Green Group discussion
Climate Change
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Flooding
Mod
This includes a bridge in Montenegro built by a Chinese firm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ock...
"China's Tofu Bridges are Falling Down"
A years worth of rain in a day is the new 100 year flood and it can happen any time, anywhere, even twice a week. Not too many places are prepared for that kind of deluge.
Mod
"Since Monday night, northeast Vermont has been inundated with heavy rain and flash flooding that washed out roads, damaged buildings and left residents stranded, reported Reuters.
Nearly eight inches of rain fell in only six hours in St. Johnsbury — considered a one in a thousand year event, CNN reported.
“This is devastating and was completely unexpected. I had no idea this was coming,” said one of the town’s residents Vanessa Allen, as reported by The Associated Press. “It’s just all unbelievable how bad the roads are. We’re trapped. We can’t go anywhere.”
According to the National Weather Service, 8.41 inches fell in Vermont, among the highest totals for a calendar day in the state’s history.
“It’s too early to determine the extent of damage, a lot of areas are still underwater,” said Mark Boma, spokesperson for Vermont Emergency Management, as Reuters reported."
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/30/weathe...
https://www.climate.gov/news-features...
https://www.reuters.com/business/envi...
Vermont is getting particularly hard hit by the rain. Maine gets a lot of rain but so far the flooding has been less intense. Vermont's rainnfall has been increasing over the past 60 years. Vermont is also part of the rapid warming of the northern northeast part of New England. This past winter sections of Maine had no snow buildup from storm to storm. Usually it stays cold enough so the snow just keeps piling up. This past winter it warmed up after each storm, melting the snow before it snowed again.
It could be that in Vermont people built in the worst possible areas to build something. Even if they had put the buildings on stilts, the roads aren't holding up to the instantaneous erosion from the heavy rainfall. Without prior flooding it might have been impossible to know what would happen if the rainfall went from normal to inflated values due to climate change.
Going forward it might be advisable to run rainfall models on every piece of land using topographical maps that already exist. Just keep running the program for 1 inch increments over a 12 hour period. Anything that starts "flooding" under 10 inches should be flagged as a possible flood zone under the new rules of the Natural World.
This probably should be done for the entire world.
Mod
Mod
"Tropical Storm Debby inundated coastal Georgia and South Carolina with a deluge of rain yesterday that could bring "catastrophic flooding" to Charleston, Savannah and other cities in the south eastern United States, the National Hurricane Center has said.
...
"Charleston Mayor William Cogswell said more than 61cm of rain was expected in his city before the storm passes. Even at low tide, storm surges of between 1.2 and 1.8 metres will prevent floodwaters from draining into the sea, he said.
There are "not enough pumps in the world" to handle that much rain, Mr Cogswell said late on Monday. He has since extended a citywide curfew until this morning.
"Nobody should be out on the streets in these conditions unless it is an absolute emergency," the mayor said."
Rain clouds stretch around 2,000 miles, from 2, maybe 3 storms, from Florida to Nova Scotia. The storms are moving slowly along the coastal US because the jet streams are up around the Canadian border. The center of the former hurricane was not as bad as all the bands and streamers being generated by what is going on around, trailing and preceding the storm center. The tropical storm is still drawing a lot of power off the water so it is not weakening, only spreading out.
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"Record-breaking rain left thousands of people stranded by floods in North Korea over the weekend, prompting leader Kim Jong Un to declare an "emergency", state media reports.
Photographs show submerged farmland and homes after heavy rain hit Sinuiju city and Uiju county, which border China, according to the Rodong Sinmun.
State media said many were later rescued by airlift, although the BBC is unable to independently verify details of the report.
Such natural disasters are likely to compound existing issues like food scarcity and poor infrastructure in North Korea.
...
"It is difficult to get an accurate picture of what is happening in North Korea, as state media reports - which are almost exclusively directed at its own population - typically only publish information putting the country or its leader in a positive light.
Flooding is not uncommon in North Korea. In fact, seasonal rains and monsoons have made floods a yearly affair, according to Mr Kang.
Such floods are exacerbated by major deforestation in its mountains and hills.
There are fears these could cripple North Korea's agricultural sector - that is already limited in size because of its mountainous terrain.
North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world."
North Korea Undercover: Inside the World's Most Secret State
Intense rain fall created by thunderstorms that kept forming over the same areas caused serious flooding in many locations throughout the state of Connecticut. After 12 hours of rain some areas had totals of 6 or 7 inches or more. The water rose fast in areas where the flooding occurred.The rain was in bands which trained over the same areas hour after hour. This resulted in severe but highly localized flooding. Storm drains in low laying intersections were unable to handle the rainfall which resulted in water that was too deep to drive through. In many instances the water rose in minutes trapping people in their cars. In other locations rivers overflowed their banks and spread out onto roadways, temporarily closing them. There were also reports of scattered mudslides throughout the state.
In Oxford, CT., the police station parking lot was flooded resulting in several police cars being under water.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/18/us/con...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/18/ny...
Mod
"On Sunday afternoon, heavy rainfall also triggered a mudslide, which led to a gas leak near an apartment complex in Danbury, which had to be evacuated, Danbury Public Information Officer Erin Henry told CNN."
Services of all kinds are affected and will take time to repair.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...
"The seasonal floods have washed away critical infrastructure, compounding the country’s crisis. More than 130 people died over the past two months in floods that have inundated large swaths across the country, with more than 23,000 houses collapsed or damaged, a government report said Monday.
Sudan’s dams help it manage heavy seasonal precipitation in a largely desert climate. The Arbaat dam, some 34 kilometers (22 miles) from the Red Sea, was built for holding spring and rainwater and its reservoir had a capacity of 25 million cubic meters, according to the news site Al-Tagheer.
The dam burst on Saturday night following heavy rains, according to local media reports. Information has been difficult to gather in the area due to mobile network outages."
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https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0914/147...
"Myanmar's junta chief has made a rare request for foreign aid to cope with deadly floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have already endured three years of war.
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"The rains in the wake of typhoon Yagi sent people across Southeast Asia fleeing by any means necessary, including by elephant in Myanmar and jetski in Thailand.
"Officials from the government need to contact foreign countries to receive rescue and relief aid to be provided to the victims," junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said yesterday, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
"It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible," he was quoted as saying.
Myanmar's military has previously blocked or frustrated humanitarian assistance from abroad.
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"Images from Laos capital Vientiane, meanwhile, showed houses and buildings inundated by the Mekong river."
Building on rivers and waterways used to be an economic plus, now its become a disadvantage.
Mod
https://www.rte.ie/news/europe/2024/0...
"A bridge collapsed in the historic Polish town of Głuchołazy near the Czech border and local officials ordered evacuations.
Local media said another bridge collapsed in the mountain town of Stronie Śląskie, where a dam burst, according to the Polish weather institute.
"Heartfelt solidarity with all affected by the devastating floods in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia," EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the EU was ready to offer support.
Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk, who visited nearby flooded areas, said on X, the government would announce a state of disaster and seek European Union aid."
The weather in the US is still following an on again off again pattern. Another tropical disturbance is forming in the Atlantic this time, instead of in the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to bring winds, storm surges and up to 15 inches of rain to some Carolina locations by Monday night. Over the next few days it will travel up the eastern seaboard to New York and past that. Even though it has lower speed winds it is still carrying a lot of rain, causing flash flooding and powering storm surges all along the coast.
Remnants of Francine are still causing isolated showers in the southeast as that moves farther inland. It could run into the Carolinas storm and add to that.
There is another named storm, Gordon, out in the Atlantic, not making land fall. It was weakening but could gain strength again as it moves across the Atlantic. No projection of where it is headed in regards to land.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/...
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https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2024/09...
"Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the risk posed by heavy rains because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.
The areas under the emergency warning saw "heavy rain of unprecedented levels", JMA forecaster Satoshi Sugimoto told reporters, adding "it is a situation in which you have to secure your safety immediately".
More than 120 millimetres of rainfall per hour were recorded in the city of Wajima on Saturday morning - the heaviest rain since comparable data became available in 1929.
Footage on public broadcaster NHK showed an entire street submerged in Wajima, one of the areas hardest hit by the huge New Year's Day quake, which toppled buildings, ripped up roads and sparked a major fire."
Mod
"Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
Large swathes of eastern and central Nepal have been inundated since Friday with flash floods reported in several rivers and extensive damage to the country's highways.
The Kathmandu valley recorded 240 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, the country's weather bureau told the Kathmandu Post newspaper.
It was the highest rainfall recorded in the capital since at least 1970, the report said.
The Bagmati river and its numerous tributaries which cut through Kathmandu broke their banks, inundating nearby homes and vehicles."
Mod
https://www.floodinfo.ie/about_frm/ty...
"Coastal
Fluvial (river)
Pluvial (rain)
Groundwater
Other sources - failure of infrastructure, such as bridge collapses, from blocked or under-sized drainage systems or other piped networks, or the failure or overtopping of reservoirs or other water-retaining embankments (such as raised canals)."
Helene could mark the beginning of a major change in the way buildings are constructed within 1,000 feet of the Gulf of Mexico coast. This is an opportunity to start moving out of the coastland areas right along the water but it's not going to happen. It's been described as the worst storm for 100 years. This will allow people to think it won't be happening again for a very long time. Tampa Bay area is one of the fastest growing areas in Florida. Much of the shoreline construction was built on islands which run right along the coast, as well as right on the beach. The area was heavily built up over time, home to 3 million people. Even going inland the area is a very low elevation, only a few feet above sea level. The demolished housing and businesses will be replaced by more expensive condos and businesses.
There was a hurricane a year ago that did some significant damage from wind, rain, and a storm surge, but nothing like Helene. There are two choices, put everything in low lying areas on elevated platforms or don't put anything in low lying areas. It would be too much to elevate the roadways. They will be solidly built but impassable once it rains too much or during a storm surge.
The damage is not just in Florida but extends over large inland areas through Georgia and the Carolinas. Over 95 people have been reported to have died from the storm and the number keeps growing. There is still flooding happening inland as well as landslides and flash flooding rivers. The storm should be finished by Monday. The damage has been estimated to be between 15 and 25 billion, to upwards of 95 billion. This is because the storm is still happening inland and damages are still being reported.
The real estate market will insist on rebuilding everything because otherwise that would represent a serious reduction in their income. It would also mean that people had capitulated to the Natural World. It would be seen as giving up. It would look bad for the real estate market. The elevated structures will be expensive, so only those who can afford exorbitant expenses to set up shops will be part of the rebuilding process.
Since we are not giving up any of the drivers that warm up the Earth which can make each storm more powerful than the last one, the idea that it's once in a hundred years is completely worthless, except as a way of using denial to deal with an uncertain future. The uncertainty is not how long before it will happen again, but how soon before it happens again. It used to be more or less guaranteed that it would be a long time before events repeat, now it is guaranteed that the events will occur more often with much less time between them.
The storm surge water worked its way inland through low lying areas, such as streets or canals. It probably also backfilled as it meandered inland. A direct hit is no longer required for maximum damage because the hurricanes are now part of massive storms that can cause severe damage 150 miles away or even much farther from the center of the hurricane.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/29/weathe...
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"Around 1,000 people have been forced to evacuate in northern Italy as deadly floods hit several countries across Europe.
A low-pressure system named Boris has caused the worst flooding in more than two decades in Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria in the last week,
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"The acting president of Emilia-Romagna, Irene Priolo, told local media "it rained non-stop for more than 48 hours, non-stop".
"Boris has clearly decided to pick on our region," she said.
Schools were closed and some transport suspended in the region, with three rivers in the region overflowing.
In May 2023, two rounds of torrential rain and mudslides killed 17 people and caused €8.5bn (£7.14bn) worth of damage in Emilia-Romagna, according to regional authorities.
Meanwhile, receding waters across central Europe revealed the huge scale of the destruction caused by the exceptionally heavy rains that began a week ago."
Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified Sunday night, going from Category 1 with 60 mph winds to a category 4 with140 mph winds. It might become a category 5 before reaching Florida. It could lose some power before making landfall but the storm surge builds up as the storm moves forward, so the storm surge won't lose momentum immediately.There is a lot of debris still left to be picked up from Helene. It includes sand, trees, building debris, household items, and cars. They are trying to get everything picked up before Milton hits so there will be less stuff for the winds to blow around or the flood waters to push into things.
"What could be a deadly storm surge of 8-12 feet is possible for more than 200 miles of coastline − with Tampa roughly in the middle."
Rainfall is expected to be anywhere from 5 - 10 inches with some isolated areas getting up to 15 inches.
The exact timing and path are still uncertain because the storm is still 745 miles away from Florida. It is expected to arrive Wednesday or Thursday but the heavy rain could start as soon as Tuesday.
"Building on lessons learned during Irma and other previous storms, Florida is staging emergency fuel for gas vehicles and charging stations for electric vehicles along evacuation routes."
Two good things are that the storm is expected to go straight across the peninsula and then into the Atlantic. After that it will go straight out into the Atlantic.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...
King Tides are happening this week Florida. These are normally higher than normal high tides that happen every year. This year the tides could be 2 feet higher because of a breeze coming off the ocean. The ground is already saturated from all the rain so there will be little to stop the water from coming ashore."To combat that, South Florida cities and counties are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to elevate roads and install permanent stormwater pumps that force the water off the streets and back into canals and Biscayne Bay. They’re also installing devices that allow water to drain off streets but don’t allow it to surge back up through the drains.
The high-tide floods now happen about three days a year, NOAA data shows. By 2050, they could occur 35 days a year."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/king-tides...
Mod
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2024/10...
"Scientists say extreme weather events in the region are becoming more frequent due to climate change.
Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe."
The latest round of rain in the south eastern US, Spain, central Europe, and other locations shows that many locations will be unable to go without extensive damage when they get excessive rain amounts which are becoming more and more common place.The methane monitoring is under reporting the actual amount being leaked. Oil and gas equipment, coal mines and landfills are the largest emitters globally. A private company using its own satellites has increased the official number of super emitter sites from 15,000 to 20,000 over the past year.
While they have launched 3 more monitoring satellites they also feel that the increased amount of methane is coming from expanding oil and gas operations in all parts of the world from all kinds of economies.
This means that we need to reduce our overall emissions by a much greater amount than envisioned at the global COP meetings. To not do so, would guarantee larger, destructive rain events will become more common.
Located next to a river or stream, no matter how small it is, indicates a path for water to follow when excessive rainfall happens. Unfortunately with the new rain fall accumulations you don't have to be next to a river to experience flooding. The topographical layout of the land you are located on will clearly point out where the water is going to go as the land stops being able to absorb and spread the water out and starts funneling it into low areas that will turn into temporary rivers as indicated by the topographical layout.
These topographical channels are easily identified from topographical maps which have been in existence for decades. It would be easy to make a program that would indicate a potential flood situation based on weather reports indicating a potential situation of excessive rain fall. This could help to pinpoint what areas would need immediate attention if the rainfall exceeds a certain amount.
This would help areas that are located in visible channels but for locations where the excessive rain is initially falling, even being located on top of a hill might not be enough to avoid excessive water damage. That water will eventually seek out the low lying channels where it can be predicted to accumulate.
https://apnews.com/article/methane-sa...
Mod
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2024/11...
"Spain has suffered through an almost two-year drought, meaning that when the deluge happened, the ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain, leading to flash floods.
The violent weather event surprised regional government officials.
Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in the Valencian town of Chiva than it had in the preceding 20 months.
Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain, known as Europe's garden for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rains and flooding."
Mod
"When Met Eireann issues a weather warning, typically on a county-by-county basis, this alerts local authorities and others to potentially hazardous weather conditions. Risk managers then need to translate the forecast information to the local level. This typically involves combining forecast information for rainfall, wind speed and direction, with a range of additional data coming from multiple sources, such as tide tables (heights), storm surge models, as well as real-time data on river levels and rainfall.
Additional factors such as on the ground conditions including soil saturation and local vulnerabilities might also be taken into account to arrive at a judgment on the likelihood of experiencing flooding at any given location, where is likely to be worst affected, and what actions should be taken in anticipation.
StopFloods4.ie is a collaboration between engineers, data scientists and economists at the University of Galway working closely with Met Eireann and the OPW as well as a number of local authorities around the country. We are investigating ways to support local decision makers to access decision relevant data at the local scale in a timely and consistent way. We see huge potential in using the latest technology, including machine learning methods and big data, to develop decision support tools that will help local authorities to integrate data coming from multiple sources, and importantly to translate that data to local conditions."
Something needs to be done. The Milton hurricane that hit North Carolina is being described as a 1 in a thousand year event which has people figuring that the chances of it happening is 1 tenth of 1 percent and the chance of it happening again is 1 tenth of 1 percent. Before the climate changed that was a legitimate conclusion based on what was actually happening. That kind of thinking leaves people thinking it isn't going to happen again for a long time which isn't going to be the case.
Unfortunately weather forecasting has not been able to keep with the increased power of the storms. The type of damage can be described but narrowing it down to a very particular location just can't be done at this time. The plus or minus is probably on the order of 10 to 20 miles and that is attached to another plus or minus value.
It was forecast that Milton was going to be very destructive and that the Tampa Bay area could see a 10 foot plus storm surge. The water level in Tampa Bay actually went down during the storm. For many locations the damage from the wind and rain was just as bad as a storm surge of 10 feet. 200 miles away a series of unexpected tornados touched down also creating as much damage as a 10 foot storm surge.
For the time being one can expect that the worst could happen when they are in the path of severe weather. Not all places will be damaged but some places will be damaged. When it doesn't happen, it was just luck and nothing else.
One big question that needs to be asked is whether the world of business will allow people to take a time out when a severe weather outbreak happens? Just ignoring it isn't going to work anymore.
Mod
https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-...
"A mathematical equation describes the relationship between global surface temperature and moisture in the atmosphere.
It is a complicated non-linear thermodynamic formula called the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. Climate scientists all agree about what it means.
It is that for every one degree of global warming the atmosphere above our heads will hold an average of 7% more moisture.
So, this year, with 1.55C of warming above pre-industrial temperature levels, there is about 10% more moisture up there, waiting to fall on us as rain.
We know however that global warming is not even. Some areas are warming faster than others.
For instance, the rate of warming in Ireland’s climate is in line with the average global but continental Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average.
Average temperatures on the continent this year are about 3C higher than pre-industrial times.
Could that possibly mean that instead of 10% more moisture waiting to fall as rain over parts of Europe there is potentially 20% more?
That would certainly be enough to turn sudden cloudbursts into catastrophic flooding events such as the disaster that we have witnessed in Valencia this week.
The World Weather Attribution published a rapid analysis about what has unfolded in Valencia.
Their initial assessment is that climate change caused the heavy rainfall that fell to be about 12% heavier and twice as likely to occur.
A separate analysis by Climate Change Central also said what we saw in Spain Climate was climate change in action.
Their report concluded that the warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures that added moisture to the storm was made between 50 to 300 times more likely by climate change."
If it is raining you are better off not driving in the rain anymore. Its a big inconvenience but a lot safer. Life expectancy temporarily drops to zero while it is raining now. Driving in the rain really aggravates the situation. Any storm can have a limited band of very heavy rainfall and or damaging winds in it if it connects to the upper atmosphere, even if its only for a moment.
Our infrastructure was not built to withstand the new weather. Even the rebuilt things might still not be sturdy enough. The trees have been weakened by climate change and pollution which makes it easier for tree branches to fall down during a storm which strike buildings, cars, or people out in the open.
We are back to where we were hundreds of years ago when we had no idea what the weather would bring in terms of destruction on a day to day basis for an exact location. While it is true we can see what is coming before it gets there, sometimes days in advance, the more exact the location specified, the less likely it is to predict the exact amount of damage that will happen.
Once an event has started then we can make a much better prediction but sometimes we only have 30 minutes to get out a warning for an exact location.
People are saying they weren't warned in time but there has been plenty of news articles over the years about what was going to happen if we didn't reduce emissions of all kinds. When talking about trillions of units and the changes are only a few billion, that is only a few percentage points at best, which means nothing changed. People have also been able to see on the news the same thing happening in other places, other countries. Like one of the articles said, no place is immune from climate change. Ignore it at your own risk.
Mod
I don't drive in strong wind or heavy rain. But that is a scary notion, life expectancy dropping to zero.
Mod
"South Wales, where a major incident has been declared by one council, has seen over 100mm of rain in places, while two areas in the south east of the country are under severe flood warnings, detailing a "significant risk to life".
Ms Morgan said authorities had been prepared for the storm, but added that "when you get the kind of enormity of rain we’ve had over the past few days", minimising the impact was always "going to be difficult".
The worst of the rain is moving eastwards into England, where the midlands and south west have also seen flooding. Across the UK, more than 100 flood warnings are now in force.
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"Pictures from Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire showed streets submerged in water as the town's Kyre Brook rose and caused a wall to collapse.
In south Wales, a major incident has been declared by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council after significant flooding. The River Taff has burst its banks in Pontypridd, and residents in the town were seen using buckets to remove water from outside their homes.
Wales' first minister said there had been "huge investment" since the Storm Dennis, but acknowledged that many people had been affected for a second time.
Asked about claims of a lack of warnings from authorities ahead of the storm, she added: “We certainly knew Storm Bert was coming, so there was an amount of preparation.
"But when you get the kind of enormity of rain we’ve had over the past few days – and it’s still coming down – then we’ve got to recognise that it is going to be difficult."
She added that discussions had begun about what support would be provided to those affected.
Climate change was “clearly making a difference in the severity and the frequency of these weather events", she said.
"There will come a point when it will be too difficult to protect every home in the country, but clearly we want to put the support in place if we’re able to do that,” she said.
Three rest centres have been set up for affected residents. Between 200 and 300 properties - residential and commercial - have been affected by flooding, the council added.
Record river levels were recorded on the River Taff on Saturday night but officials said these levels were beginning to drop as rain subsides, although residents were still urged to be cautious.
The Abercynon Feeder Pipe Footbridge over the river was completely washed away, council leader Andrew Morgan told a news conference on Sunday afternoon.
The bridge was being rebuilt after being badly damaged during Storm Dennis in 2020, which also caused significant flooding to homes and businesses when it hit the area."
Perhaps the warnings should include pictures that show what can happen with a range of rain fall amounts. Like a series of pictures for key areas that show what happens with 2 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, up to 10 inches, in 24 hours. The picture with the amount expected could be highlighted, but it would also say that his shows what could happen if the rain goes past the predicted amount.While people don't like to post bad news about things that haven't happened, "There will come a point when it will be too difficult to protect every home in the country..." these type of statements are slowly creeping into the news reports which show an expectation of the situation not getting better.
If a structure is right on a river bank or on the edge of a piece of land overlooking a river then the chances of water damage is much greater than other locations and the river location might be untenable as time goes on where it becomes not a matter of if, but when.
This is true of any river location no matter what the past history has been because it is clearly a low point that will fill up with water in an excessive rainfall event.
Mod
Searching for such items, I found an interesting council discussion document from New Zealand, which is about streets near the sea and includes a floodable waterfront park, rain gardens, rainwater retention etc.
https://eyeofthefish.org/te-ngakau-ci...
Te Ngākau Update Council Briefing – September 2024
Mod
Dundrum shopping centre, the old one, was twice flooded out while I lived in the area. The bowling centre was flooded and recovered but it converted to a roller skating arena. Now it's gone.
The new shopping centre called the town centre, built alongside new apartment blocks, is located much higher and it was flooded out in more recent years. The water came in the glass doors and covered the floor and carpark.
Today:
https://www.independent.ie/business/p...
" Planning for 900 homes in Dundrum Shopping Centre scheme blocked
The owners of Dundrum Town Centre have been refused permission by An Bord Pleanála to build almost 900 apartments on the site of an old shopping centre in Dundrum village in south Dublin that predates the bigger and better known Dundrum Town Centre."
The 2011 flooding can be found in:
https://steveconway.wordpress.com/201...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEiBX...
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/...
25 Oct 2011 — Dundrum Town Centre was devastated by a 7ft wall of water. Hundreds of shoppers and store workers were forced to abandon their cars overnight after floods ...
2021 flooding
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/h...
https://www.thejournal.ie/status-yell...
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/irela....
Dundrum Town shopping centre was partly flooded on its ground floor in addition to the outside area and a traffic alert was issued by gardaí for Roebuck Road in Dublin 14. “Roebuck Road, Dublin 14, has been made impassable due to severe flooding in the area,” said gardaí. 21 Aug 2021
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"An Austrian research team has now shown for the first time that short-term precipitation and flood events on the scale of a few hours are particularly affected by the temperature increase caused by climate change. For events on a longer time scale, the relationship is more complicated.
This finding was made using detailed data collected in Austria over more than a century—but it can also be applied to other regions of the world. It also allows conclusions to be drawn about which regions will experience changes in the probability of flooding, and how they will be affected.
The results have now been published in the journal Nature."
More information: Klaus Haslinger, Increasing hourly heavy rainfall in Austria reflected in flood changes, Nature (2025).
www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...
Journal information: Nature
Provided by Vienna University of Technology
Over a period of 2 days parts of Texas and Mexico received 6 to 12 months of rain. It doesn't rain much in those areas but the 12 to 15 inches of rained caused a considerable amount of flooding.https://www.yahoo.com/news/multiple-w...
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You will have seen the semicircle bunds being dug in desert areas to catch water until it can soak. Maybe that could be applied.
Mod
"The study examines the deadly combination of extreme rainfall from Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone, and the structural failure of two embankment dams in Wadi Derna. The research team used a combination of atmospheric reanalysis, satellite data, and hydrological modeling to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the flood and the destruction in the city of Derna.
Their findings reveal that while the rainfall intensity was high, it was not an unprecedented event. In fact, such storms are expected in the region once every few decades, indicating that this flood was foreseeable.
Hydraulic simulations conducted in the study show that, had the dams not been built, the flood's impact on the city of Derna would have been significantly lower. Instead, the presence of these dams created a false sense of security, encouraging construction and habitation in vulnerable areas.
When the dams collapsed, the resulting flood surge caused severe destruction, sweeping away entire neighborhoods and claiming thousands of lives.
"Our findings make it clear that the disaster in Derna was not solely the result of extreme weather but a failure in risk management. While storms like Daniel are uncommon, they are not unprecedented," say the authors."
More information: Moshe Armon, Anatomy of a Foreseeable Disaster: Lessons from the 2023 Dam-Breaching Flood in Derna, Libya, Science Advances (2025). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ad...
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
Journal information: Science Advances
Provided by Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Swollen rivers flood towns in US South after dayslong deluge of rainThe National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.
Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.
Rain, wind, flooding, and tornadoes were powered by warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. The last polar vortex of the year coupled with an extremely strong low level jet stream set the pattern for severe weather.
https://watchers.news/2025/03/02/majo...
https://apnews.com/article/severe-wea...
https://www.wunderground.com/maps/win...
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Low lying areas are at risk but even higher elevations can be in for trouble if the runoff forms a river where there isn't one to start with. Water can also wash over a road where it dips down creating an apparently shallow puddle when it could be several feet deep with a strong water current flowing through it. This can sweep vehicles off the road and into deeper water or faster moving currents.
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"The study from the University of Galway found Éowyn "generated the highest storm surges ever recorded at key locations on Ireland's western seaboard".
Dr Niall Madden, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at University of Galway, said the country was "incredibly lucky".
"The worst of the storm surge coincided with a low and ebbing tide. Had it hit just a few hours earlier, on a full or flooding tide, Galway could have been dealing with a double disaster of record high winds and record high flooding," he said.
Dr Indiana Olbert, of the School of Engineering, said the study also "shows that a rise in mean sea level rise will significantly increase the risk of coastal flooding in the future"."
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"Torrential rain continued to lash eastern Australia, swelling already engorged rivers, engulfing roads and leaving almost 50,000 people stranded.
...
"From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swathes of Australia have been pummelled by wild weather in recent months.
The average sea surface temperature around the continent was the highest on record in 2024, according to the Australian National University.
Warmer seas sweat more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.
"Unfortunately, we're getting better at deploying resources because of natural disasters," Mr Minns said.
"And the reason for that is because we're seeing more of them, not less," he added."
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"In a first, researchers from NASA and Virginia Tech used satellite data to measure the height and speed of potentially hazardous flood waves traveling down U.S. rivers. The three waves they tracked were likely caused by extreme rainfall and by a loosened ice jam. While there is currently no database that compiles satellite data on river flood waves, the new study highlights the potential of space-based observations to aid hydrologists and engineers, especially those working in communities along river networks with limited flood control structures such as levees and flood gates.
Unlike ocean waves, which are ordinarily driven by wind and tides, and roll to shore at a steady clip, river waves (also called flood or flow waves) are temporary surges stretching tens to hundreds of miles. Typically caused by rainfall or seasonal snowmelt, they are essential to shuttling nutrients and organisms down a river. But they can also pose hazards: Extreme river waves triggered by a prolonged downpour or dam break can produce floods."
That would be one good use for having so many satellites up there in the sky. Looking out for sudden rising water levels and then sending that information to the areas that could see potential flooding.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/gal...
Google says:
After the 2011 disaster, the 395-km-long "Great Tsunami" was built. The construction was designed to withstand the impact of a wave of 16 million tons of water and includes the planting of 9 million trees on the ocean shore as a secondary dam.
Photo here of young tree planting, pines on shore.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/...
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"Last weekend, I went to help at a house that had been flooded. It belonged to an old man who wasn't very mobile, so he sat and watched as our team of volunteers pulled the remnants of his life apart and carried it to the road for pickup. He commented on some of the memories we found (we were careful to check if something was precious before we threw it out). Three fire brigade crews arrived while we were there, and they were also very caring and respectful (not to mention a huge help!). I was sad for him as I watched his belongings accumulate beside the road. His wife died a few months ago, so her belongings were there, too.
Yet something good came out of it. Through the outpouring of love and support, he started to believe that God was there and cared about him, and he now has hope that goes beyond material things. It has been a tough time in our area over the past few weeks, but seeing someone go from defeated to hopeful gives us a boost. Our community has been incredible in the way it has come together to support the displaced people who have lost everything."
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Previously, Robert warned us that being out on the road during one of these intense bursts of rain, temporarily drops your life expectancy to zero. But you don't necessarily expect that to occur in a city.
https://www.rte.ie/news/us/2025/0614/...
"Intense downpours hit on Thursday morning in the city of San Antonio, causing flash flooding on roads which pushed vehicles off the streets into a nearby creek bed, according to local broadcaster KENS5."
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https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2024/07...
"The bridge over a river in Shaanxi province's Shangluo buckled at around 8.40pm last night (1.40am Irish time) "due to a sudden downpour and flash floods", state news agency Xinhua said, citing the provincial public relations department.
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"In Henan's Nanyang city, the equivalent of a year's worth of rain fell at the start of the week, according to CCTV.
And in southwestern Sichuan province, two people were reported killed and seven others missing yesterday after heavy rain triggered landslides, Xinhua said.
China is enduring a summer of extreme weather, with heavy rains across the east and south coming as much of the north has sweltered in successive heat waves.
Climate change, which scientists say is exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, is making these types of extreme weather phenomena more frequent and more intense."