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U.S. unprepared for severe solar storms
Mankind’s vulnerability to disruptions caused by severe solar storms has increased as a result of the increasing dependence of human societies on technology and electricity; a storm on the scale of the 1859 Carrington Event could damage the U.S. electrical grid to such an extent that vast regions of the country could be without power for weeks, perhaps months.
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U.S. reassesses safe water levels in New Orleans' outfall canals
New Orleans has three outfall canals, the role of which is similar to that of a storm drain under a city street; since Katrina, there have been disagreements among engineers as to how much water would it be safe for each of the three canals to handle during a storm
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SAIC to deploy tsunami monitoring system for Thailand
The Thai government has awarded SAIC a contract to produce and deliver a sea-based system that can warn against the threat of a tsunami; the new system will replace the current NOAA Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting Tsunamis (DART) buoy system in the Bay of Bengal, which was provided to Thailand in 2006
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New Orleans channel may have exacerbated post-Katrina floods
Witness for the prosecution: New Orleans residents sue the U.S. government over a channel dug by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; computer models show that channel may have exacerbated post-Katrina floods
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Lancet: Pandemic closer but not inevitable
Prestigious British health journal said “The world has moved closer towards a pandemic, but it is not yet inevitable”
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Experts: Levees will not save New Orleans from Katrina-like storm
National Academy of Engineering panel says that even the strongest levees and flood walls cannot be guaranteed to save New Orleans from another hurricane like Katrina
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Asteroid theory of dinosaur extinction challenged
Three decades ago, the father-son team of Luis and Walter Alvarez offered the asteroid-impact theory as an explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago; new geological findings now challenge this theory
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WHO: Swine flu could become pandemic
The growing number of swine flu in Mexico, and the spread of the disease in the United States, lead the World Health Organization to declare the virus “a public health emergency of international concern”
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Seismologist predicts earthquake in south Iran at the end of the month
A Chinese seismologist who relies on unusual cloud formations as a predictor of earthquake says that at the end of the month a powerful earthquake will shake south Iran; debate about basing emergency policy on such predictions intensifies in light of similar predictions before the earthquake in Italy two weeks ago
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Using a long tether to deflect threatening asteroids
An asteroid-tether-ballast system could effectively alter the motion of an asteroid to ensure it missed hitting Earth; the tether, though, is on the long side: between 1,000 kilometers to 100,000 kilometers
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An HSNW conversation with Harold Wolpert, CEO of Avalias
Avalias’s solutions allow an organization to approximate the experience of a disaster, and to help the personnel charged with defense and mitigation to perfect and rehearse their responses to disaster; Harold Wolpert, CEO of Avalias: “Our technology is taken for granted. That’s because it can be”
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Study: Catastrophic rise in sea levels "distinct possibility" this century
New study — based on fluctuations in sea levels the last time Earth was between ice ages, as it is now — shows that oceans rose some three meters in only decades due to collapsing ice sheets
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Earthquakes cannot be predicted with accuracy, say seismologists
Monday’s earthquake in Italy, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 200 people, was made more poignant by claims of an Italian researcher that said he had predicted the quake and warned the authorities — which ignored the warning; scientists say this claim is unfounded, as earthquakes cannot be predicted with accuracy
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Post-Ike ideas for defending Galveston include extending sea wall
Texas A&M oceanographer proposes extending Galveston’s seawall to the island’s West End, building a similar structure along Bolivar Peninsula, and constructing massive Dutch-like floodgates at the entry to Galveston Bay; oceanographer says his proposed wall and gate system could repel most surges
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Mathematicians provide new insight into tsunamis
The number and height of the tsunami waves hitting the shoreline depends critically on the shape of the initial surface wave in deep water; from this it is possible to work out whether a “trough” or a “peak” is the leading wave
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The long view
The Surprising Reasons Floods and Other Disasters Are Deadlier at Night
It’s not just that it’s dark and people are asleep. Urban sprawl, confirmation bias, and other factors can play a role.
Why Flash Flood Warnings Will Continue to Go Unheeded
Experts say local education and community support are key to conveying risk.