Where Do We Go From Here-Planning for the Next Disaster

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

From Politics of the Environment. A little NJ Centric but worth the read. The principals apply anywhere.

The updated State Plan was going to contain a new section on Climate Change and recommendations for a comprehensive response, from the way we contributed to continued greenhouse gas emissions to preparation and response for the inevitable effects that climatologists, including the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist, warned we were facing. From hardening our infrastructure to handle the likely flooding, to protecting roads and bridges to, perhaps most importantly, planning to rebuild differently after any disaster, these issues were all explored and incorporated into the long-term outlook for the state. A plan that was eventually buried by the Corzine Administration and outright rejected by the Christie Administration because it contained some hard truths that may not have been politically expedient, it addressed getting ready for the inevitable. Four years later, on October 29, 2012 to be exact, the day the disaster response center was built for arrived. It really didn’t take a crystal ball to know this was coming.

Hurricane Sandy was exactly the type of storm that was expected. Who could have foreseen the horror? Looks like just about everyone.

[AverageJoe90]

1. Yep....not quite so unprecented after all.

I mean, sure, Sandy kinda was a "freak" storm per se, given the rather rare circumstances involved in its evolution, but it wasn't "unprecented", and nobody truly knows for sure if it's a "new normal" just yet, either, unlike what some have claimed in the past.....in fact, a somewhat similar storm developed about 20 years ago, just without tropical origins.....it was called the Superstorm of '93, and I'm sure most here on DU would be old enough to remember it(especially it they lived down South!).

In all honesty, though, hopefully this DOES get people to think.

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

2. March '93-That was a wild storm!

I was still living in NJ then and remember it well. We can't pretend that we don't know things like this are going to happen, happen more frequently and have more dire consequences in the future. Getting people to do something about it is probably the biggest challenge. Much easier to pretend that every subsequent bad storm is just an anomaly.

[AverageJoe90]

3. Okay, well, I'd like to clarify something.

Just wanted to say that I never intended to imply that Sandy-like storms WEREN'T going to happen with more frequency: in fact, I and most others are convinced that that will indeed be the case over the next few decades, that is, that Sandy type storms WILL happen more often.....just that it it isn't likely to be a "new normal&quot that is, happening every year or two, as most people would define it, AFAICT.) any time soon.

With that said, though, you are certainly correct on one thing: Doing something about it, probably IS the biggest challenge we face right now.