![]() "So when we do public engagement processes for major infrastructure projects, major roads, we hear a lot more comment now about flooding than we used to see in the past." Extreme storms getting more extremeĪs temperatures get hotter, heavy storms are producing more rainfall because warmer air can hold more water vapor. "The fallout from Hurricane Harvey is still ongoing here," says Craig Raborn, director of transportation of the Houston-Galveston Area Council. Without updated rainfall records, cities risk building infrastructure that can't withstand intensifying storms.ĭespite the added cost, experiencing a record-breaking disaster seemed to change the conversation in the community. Rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded homes in New Jersey. "We did anticipate it increasing somewhat, just not quite that much." "It may have been a case of 'be careful what you wish for,'" says Craig Maske, chief planning officer at the Harris County Flood Control District. Instead of 13 inches of rain, it now dropped almost 17 inches of rain in Harris County. The NOAA analysis found that a major storm, known as the 1-in-100-year storm, had become almost 30% wetter. The results confirmed what they suspected: Rainstorms have already gotten more intense. Army Corps of Engineers, raised $1.75 million for a statewide study in 2016. A group of local flood agencies in Texas, along with the regional office of the U.S. The agency itself has historically not had the budget to conduct the studies. But to get new precipitation data that captures how storms have already changed in recent years, local or state agencies need to pay the federal government for it under NOAA's policy. Intersections and roadways were getting swamped with water in heavy rain. Regional planners knew urban flooding was on the rise. Harris County, where Houston is located, analyzed rainfall data on its own, but the records were still 2 decades old. Prior to Harvey, some local agencies in Texas were using NOAA records last released in 1961. NOAA releases precipitation records through its Atlas 14 reports, which analyze the historical rainfall in a given region and then tell local planners how much rain is produced in both common and extreme storms.īut for many states, those records are outdated. ![]() To figure out how much rain those storms will unleash, many communities turn to the federal government. Other cities plan for an even more severe storm, like a 1-in-25-year storm. When they're overwhelmed, flooding can happen in neighborhoods far from any river or creek, where residents likely lack flood insurance.Ĭities decide on the size of a stormwater system by using a particular kind of storm known as a "design storm." In some places, the stormwater infrastructure is designed for a storm that's considered a 1-in-5-year storm, or that has a 20% chance of hitting. The size of storm drains and pipes limits how much water the system can handle. Storm drains connect to miles of underground pipelines that carry runoff away. In heavily paved areas, rain isn't absorbed into the ground, and the runoff needs somewhere to go. In any city, the only thing stopping rainwater from flooding roads and homes is a lowly, unglamorous piece of infrastructure: the storm drain. When rainfall overwhelms stormwater systems, flooding can happen far from a river or creek. "If we have over a trillion dollars going out the door in infrastructure, then let's have the very best standards and data so we're designing this stuff right."Ī firefighter checks on stalled cars on a flooded street in Sun Valley, Calif., during a 2017 storm. "It's core to probably hundreds or thousands of development decisions everyday," says Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. So many flood planners are also pushing NOAA to fund and release local forecasts of how rainfall is expected to intensify going forward, to ensure that infrastructure projects built today won't become obsolete as temperatures warm. Still, those up-to-date records won't show how the climate will continue to change in the future. Now, as NOAA determines how to spend its own infrastructure bill funding, many cities are hoping the agency commits to doing regular, nationwide updates of its precipitation reports, known as Atlas 14, to provide a systematic snapshot of how storms have already intensified. Last summer, for example, 50 people drowned when the remnants of Hurricane Ida overwhelmed urban stormwater drainage systems in the Northeast. Heavier downpours are taking an increasing toll on cities, inundating homes and roads. The disconnect between the kinds of upgrades a changing climate demands and the data available to communities is already imperiling lives. And states themselves have to pay for those updates. Rainfall reports for some states are 50 years old, which means they don't reflect how the climate has already changed in recent decades.
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