Categories
Climate Change Weather

Water Report

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

The area near Rocheport put out a request for volunteers to begin sandbagging. I had to take Zoe into vet today and couldn’t go. To be honest, I doubt I’d be able to keep up for that long, anyway. I can lift 50 pounds without a problem. I doubt I could do it for hours at a time.

There’s a very calm and controlled attitude about the coming “Wave of Water” as it’s being called. Some communities are vulnerable, and these are being evacuated and sandbagged. However, after the 1993 flood, this state learned its lesson. Many of the homes that were in bottom land or flood prone areas were bought out and turned into open areas where flooding won’t be a problem. Levees were raised, and floodwalls and gates installed in other areas. We could hit close to the 1993 levels on the Missouri but have no where near the damage. Water will overrun highways in certain areas, but business and homes should, for the most part, be safe. Unfortunately, crop land is going to be impacted. I would hate to be a farmer this year.

However, if we get to a certain level, and it’s borderline whether we’ll get to that level, larger communities such as St. Charles do run a real risk of extensive flood damage.

The Missouri and other rivers rising to flood levels are enough to impact the Mississippi, but it shouldn’t rise to a risk level–no more than moderate flood level, which isn’t that unusual. The levees and the floodwalls should be enough to contain it.

Our home is inland, and the only thing that could threaten it is if the Mississippi rises to the ’93 levels. Water levels that high would send water into the River Des Peres drainage channel and that could pose a real risk to our area. However, that’s not a threat with the current expected levels.

In the next few days, I’m going to try and get some photos of the rising waters, though I may run into road blocks. However, there’s so many areas where one can get close to the rivers that I doubt all will be blocked. I’ve not seen the Missouri or Mississippi at flood levels. They’re such magnificent rivers anyway, I can’t imagine how they’ll be 10 or more feet above their normal levels.

Categories
JavaScript

Ajax is dead. Not it’s not.

I love how the marketing folks put a spin on things every time there’s an announcement from one of the Players. This time it’s Java’s turn for the RIA space with the introduction of JavaFX. Immediately people are talking about ‘Ajax killer’. It’s no more an Ajax killer than Flash was (actually, Ajax and Flash are quite compatible), or Silverlight.

This one cracked me up:

The advantage Java-connected scripting language has over others, such as Ruby, PHP or Python, is that Java programmers can easily transfer their skills and knowledge. Moving from Java to another language like JavaScript, which is often used for Ajax applications, “is like moving to another foreign land,” Monson-Haefel said.

I used to program in Java before Sun et al bloated it out of recognition. I had no problem working with JavaScript. I guess today’s crop of Java developers isn’t very versatile.

Sun has also said it will open source JavaFX. What does that mean? Microsoft and Adobe are also talking about ‘open sourcing’ select pieces of their infrastructures. Seems to me there’s as many variations of ‘open source’ in this market as there is ice cream flavors at Baskin’s & Robbins.

JavaFX does seem to have a head start into the mobile market, but it’s behind the other players, which are at least on the street. However, it also has a built-in audience, as there is a lot of Java developers. Of course, same could be said about Silverlight and Adobe’s Flex.

I’ve not found, though, that companies that use Java for their applications are the most forward looking and ‘on the edge’ development environments. In my opinion (note I said, ‘in my opinion’), Java is the most conservative web development environment. Web Sphere, nuff said.

One thing for sure: RIA is the hot market this year. Adjust your resumes accordingly.

Categories
Weather

Rainy Day

The storms in the Midwest have killed people in Kansas, and now we’re looking at flooding from the Missouri river.

Thankfully, we’re not at the rain levels that led to the Great Flood of 1993. Then again, we’re still looking at more rain, and more stalled storms.

rainy day

Categories
Places

Press release Monday and Johnson’s: an epilogue

St. Louis Post-Dispatch brought in its “All of you are embarrassing Missouri” spanking paddle, and it would seem all parties are going to behave. Nixon’s office did issue a comment–it only received the investigative report on April 20th from the Highway Patrol. Now the Attorney General’s office can proceed with facts in hand.

The Southeast Missourian is about the only site that actually covered Lt. Governor Kinder’s visit. About the so-called Grand Masterplan:

Childers, in a letter sent Monday to Ameren, demanded the company immediately begin implementing a park master plan for redevelopment — something that Ameren contends goes beyond a mere restoration of the park. The plan, for example, includes a visitor center, a tourist overlook of the damaged area and relocated roads and camping facilities.

“We will restore the park to the original configuration without any settlement. But enhancements, that’s when we think we need a settlement discussion,” Voss said.

This is the first I’ve heard, at least, where the balking point is, and Ameren has a good point. It promised to repair the Shut-Ins after the breach, not invest in a whole new upgrade. As it is, there’s been a great deal of disagreement about the Grand Plan. Yes, the public was given chances to comment on such, but commenting on the plan lasted only ten days and was more of a formality, rather than a true discussion. Now would be a good time to re-visit the “Grand Masterplan”.

About the early opening:

The park reopened temporarily last summer partly so tourists could see the disaster area. But Ameren’s plan for this summer could do more harm than good, said the department’s deputy director, Kurt Schaefer.

“It would be the Griswold family vacation — people picnicking next to an aboveground sewage tank while it’s being pumped out,” Schaefer said. “You’re talking about people who are going to have a bad experience and never come back there.”

Now that is a very good point. It’s also the first time we’ve had a chance to hear more of these details. More blog reaction here and here.

A lot of people acted silly with this, and used the DNR and this event to further political agendas. However, that counts little to the folks of Missouri when compared to a baseball player getting killed in a car accident. It’s tragic when a young man is killed, but there’s much about how this state is governed that is related to this story. It really is important news, but I guess it doesn’t have that ’emotional’ hook. Well, other than to people who love the park and the Ozarks.

I am sorry for the folks who love the area and Johnson’s Shut-Ins, because it sounds like the rebuild plans are really mucking up both the park and the Ozarks trail. Hopefully over time, the park ‘improvements’ will eventually be truly improved and the Shut-Ins will once again be a jewel in Missouri’s crown of wonders, and a delight to those who love her.

As for the personalities associated with this event, I guess as long as ’emotional’ issues grab attention here in the “Show Me” state, the politicians needn’t worry about being accountable for their actions.

Categories
Places

Reason at Taum Sauk

It would seem that after the jumping up and down last week, our state officials are working together to come up with a proposal to put before Ameren in regards to the Taum Sauk dam failure.

Jay Nixon, the Attorney General, sent a letter to Ameren with a list of items his department stated Ameren would have to meet. Doyle Childers of the DNR read the letter and found it reasonable. This is good. This is an agreement between state officials, which will provide the ‘single source of communication’ that Ameren has been demanding.

Among the items in the letter Nixon sent:

  • Spend $350 million rebuilding the Taum Sauk reservoir, including state of the art safety facilities.
  • Continue to make tax payments to the county while the rebuild is underway
  • Not pass the costs of the restoration on to the customers

This, I’m assuming, would be in addition to the demands put forth by the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Conservation. These include right of ways, as well as the funds to clean up the Black River, reimburse the people of the immediate community, account for future problems and cleanup, as well as rebuild Johnson’s.

All total, this sounds like it will cost well over half a billion dollars. However, it also sounds like Ameren would get away without any criminal charges, and the company must want that.

It is in the best interests of everyone — Ameren, DNR, DOC, the AG office, the people of Reynolds County and the rest of the state–for this to move forward swiftly. All of us are exhausted by this event.