Extreme storms and intense floods have disrupted communities across the country this summer.
Extreme storms and intense floods have disrupted communities across the country this summer. Death Valley, Yellowstone, eastern Kentucky, St. Louis, Dallas and Denver have all experienced heavy rainfall and flooding, leading to damage, deaths and displacement—and now in Jackson, Mississippi, a major water crisis is affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
Is all of this flooding normal? And why doesn’t our infrastructure seem to be up to the task?
Paul Chinowsky, professor emeritus of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, studies how infrastructure in the U.S. is aging amid a changing climate.
Keith Porter, adjoint professor in civil, environmental and architectural engineering, studies how natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, windstorms and wildfire affect infrastructure, society and the economy. Porter is also the lead author on a 2011 report about the ARkStorm (named for Atmospheric River 1,000), a major meteorological event expected to hit California in the next 150 years that could cause catastrophic flooding.
Read More: University of Colorado Boulder
Photo Credit: andrewtheshrew via Pixabay
