We’ve been lucky this summer and had relatively mild weather. However, this week our luck has run out, as we contemplate heat index readings over 115 degrees (46 celsius).
Stay cool.
Category: Weather
Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
From MarketWatch, in light of today’s Hurricane Dolly landfall along the Texas/Mexican border:
As Hurricane Dolly bears down on the Texas Rio Grande Valley, the chairman of the Texas Border Coalition (TBC) today protested construction of the border wall by the Department of Homeland Security during the hurricane season and urged the government to refocus its efforts on rebuilding the levees that should protect the people of the Valley.
“It is unbelievably foolish for the government to be attempting to destroy and rebuild the Rio Grande River levees in the middle of hurricane season,” said Eagle Pass Mayor and TBC Chairman Chad Foster. “The footings of the levees are being destroyed in the construction process so that the Department of Homeland Security can erect 18-foot concrete walls in their place. It is incredibly short-sighted that the government would open the levees at the same time that the danger is highest for devastating floods in the middle of hurricane season.”
Illegal immigration is a big thing here in Missouri, for some unknown reason. Like the folks in Texas, we are also more at risk for floods than the possibility that some terrorist will cross over the border between Mexico and the US.
Dolly is set to hit directly on the border between the US and Mexico, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Along the Rio Grande are the colonias, including Cameron Park outside of Brownsville, considered the poorest community in the US. The people there make an average of $4,000, annually. Most live in shacks without electricity and running water, on land sold by shady developers who promised these hard working people a decent community with all the utilities, took their money, and then skipped town.
What’s sadder, is this is the community that now President Bush wouldn’t visit, or even acknowledge, when he was governor of Texas.
Ignored then. Ignored now.
Looks like someone forgot to pay the domain renewal fee at Weather Underground:
update
The Weather Underground issued the following statement:
Hello Wunderground users. We first want to apologize for the connectivity issues that many of you are or have been experiencing. The problems were caused when someone at our domain name registrar inadvertently made a change to our domain name record. This essentially means that in the yellow pages of the Internet, they got our address wrong. Most people were left unable to the find our site and were instead presented with our registrar’s default page.
We’ve been working frantically here trying to do anything we could to minimize the damage. We’ve just received word that in about 2 hours most of the connectivity should be restored thanks to some quick work by our registrar. In the meantime if you’re in contact with individuals who cannot access the site through the wunderground.com domain name, please let them know that they can still access the site through weatherunderground.com.
Amazing how vulnerable we are to a slip in the DNS, eh?
Categories
After the floods
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The Great River Road is re-opening in Illinois, much to the relief of folks in towns like Grafton, which are dependent on the summer tourist trade. In fact, if you’re looking for a summer activity that doesn’t require you to drive too far, a visit to some of the towns cut off because of the flood would not only be fun for you, it would help these towns recover the losses they’ve suffered the first few months of summer.
Not every place is ready to open for business. The folks on the Missouri side, at Winfield, are asking for donations of cleaning supplies, drinks, and snacks at various local firehouses in the St. Louis area. Cash donations are also accepted if you don’t live in the local area. Energy drinks would be particularly welcome, as the weather is hot and humid, and when you sweat a lot, you have to replace the lost potassium and electrolytes. If you plan on donating supplies, you might want to call, first, to find out what is most needed.
The Missouri Humane Society is really hurting for cash, and needs donations. The organization has already overspent its budget rescuing critters from the floods, and providing temporary housing for pets of flood victims. In addition, the Society is overrun by cats and dogs (and other animals) that now need a new home. Summer is actually not a bad time to adopt a new pet— you have plenty of time to become acquainted
Categories
Stories week of June 27
Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
second update Unfortunately the Hesco barrier erected by the National Guard failed. Though I admire the tenacity of the Guard, I’m not surprised the barriers failed.
Winfield is now, more or less, cut off, and many homes will, unfortunately, be damaged. How many, no one knows for sure at this time. The town gave it their all, but the Mississippi is one big river.
update This NECN in Boston shows how fast the water flows through a levee break, and how widespread the flooding is now. The National Guard is disheartened by the break, as they worked on the levee for nine days. This levee was also the destination for the sand bags I helped fill.
The flood crest has been raised at St. Louis, and there’s a possibility of flooding south of Lemay Ferry Road from River Des Peres. This is the drainage river that runs through St. Louis, and is also the waterway that puts us most at risk during a flood. However, the Mississippi would have to crest about 13 feet higher to put us at risk.
We will have to rethink how we manage our waterways in the future. We can’t keep putting our fingers in the dike, and hoping for the best.
The last levee in Lincoln County still holding back the water breached this morning. I don’t think anyone was surprised when a sand boil, a mix of water and sand, appeared in the side, signaling that water was undercutting the foundation of the levee. The folks in Winfield and surrounding areas made a mighty effort to save the levee, but it was not enough.
The waters should be cresting this weekend, though we have more rain in both the Mississippi’s upper river basin, and along the Missouri river basin. Whether this means the flooding will continue hasn’t yet been determined.
Another major event impacting on St. Louis is the InBev offer for our local, beloved Anheuser-Busch. A-B, the largest beer company in the US, has remained in control by family members to this day, and has been an important St. Louis and Missouri business. A-B is very generous to the community; many members of the family are very active environmentalists; from all accounts the company is a good employer— well, needless to say, no one wants InBev to buy the company but greedy, rapacious stock holders.
We’ve already had warnings from employees in other countries where InBev has made acquisitions, and left a swath of destruction in its path. By all accounts, InBev is only interested in profits and power, not a legacy.
This week, A-B turned down the offer, and InBev has already made the opening move of a hostile take over. Hopefully the A-B people can hold their own, but this war will leave this community scarred. The only way that A-B might be able to hold off the bid is by decreasing costs and increasing profits, both of which could mean the end of our gentle neighbor, regardless of who owns the company. I would wish InBev in Missouri…right in the middle of the Mississippi river.
Lastly, St. Louis’ Archbishop Burke is leaving for a position in Rome. Burke’s four year tenure here has been marked by disruption and antagonism, as Burke trounced Catholic presidential candidate Kerry for supporting choice with abortion, excommunicated the members of the St. Stanislaus Kostka, just because the church members wanted to control their own property, and condemned one of the local rabbis for opening her arms to women wanting to be ordained as Catholic priests. Burke has also skirted perilously close to crossing the line in allowable political activity, going just far enough to try to influence local and national elections, but without endangering the church tax exempt status.
I am not surprised at Burke’s appointment to Rome, and wrote not long ago that he had ambitions beyond St. Louis. I am, also, not disappointed at Burke’s leaving, though whether the man appointed in his place will be any better for the community is hard to say.