Ida Causes Wide Spread Power Outages
As I write this blog, my thoughts and prayers go out to the millions of people who are being affected by Hurricane Ida. Ida made landfall over Port Fourchon, Louisiana at about 11:55 a.m. CT Sunday. At landfall, the storm’s winds were just short of 157 mph as it marks the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Katrina was a 1 in 100-year storm as they predicted, and people thought they would not see anything like it again anytime soon.
Well, guess what? They were wrong, as heavy rains continue to fall and are expected to drop up to 24 inches of rain in some parts of Louisiana. Thanks to solutions implemented by the state of Louisiana’s hazard mitigation plan, the severity of effects such as the wide-spread loss of life, damage to property, infrastructure, and the environment, has been reduced.
Writing this blog brings back lots of memories from when I was living in Jersey City, NJ during Super Storm Sandy. At the beginning of the storm, my wife and I went to the water’s edge of the Hudson River about two blocks away from our high rise building where we lived. The fierce wind was pushing the storm surge into New York Harbor and water was crashing over the navy style bulkhead of the shoreline and onto the sidewalks and street. At that time, I said to my wife we need to seek shelter and retreat from the storm. As we made our way back to our high-rise building, I notice the streets were not flooded, but water was shooting out of manhole covers in the middle of the road! This was caused by the storm surge pushing water into the stormwater lines connecting to the Hudson River. The pressure was so great, the water was shooting up about five feet and then minutes later, a real wall of water about 18 inches came traveling down the street into the inner parts of Jersey City. This was just the beginning of a 2-week power outage and millions of people being affected by this perfect storm!
Since then, Jersey City much like many other coastal cities in the U.S. and around the world, continue to implement mitigation strategies focusing on reducing the risk from future storms. The warming climate is a great threat to coastal cities because rising sea levels create many problems such as land subsidence and frequent flooding.
Mitigation strategies can yield a 1 in 7-dollar savings, if implemented prior to natural disaster events. The key is to be RESILIENT! Having the ability to adapt and bounce back, much like what nature does every day! There is so much we can learn from nature and our indigenous people who live in harmony with the land.
Ida Makes Landfall