Government leaders from Mayors to Governors should consider forming QUALIFIED citizens board and/or advisory council to monitor structures that cause hardship and catastrophe.
There are highly qualified people within existing conservation groups that can be empowered to protect their communities.
In particular water structures that can flood when normally have no history, can be dredged to create deeper structures to handle large volumes of water.
Western North Carolina is among the worst eruption of water damage in modern history. It occurred nearly undetected because loose shales became water logged and started a slide downhill. Until that manifested never in anyone’s imagination was that going to happen. And why? Because those beautiful, beloved mountains were covered in well rooted trees. The roots held until the torrential rain saturated the soils and floated those trees into instability.
We know what the amount of water coming out of the sky with the forming and approaching storms. We can’t stop the tornadoes as Earth’s air masses continue to heat, but, we can attempt to stem the severity of the flooding.
There are not enough employees to continue to build protections from the climate crisis. We cannot continue to sacrifice our people to a country that refuses to recognize the disaster of the climate crisis. We must take these challenges on to protect our communities.
Conservation organizations know their local habitats. They know the depth of their water structures. They know the history of their natural world. That knowledge is invaluable to know how best to protect their communities. I see PREVENTIVE assessments as a priority of any elected local and state authorities. Empower communities to organize survival standards that protect the community while building natural structures such as forests to soak up CO2.
Assessments should include understanding ANY greenhouse gas emissions in the local area. The states can start to assist local government budgets for protecting communities. Dredging water structures should be considered a priority even with waterways with a well behaved history.
The USGS and Army Corps study these flooding episodes. They could contribute to a local assessment if needed or asked. I sincerely believe flood maps are not anticipating disaster to an ever growing danger.
The climate crisis is NOT STATIC.
The climate crisis must be addressed. It is no longer an option. Loss of life, including intractable heat, is growing and that is completely unacceptable. Generations are looking at a future destroyed in ways that today can be stopped. We have a responsibility to them more so than ourselves.