"...What if, instead, the electricity goes out for several days during a blistering summer heat wave in a city that depends on air-conditioning in those months?... n Dr. Chester’s scenario, a compounding crisis of extreme heat and a power failure in a major city like Houston could lead to a series of cascading failures, exposing vulnerabilities in the region’s infrastructure that are difficult to foresee and could result in thousands, or even tens of thousands, of deaths from heat exposure in a matter of days. " #heatwave#disaster#DisasterPreparedness#climateemergency
WaPo: How a friend’s flood damage could affect your climate change preparedness
A study suggests links between social learning and flood insurance purchases.
"Researchers compared new and renewed flood insurance policies in the wake of the storms, both in areas that experienced active flooding and those unaffected by the hurricanes...People in areas with stronger social ties to flooded areas purchased more new flood insurance policies in the three years after Harvey and Irma, they found. "
..."As a result, they suggest, disaster awareness and climate mitigation efforts should take social learning into account, leveraging people’s tendency to learn about climate change risks from their friends’ experiences..." #disasters#peerpressure#insurance#DisasterPreparedness#disasters
AP: Heat is killing howler monkeys in Mexico... "Meanwhile, an animal park in northern Mexico confirmed it has received reports that at least a hundred parrots, bats and other animals have died, apparently of dehydration...he number is likely only a small percentage of the animals affected...There are going to be a lot of casualties to the ecosystem if we continue this trend of heat waves in the region..." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/heat-is-killing-howler-monkeys-in-mexico#heatwave#mexico#wildlife#MXwx#climate#climateemergency
If you are a homeowner and are insured by State Farm, Ohio Mutual, Pure Insurance, Westfield, and maybe Nationwide, you can get a FREE device to monitor your electrical system for arcing (one of the causes of house fires). h/t @w8emv
Per request, a link to my list of "heatwave hacking" tips (mostly useful to homeowners; my apologies to apartment dwellers) -- things you can do to help deal with future heatwaves. https://www.patreon.com/posts/heatwave-hacking-85954524
Seeing a lot of WEA/EAS messages being sent to Barnsdall, Oklahoma... It appears they have few other communications tools with residents after tornadoes hit the town several days ago. #OKwx#comms#Barnsdall#ef3
Resource list for Barnsdall, OK -- maybe useful for other folks for disaster prep. They were just hit by a tornado. First on the list is "Tetanus shots"! #disasterpreparedness#disasters#disasterprep
""It is critical that we act now both to make changes to our buildings, community connections and economic systems to be more capable of dealing with extreme events (e.g., insulating buildings help to keep people comfortable in heat and cold, while also save energy/money) and we act to decrease creation of heat-trapping gasses from burning oil, coal, gas and other activities,"
PNNL: Design for Extreme Heat. "This guide is intended to provide basic concepts and strategies for designing homes to be safer during extreme heat events. When designing homes for extreme heat, the overarching goal is simply to keep the building occupants cool enough to avoid health risks, particularly when the power is out or A/C is not available. " https://basc.pnnl.gov/information/design-extreme-heat