Dear Concerned Citizens, September 13, 2018
North Carolina is my home —— Hurricane Florence is at our doorstep. And I am furious.
If you’re in the path of the storm, stop reading and get yourself and your family to safety. But if you’re outside the impacted region, it’s time to get to work.
A million and a half people here and along the Southeast coast have just been ordered to evacuate their homes because a climate change-fueled superstorm is hurtling their way, and our elected leaders were too deep in the fossil fuel industry’s pockets to do anything to stop it.
With climate disasters like Florence putting millions of lives at risk, we can’t afford more deadly denial — we need real climate leaders, now. Pledge to vote for climate champions in this critical year.
Instead of heeding warnings of our state’s vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, big polluter-backed Republican legislators here in North Carolina have spent the last several years ignoring and even outlawing the use of climate science to prepare us for moments exactly like this one.
In South Carolina, state legislators are still refusing to evacuate a prison squarely in Florence’s path, putting more than 650 incarcerated people’s lives at risk. And in both states, runoff from coal ash and hog waste poses a major riskto the mostly low-income communities and people of color living nearby.
The ugly message these politicians are sending couldn’t be clearer: corporate polluters’ profits are more important than their most vulnerable constituents’ lives.
It’s time to elect people who will stand up for our communities instead of fossil fuel billionaires. Can you sign up here to commit to vote for the climate leaders we need in 2018?
And climate injustice doesn’t stop at the doors of the White House: Trump just deliberately took $10 million of public funding away from FEMA disaster recovery and gave it to ICE — the agency that is unjustly detaining and deporting immigrants, taking thousands of children from their parents at the border, and putting refugees in jail.
Like I said, I’m furious. But here’s what’s giving me hope alongside my anger: There are hundreds of candidates running for office up and down the ballot — from Public Utilities Commissions to the Senate — who are ready to stand up to big polluter billionaires and fight for visionary policies like a Green New Deal that will help us and our planet thrive. Now, it’s up to you to help elect those leaders.
Pledge to vote this November for progressive leaders who will take the action required to slow the climate crisis. We’ll follow up soon with ways you can take your pledge to the streets and the ballot box.
I know talking politics while a storm is surging can feel impolite, but we can’t afford not to call out climate denial when climate disasters hit. Politeness, thoughts and prayers don’t bring justice in the face of disaster. But we’ve got our voices, our votes and our vision, and we’re going to use them all to turn our anger into action.
Onward, Jenny Marienau – 350 Action
PS: Communities in Florence’s path will need support preparing for the storm and recovering from its impacts. There’s a list of organizations on the ground that would benefit from your donations here — please give what you can.
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Sources and more information:
>>> “North Carolina politicians have decried the climate-change science that makes Hurricane Florence so deadly”
>>> Vox: “South Carolina won’t evacuate a prison in Hurricane Florence’s path”
>>> CBS: “Hurricane Florence could flood hog manure pits, coal ash dumps in North Carolina”
>>> NPR: “Trump Administration Transferred $9.8 Million from FEMA to ICE”
>>> 350 Action: 2018 Endorsements
### — This message has been authorized by 350 Action, 20 Jay St, Suite 732, Brooklyn, NY 11201, May Boeve, Executive Director.
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Hurricane Florence: The science behind the storm
From Stanford University, September 15, 2018
Atmospheric scientist Morgan O’Neill discusses what’s driving Hurricane Florence, why it’s unusual, and how it could be connected to climate change and other storms brewing in the Atlantic.
Hurricane Florence began pummeling North Carolina with drenching rains, powerful winds, and the threat of catastrophic flooding after making landfall in the early hours of Friday, September 14. Moving inland at a dangerous crawl, the storm could dump up to 40 inches of rain in some parts of the Carolina coast and drive ocean water into storm surges taller than 10 feet if it strikes at high tide.
Hurricane Florence is the largest of four big storms now brewing in the Atlantic. “This is an extraordinarily active month – not just for the Atlantic, which we tend to think of because of its concentration of American cities, ports and industry, but also the Pacific,” said atmospheric scientist Morgan O’Neill, a professor of Earth system science in the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). Super Typhoon Mangkhut is now barreling toward the Philippines, and Japan is only beginning to recover from Typhoon Jebi, the strongest typhoon to make landfall there in 25 years.
O’Neill explains how simultaneous hurricanes can be connected, why Hurricane Florence is following an unusual track through the Atlantic, and why flash floods are a particularly grave threat with this storm.
How does this season’s activity compare to a normal year?
MORGAN O’NEILL: Early September is the climatologically most active period for the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Atlantic as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This year is so far much more active than an average hurricane season.
Storms get named once their peak wind speed reaches 39 mph or greater, and this is the first time in a decade that the Atlantic has four simultaneous “named” storms: Florence, Helene, Isaac and Joyce.
The Pacific is similarly expected to be active from late-August to early-September. This year it has been not just active, but brutal. Typhoon Jebi made landfall in Japan last week, causing widespread, serious damage, and Typhoon Mangkhut is driving evacuations in the Philippines before its anticipated landfall at speeds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. The Pacific typically has larger, stronger, better organized and more deadly storms, and the western Pacific is the most active region for tropical cyclones on the planet.
Source: https://earth.stanford.edu/news/hurricane-florence-science-behind-storm
Road Patrol: Route 72 in Rowlesburg in Preston County, WV
From the Report by Ryan Decker, WBOY 12 News, October 11, 2018
ROWLESBURG, W.Va. – West Virginia Route 72, also known as River Road, is one of the more heavily traveled roads in Preston County.
Some residents are in danger of losing the ability to use that road.
River Road is nearly taking on a literal meaning. The two-laned main road in and out of Rowlesburg and other towns in Rreston county is on the verge of being unusable in a spot less than three miles outside of Rowlesburg.
“A couple weeks ago we got some pretty good rains. So that’s opened it up to where there’s a five or six foot section just completely out. And the crack itself is opened up to eight, ten, twelve inches wide, and it’s slowly starting to creep across the road, as well,” said John Crippin, Fellowsville resident.
The problem is getting worse. The changes in the road are happening quickly, with weather and constant travel on the road not helping the issue.
Some of the photos attached to the story were taken less than three weeks before the airing of this story, and as you see the road has gotten significantly worse, falling further off the side of what was the road into Cheat River.
Residents were told permanent road repairs aren’t scheduled to take place until 2019.
“Spring 2019 is what we’re looking for right now. we’ll see what happens over the winter. that’s what really makes me nervous. is that it’s going to fall even more,” said Miranda Snyder, Rowlesburg resident.
A District 4 Division of Highways crew recently put in a culvert, widened the road and installed temporary stoplights. However th road is effectively just one lane at that spot.
From Rowlesburg, Route 72 connects the town to multiple schools and Preston Memorial Hospital. If the road continues to collapse before a permenant fix can be made next year, it could cause serious problems.
“It’s the main through fare from this area to Kingwood. So if that road would fall in you would have to re-route and go all the way around Tunnelton or go up through Terra Alta. Yeah the hospital’s that way, so if something would happen and the road would fall through — accident-wise — ambulance, fire trucks would have to go all the way around to get there,” said Snyder.
The road is still usable in that spot for now, but drivers should be cautious when driving on the road near that slip.
https://www.wboy.com/news/preston/road-patrol-route-72-in-rowlesburg/1517469492