Floods
Alexandria, Virginia's waterfront was built on landfill below the natural elevation of the Potomac River. City officials hope to build new seawalls to protect that area from floods.
Greater Greater Washington
Levees can save towns, but they can also push water downstream making floods worse, meaning that if wealthier places are protected, it’s sometimes at the expense of poor communities.
ProPublica
Blog post
A playlist for those who seek inspiration from water—whether it's falling from the sky or running downhill.
Reflecting its reputation as the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota's highly developed water management infrastructure can be instructive for states facing frequent floods.
Brookings
"Daylighting" rivers in urban areas is the process of uncovering waterways to beautify cities, support habitats, and aid drainage.
The Guardian
Tree-huggers many of them are not, but there's consensus among Long Island developers that storm resilience is an investment worth making.
Newsday
Blog post
Swings in weather-related fortunes will continue to push to unprecedented extremes, in California, in Texas, in Boston, in Long Island, in Louisiana, and everywhere else.
Housing market pressures, flood insurance costs, changing FEMA maps, and improved methods of flood control are giving victims of flood damage in Louisiana mixed signals on how high they should rebuild their homes.
The Advocate (Louisiana)
The Houston Chronicle continues a series of feature articles about the persistent flooding of the region. The latest installment examines the tenuous position of the Addicks and Barker dams.
Houston Chronicle
We should have seen the historic flooding in the Florida Parishes region of Louisiana coming—both in preparation and in response—says a pair of recent articles.
The Conversation
Hindsight is 20-20, but so too sometimes is the foresight of geologists. That was the case prior to the flooding that struck St. Louis this December.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The death toll from the torrential rains in Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, and the surrounding region has climbed to 345 as of Dec. 4. While the scope of the rains are unprecedented, poor urban planning has been linked to the devastation.
Los Angeles Times
Opponents of the capital investment plan rejected the plan on the basis that it focused too much on the downtown area.
The New York Times
Recent heavy rains in Oakland County, north of Detroit, have required the local waste authority to make temporary arrangements for sewage-soaked trash. Residents are not happy.
Detroit Free Press
Parts of the East Coast got hit this week by rain and floods in what must certainly be cosmic salt in the wound of a long and intense winter. Luckily for our moods, one local news broadcast caught one biker rising above the wet conditions.
Gawker
Americans tend to pay more attention to wind strength than storm surge when evaluating whether or not to evacuate before a hurricane. A new NOAA mapping project is designed to change perceptions about the multiple risks of storm events.
Reuters
Many of America's national treasures sit in low lying areas of D.C. that are vulnerable to extreme floods (it was built atop a tidal plain, after all). With such floods likely to increase, planners and engineers are devising protection plans.
NPR
Disaster insurance isn’t just a pain in the neck. It could help us live better within a changing climate.
The Conversation
New Orleans is planning a novel approach to managing the city's perpetual threat of floods. Instead of trying to prevent and pump out every last drop, the city will slow and store stormwater under a 50-year, $6.2 billion program of retrofits.
Grist
William Brangham takes a look at Norfolk, Virginia, where rising sea levels have made major floods increasingly commonplace – and increasingly burdensome for taxpayers.
Grist
