Search Results for: repetitive loss

Tragedy on Main Street: six U.S. tales of repetitive loss.

Tragedy 1.a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster:stunned by the tragedy of so many deaths. 2.a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically involving a great person destined to experience downfall … Continue reading

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The Titanic…a poster child for Learning from Experience…and for Repetitive Loss

100 years ago last night, the passenger liner Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank two hours later. She carried over 2200 people – some of the world’s richest, and maybe 1000 of the poorest, the latter … Continue reading

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DFW Airport, hail, and repetitive loss

We’ve seen this tragedy before. Storms bearing hail and a spawning a dozen tornadoes tore through the Dallas-Fort Worth area on April 3. First, the good news. No…it’s not just good news. It’s great news. No fatalities reported as of … Continue reading

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Even as Helene’s high waters and media attention recede, the losses deepen.

As of this writing, it’s been two weeks since Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of the Florida coast and barreled inland, flooding a 500-mile-plus swath, most notably in Appalachian North Carolina. The known death toll, which … Continue reading

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Dorian.

Huge areal extent. High winds at the core (at times, category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale). Slow-moving, featuring long dwell time over endangered areas. Strong, prolonged storm surge.   Observations, numerical weather prediction and subsequent dissemination equipped the world to … Continue reading

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Floods, litigation…and social change?

Wednesday and Thursday, the American Meteorological Society hosted a policy workshop and held a Capitol Hill briefing, focused on the 2017 hurricane season here in the United States and the Caribbean[1], and on the need and opportunity to re-set U.S. … Continue reading

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Post-hurricane Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico. Part 3. Reframing

Weeks after the hurricanes have come and gone, Houston (and other parts of Texas), and cities and towns extending across Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, remain a blend of humanitarian crisis and recovery. Trash removal continues but … Continue reading

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Post-hurricane Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico? Bill Read weighs in…

Comments are largely out of sight in the blogosphere and too often are lost or unread as a consequence. They deserve better! That’s certainly the case with Bill Read’s comments on yesterday’s post. He makes three powerful points: (1) the … Continue reading

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Ratcheting-up America’s resilience to hazards.

Prologue: The daily news from Puerto Rico is excruciatingly tragic. A week after Hurricane Maria’s passage, some 3.5 million people are still picking their way through 3000 mi2 of debris in a search for food and water, and despair mounts. … Continue reading

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Time to hit the reset button on American weather-hazards policy?

Here is America’s weather-hazards policy in a nutshell[1]: React at times when weather outlooks and forecasts indicate danger. Shelter in place where practical; otherwise, save lives through emergency response, primarily evacuation. Start with action at the local level. Call in … Continue reading

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