Governor Inslee should tour the Midwest and talk to the people. There isn't a person alive that has witnessed this level of flooding. With the levees so badly effected, the flooding is due to last for a month or more.
The team of USGS and the US Army Corp. have done a first rate job in flood control. But, the climate crisis has increased the threat exponentially. This time, between rain and snow melt the capacity can't be contained. At this point with a country that denied the existence of the climate crisis for decades the best the federal agencies can do is tell people to get out of the way. There is NO preparation for this and there very well could have been. As a matter of fact, if the climate crisis was addressed long ago, this would not be happening.
There very well may be significant soil loss that will effect crop production. The USA has an incredible capacity to produce food, but, every year there are more and different problems. Last year the problem was getting on the fields because they were so wet the combines would have sunk in the mud.
This weather pattern may last for a while. There needs to be a complete assessment of the continuing weather patterns, near shore storms and what they are doing to the USA coast line and there are the devastating storms that destroy infrastructure with Category 5 winds. The tornado season is no longer a season, but, a year round event.
The approach by the USA to date is to treat each disaster as if it were unique. There is no comprehensive picture or plan. The USA is way behind the 8 ball and we need to desperately catch up. I guarantee you if you ask any US Senator what their plan is for farmland now under water and unable to produce, they will say they don't have such a plan. It is ridiculous that Wall Street is enjoying billions of dollars thrown at them and the USA doesn't even have a plan to feed the people in the face of the climate crisis.
The US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Purdue is doing his level best to put organic farmers out of business. Many are USA Veterans. These farms may very well be the answer to food production and Trump wants them out of business. There are fools in Washington, DC, and no one will call it what it is, complete negligence of the danger facing Americans every day.
The USGS (click here) is pleased to announce the beginning of new water-data station pages on waterdata.usgs.gov, our flagship Water Data for the Nation. Real-time water data are shown on these pages, and they can be found from existing pages:
But the existing pages you have come to rely upon will not be altered or decommissioned for some time, not until we are certain we’ve conserved all essential functionality....
