How Houston Can Become Stronger After Hurricane Harvey
Now that hurricanes Harvey and Irma have subsided, cities in Texas and Florida are grappling with public health emergencies in the form of a toxic soup of sewage, poisonous chemicals from Superfund sites and runoff from petrochemical industrial complexes.
Canada Goose Online It will take months, if not years, to restore things canada goose deals to the way they were. And if officials want to safeguard the health of their citizens before the next natural disaster, they’re going to have to take a generational approach to urban development that is, thinking about its effects not just on today’s children, but on their children’s children, experts say. Canada Goose Online
cheap canada goose uk The silver lining to Houston’s devastation is that the city is now in a position to rebuild, from the ground up, such that its communities are better prepared for natural disasters and catastrophic events. The question is whether the city will seize that opportunity. cheap canada goose uk
canadian goose jacket “How do you build it in the first place to be more resilient?” said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, deputy director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University. “Those things take generations and require a long view that is much longer than quarterly earnings reports, or much longer than election cycles.” canadian goose jacket
Urban centers are denser and too heavily developed
canada goose uk outlet Scott Olson via Getty Images canada goose uk outlet
Floodwaters left in the wake of Hurricane Harvey begin to recede in an industrial area on Aug. But even as living conditions are becoming denser, catastrophic weather events are growing in frequency and intensity, to the point that weather models based canada goose black friday sale on historical patterns can no longer accurately forecast the future.
Canada Goose online We also increase our vulnerability to natural disasters when we destroy the habitats that act as a natural barrier between human beings and extreme flooding. Hurricane Harvey’s floods were unprecedented, but the situation was made worse by Houston’s lack of zoning laws, and its consequent overdevelopment on wetlands that would have absorbed that storm water, says Sacoby Wilson, director of community engagement, environmental justice and health buy canada goose jacket at the University of Maryland, College Park. Canada Goose online
Failing infrastructure, the increasing density of cities and the growing frequency of extreme weather events create public health risks on a massive scale. In Houston, improperly maintained Superfund sites that is, profoundly polluted hazardous waste sites could not withstand the waters that rose as high as streetlights in some areas. Drainage systems failed. Poisonous chemicals and dangerous bacteria spread via floodwater through residential areas. In the wake of a flood, mold can bloom inside devastated structures, putting people at risk of allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems.
As with Houston, overdevelopment in Florida is making people canada goose more vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding, as precious swampland and marshland is encased in concrete and high density residential zones are built in risky areas like barrier islands. Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in Florida on Sept. 10, knocked out power for between 60 and 80 percent of residents across the state, underlining the need for more diverse kinds of energy infrastructure.
Brendan McDermid / Reuters
uk canada goose outlet People walk along the Hudson River Greenway in New York City, Aug. uk canada goose outlet
canada goose uk shop It may be too much to hope that policymakers in Washington will put politics aside to build with the next generation’s health and safety in mind. For instance, former President Barack Obama’s executive order establishing the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, which required builders to consider cheap Canada Goose climate change and rising sea levels, was rolled back by President Donald Trump 10 days before Harvey hit. are already exploring canadian goose jacket what it would mean canada goose clearance to be resilient in the face of increasing risks. United by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities organization, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities are Canada Goose sale trying to incorporate emergency preparedness, sustainability and community cohesion into every aspect of their infrastructure. canada goose uk shop
Organizations like 100 Resilient Cities are trying to help cities knit together far flung bureaucracies to imagine a more comprehensive perspective on urban planning. On its website, 100 Resilient Cities offers the example of the buy canada goose jacket cheap construction of a new road. Couldn’t such a road also be a flood barrier, a safe place for the community to gather and a route that more quickly connects people to a health care facility?
canada goose coats on sale One of these cities, Oakland, California, is investing in retrofitting to withstand earthquake damage, and prioritizing “green” infrastructure to create more parks and open spaces meant to help manage storm water. These green spaces, the planners hope, will have the added benefit of improving air and water quality and lowering ambient air temperature all things that Canada Goose Jackets make a community healthier. canada goose coats on sale
New York, another of the 100 Resilient Cities, has more than 8 million residents, about 400,000 of whom live in areas that would be directly affected by rising sea levels and coastal flooding. In anticipation of more intense and more frequent floods, the city plans to clean 100 industrial properties in areas prone to flooding, Canada Goose Outlet to reduce the risk of toxic chemicals spreading through neighborhoods in a storm surge. Planners also hope to integrate storm water drainage systems into all public canada goose outlet projects, including streets, schools and public housing.
Companies, institutions and industries can take on this kind of thinking on a smaller scale especially Canada Goose Parka since doing so is better for their employees and their bottom lines. For instance, one major lesson from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast was for hospitals to put their generators above ground level, so they can keep the power on even if water floods the basement or ground floor. In Houston, hospitals on the Texas Medical Center campus took several years and spent billions of dollars to install “submarine doors” and Canada Goose online other structural features to seal off their ground levels from incoming flooding, after hurricanes in the early 2000s destroyed decades of medical research, killed lab animals and forced dangerous hospital evacuations.
buy canada goose jacket Schlegelmilch, the disaster preparedness expert, called these hopeful examples “pockets of preparedness,” but said the scales haven’t yet tipped toward a larger culture that prioritizes “resilience” in urban planning. buy canada goose jacket
cheap Canada Goose “It’s part of the conversation more than it used to be, but I don’t think anyone has cracked the code in terms of how to do it in a comprehensive way,” he said. One major reason: cost. cheap Canada Goose
“One of the challenges that people run up against is that you can take a long view, but then when it comes to actually doing it, it comes down to dollars and cents,” Schlegelmilch said. “It’s more expensive to do it, you have to choose areas that are going canada goose coats to be protected versus others that are too expensive to be protected, and http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org there’s usually not one decision maker in this.”
Canada Goose Jackets “It’s very difficult to convince the greater political community about the importance of this between events,” said Nicolette Louissaint, executive director of Healthcare Ready, an emergency preparedness nonprofit that coordinates medical care immediately after disasters. Canada Goose Jackets
uk canada goose Emergency managers working in communities hostile to the notion of climate change may find that using code terms like “natural disaster” or “extreme event” may serve them well in the short term, Schlegelmilch said. But agreeing about the impact that climate change could have on communities will influence how much they’re canada goose coats on sale willing to prepare for the future. uk canada goose
Canada Goose Outlet “If storms are going to hold more rain as a result of climate change, then it means that your history of rainfall is not a good indicator of what your future rainfall is,” he said. “If sea levels are rising and if you’re five feet above sea level now, but you’re going to be one foot above sea level for the next storm surge, it’s a different level of mitigation.” Canada Goose Outlet
canada goose store “It could be the difference between your sewage system and power plant being able to operate, and being knocked out of commission for days or even weeks on end,” he added. canada goose store
canada goose black friday sale There’s every reason to expect that the health consequences of climate change will affect millions of people in dense urban areas. New York City’s resiliency plan acknowledges that climate change endangers residents because of rising sea levels, heat waves and flooding from extreme storms, and that areas with strong networks of schools, community centers and safe streets will be better equipped to withstand the health challenges on the horizon canada goose black friday sale.