may look into different factors like:

• Lack of adequate and realistic zoning, local codes and regulations – or enforcing them.
• Lack of public education and convincing, or in not taking account of their genuine concerns and experience (they have the first-hand knowledge of suffering and what happens to them).
• Lack of understanding of developers, civil bureaucrats, politicians and governing bodies – and applying their powers to override or veto scientific and engineering concerns, advices and cautions.
• Inadequacy of conventional flood and rainfall frequency estimate routines in light of the probable enhanced storminess and rainfalls due to climate change.
• Role of insurance companies in the decision-making processes.
• Incompetence of engineers in understanding the problem – and in taking care of all different factors during the planning, designing and implementation processes.

I remember discussing the hurricane rainfall and flood frequency issues just about a year ago when Hurricane Harvey nearly drowned Houston. Too much water in too short time – water as rainfall, water as storm surge, the reduced capacity of gravity drainage flow because of high sea level, etc. Or water for an extended period of time. And one should not be surprised if the scenario becomes a recurring problem – in years to come in all storm/hurricane prone countries.

If one goes into some gov websites, such as: https://msc.fema.gov/, https://www.usgs.gov/ and https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ one would find many assisting literature/advices on storm, flood zoning, frequency, vulnerability, etc. But somehow there remains a gap between the scientific understanding and caution, and the actual implementation of housing and other civil engineering projects. If such gap exists what are the reasons? Perhaps one may look into different factors like:

• Lack of adequate and realistic zoning, local codes and regulations – or enforcing them.
• Lack of public education and convincing, or in not taking account of their genuine concerns and experience (they have the first-hand knowledge of suffering and what happens to them).
• Lack of understanding of developers, civil bureaucrats, politicians and governing bodies – and applying their powers to override or veto scientific and engineering concerns, advices and cautions.
• Inadequacy of conventional flood and rainfall frequency estimate routines in light of the probable enhanced storminess and rainfalls due to climate change.
• Role of insurance companies in the decision-making processes.
• Incompetence of engineers in understanding the problem – and in taking care of all different factors during the planning, designing and implementation processes.