We’ve discussed earthquakes and Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast, but it doesn’t stop there. One disaster that frequently accompanies the storm surge created by hurricanes and the accompanying heavy rains is floods. A flood occurs when water inundates or overflows land that is normally dry. This definition does not include tsunamis and storm surges. Floods can result from many causes, including torrential rains and dam and levee breaks. They can occur suddenly or due to conditions built up over days, meaning advance warning is sometimes possible. Floods …
As tornadoes and flooding torment the Midwest, citizens are working together to protect the cities and towns they call home. But that’s no average Joe in this photo — it’s Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. So with five states under federal disaster declarations since the beginning of June alone, what’s wrong with this picture? Though DHS has acknowledged the disaster scale of the Midwest flooding isn’t as the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, requirements of the recovery effort are massive. DHS and Chertoff have a lot on their plate. Is shoveling sand in Waterloo, Iowa, really where …
Gas prices have already hit $4 a gallon nationally with no relief in sight. Given the flooding in the Midwest and the federal mandate that ethanol must be blended with gasoline before sale to consumers, the pain at the pump could only get worse. The floods could create upward pressure on gas prices in two distinct ways: 1.) As Stephen Schork, editor of The Schork Report in Philadelphia, emphasizes, “If we have prolonged rail and barge delays of getting Midwest ethanol to all the coast, then it will have an …
