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Sunday, October 20, 2019

Hello, again

The summer has wound down and autumn is here to stay. It's been a memorable year so far. The crazy wet spring that kept over half the fields unplanted stuck with us. To illustrate that: I never had to water my garden all summer long. Sadly, it culminated in flooding a few weeks ago that cut the town I work in in half. People had to drive miles out of town to reach a road that would take them to the other side. Power was shut off because so many basements were full of water and/or sewage; which meant sump pumps stopped working and more basements began filling up. Residents have been scrambling to get replacement water heaters and furnaces installed along with the rest of the clean-up.

Ironically, when this all happened the county had their emergency response drill scheduled; wisely, they chose to cancel that.

This was bad enough, but what concerns me is what happens next spring? Flooding this late in the year is very unusual for us. The ground is still saturated and will soon be frozen. If we continue to get these extremes in precipitation all winter, we could be seeing even worse flooding when it all melts.

A few years back, I read a discussion on the environmental costs of heating. Someone had calculated that it would take less energy to move everyone to a warm climate for the winter instead of heating buildings in the north. Is there a word for something that sounds good in theory, but would be an absolute nightmare in reality?

First there would need to be adequate living space and infrastructure for all those people and their pets. Next, how would it be organized when even evacuating a small city seems to be beyond our abilities? Do the jobs go with the populations? More infrastructure needed. Force people out at gunpoint or keep military on site to stop the looting? Farm animals. Nursing home and hospital patients. The homeless. There are probably dozens of other issues that any half-decent debate team could spot.

Conclusion: have adequate insulation, replace drafty windows and put on a sweater. ;)

I'm going to try to get back into regular blogging. Wait and see how that goes.

2 comments:

Mama Pea said...

Great to see a post from you! Our area has received more than the usual amount of moisture this summer and fall also. Not near the damage as your area has seen though. Our frost can go five feet down into the ground over a winter season so the "experts" tell us it's much better for plants, and underground equipment/structures to be moist rather than bone dry. Of course, as you intimated, if there is a large snow melt in the spring, not a lot will be able to seep into the already saturated ground. Nature does keep us on our toes!

Susan said...

You're back! We had a very cold, wet spring that lasted well into the first part of summer. Then the rain stopped. Then it has picked up again with a vengeance, pretty much skipping the time when we actually needed it. It's a challenge.