Author Archive | Wesley Shaw

National Hurricane Center Working on New Tools for Better Showing Risk

“NHC believes that the clearest way to communicate each of the hurricane hazards is to do so directly and distinctly, and not to conflate them as the proposed integrated scales do.” –National Hurricane Center press release Climate Central has posted a good summary of some new ways the National Hurricane Center is looking at better […]

Life on the Edge of a Rising Sea [VIDEO]

Ever wonder what life’s like out on the (rapidly disappearing) Louisiana bayou? The small community of Isle de Jean Charles has put together a great website with videos and more to help folks understand what’s at risk out there. This is a insightful look at the front lines of climate change. Have a look.

USACE to Investigate if New Orleans Levees Deflected Isaac’s Floodwaters into Neighboring Areas

“At the urging of residents who have long felt forgotten in the shadow of more densely populated New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers says it will look into whether the city’s fortified defenses pushed floodwaters provoked by Hurricane Isaac into outlying areas.” This could get interesting. “U.S. Corps of Engineers to study levee improvements’ […]

New Mississippi Regulations Mandate Insurance Discounts for Smart Construction

From the always useful CZMA Climate Change and Coastal Hazards E-News Update: Under a new Mississippi law, insurance companies are required to provide a premium discount or insurance rate reduction to property owners along the coast who build, rebuild, or retrofit an insurable property to better resist hurricane or other catastrophic windstorm events. To qualify, […]

A Note on Hurricane Isaac

To all of our friends and colleagues down in the Gulf of Mexico, we hope you and your families are safe and well. Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help (help@stormsmart.org). Because of the speed with which everything changes, we’ll keep most of our Isaac info on our twitter feed […]

“What does it feel like to have your home flooded?”

Somebody on Quora.com asked “What does it feel like to have your home flooded?” The most popular response came in from a survivor from two floods in Queensland, Australia. The whole thing is worth reading, but following are a couple of sections that jumped out. The first is about how expectations affect behavior: Prior to […]