This story is originally appeared on Milling and is part Air conditioning cooperation.
The country watched the weighty rain of Texas at the beginning of this month, sweeping at least 135 people for their death. Kerr was lost by 107, including over two dozen children in Camp Mystic.
It would be simple and even tempting from afar, think that such floods never happened to you. That the disaster is distant.
It is not.
As information about the tragedy, the list of contributing factors increased. Sudden downpours, driven by climate change. Lack of a comprehensive warning system that informed people that the Guadalupe River is growing rapidly. A raging building in areas known from flooding, combined with incomplete information about what places can be threatened.
These are the same elements that could cause the Kerr counting disaster in every state in the country. This is a reality that has been playing many times in recent years, with a flood VermontIN KentuckyIN North Karolina And elsewhere, leaving regret and billions of dollars in destruction.
“Kerr’s county is an extreme example of what is happening everywhere,” said Robert Freudenberg, vice president for energy and environmental programs at the Regional Association of the Plan. “For this reason, people are threatened and there is more what we have to do.”
The most obvious problem is building in areas prone to floods. The Federal Crisis Management Agency or FEMA produces easily available maps showing high -risk locations. However, according to the latest data from non -profit of a company dealing with climate research First Street Foundation7.9 million houses and other constructions are in a special area of FEMA flood hazard, which sets a location with a 1 percent or a greater chance of flooding in any year.
FEMA TOP 10 flood zone
Source: First Street Foundation
In Louisian, 23 percent of real estate is in the country in the FEMA flood zone. In Florida it is about 17 percent. Arkansas, Up-to-date Mexico and Nebraska are perhaps less expected members of the top ten, as it is New Jersey, who saw heavy rain with New York And the flood that killed two people at the beginning of this month.
Texas ranks seventh in the country, with about 800,000 real estate, or about 6.5 percent of the sum of the state, sits in the flood zone. Kerr counting officials They have limited authority To stop people from building in these areas, but even when governments have the ability to prevent risky construction projects, historically not. Although one examination was found that some areas finally begin to limit the development of the flood plainPeople are still building in risky places.
“There is a innate draw of water we have, but we need to know where the borders are,” said Freudenberg. “In places that are really dangerous, we must work on pulling people out of the road.”
Kerr’s county sits in a region known as a rapid avenue and at least four cabins At Camp Mystic he was sitting in an extremely risky “flood”. Many others stood on the path of a 100-year flood. When Christian Summer Camp for Girls underwent expansion in 2019, The owners have built even more cabins on the path of water.