The Texas Floods Were a Preview of What’s to Come

This story is originally It appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Office’s cooperation.

I watched the country in terror, while the heavy rains in Texas were flooded earlier this month, winning at least 135 people until their death. Care Province alone lost 107, including more than twenty children at Camp Mestic.

From afar, it will be easy, even tempting, to believe that such floods can never happen to you. The disaster is far away.

it’s not.

Focusing on the details of the tragedy, the list of contributing factors has grown. Surprising heavy rains, driven by climate change. The lack of a comprehensive warning system to notify people that the Guadalpe River was rising quickly. Popular construction in the areas known for the floods, as well as incomplete information about places that may be in danger.

These are the same items that can lead to a type of disaster in Kiir Province in every state in the country. It is a fact that has already played several times in recent years, with floods in Vermont, Kenantaki, Nortleh Carolina and other places, leaving sadness and billions of dollars in destruction in its wake.

“CARE province is an extreme example of what is happening everywhere,” said Robert Freudenberg, Vice president of Energy and Environment Programs at the Regional Plan Association. “People are at risk because of this, and there is more that we should do.”

The most obvious problem is that we continue to build in areas vulnerable to floods. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, produces easily available maps. However, according to the latest data from the FIRST Foundation, 7.9 million homes and other structures stand in a special dangerous area in floods, which designate a 1 percent or larger location to be overwhelmed in any specific year.

Flag area in Fema Top 10

Source: First Street Foundation

In Louisiana, 23 percent of the property is located in the Fema flood. In Florida, about 17 percent. Arkansas, New Mexico and Nebraska may be less than the 10 best members, as well as New Jersey, which, with New York City, witnessed mysterious rains and floods that killed two people earlier this month.

Texas ranks seventh in the country, with about 800,000 properties, or nearly 6.5 percent of the total state, sitting in the flood. CARE province officials have limited power to prevent people from building in these areas, but even when governments have the ability to prevent risky construction projects, they have not done historically. Although one of the studies found that some areas have recently started to reduce the development of flood plains, people continue to build in risky places.

“There is an innate draw for the water we have, but we need to know the location of the border,” Freudenberg said. “In really dangerous places, we need to work to get people out of harm.”

Care Province is located in an area known as Flash Flood Ally, and at least four cabins sat in the Camp Mystic in “Floodway” very dangerous. Many others stood in a 100 -year -old flood. When the Christian Summer Camp was expanded in 2019, the owners built more cabins in the water path.