Category: Flooding
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Sediment-Like Materials Spur Emergency
The only thing muddier than the water is the prose by Joe Fitzgerald When I declared a local emergency when a hurricane was threatening to come across the hill 22 years ago, the city manager had made it reasonably clear that a local emergency didn’t mean that much. Mostly buying up bottled water, he said,…
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About That $660 Million
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Earlier this year, I had an article in Bacon’s Rebellion discussing the concerns of U.S. Senator Mark Warner about a possible hold-up of federal disaster funds meant for the repair of the damage to the Virginia Creeper Trail caused by Hurricane Helene. Several readers expressed their consternation, and rightly so, at the…
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No, RTD, Hurricane Helene Not Proof of “Climate Change”
By Steve Haner The Richmond Times-Dispatch no longer has a climate alarmist on staff, so today it fell to one of its liberal political columnists (it still has two of those; they will be the last employees out the door) to blame Hurricane Helene on “climate change.” It was a terrible storm, no question. But…
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Covering the Flooding
Because I slammed the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday for its lack of coverage of the flooding in Southwest Virginia, I need to give it credit for today’s front page story, complete with a large photograph, regarding the response and cleanup. One of its best reporters, Dave Ress, describes some of the effects, along with the work…
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There is News Outside of Richmond
This past weekend, the remnants of hurricane Helene caused major flooding and damage in southwest Virginia. Two people died as a result of the storm. But you wouldn’t know this if you just depended on the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Not a word in the digital or print editions, except for a brief mention in the wire…
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The Costliest Floods in Interior Virginia Since 1969
by James C. Sherlock Updated September 27, 2024 Ahead of Helene, I recommend re-reading this story. I offer this survey of Virginia’s biggest interior floods since 1969, mostly courtesy of the National Weather Service, as equal time for my reporting on coastal flooding in Virginia. The interior is where the most deaths have occurred…
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A Small Victory – So Far – for Common Sense and Flood Mitigation in Virginia Beach
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes things work. Perhaps they will this time. There was a time in Virginia Beach when a partnership between a developer and a church to build new houses would have breezed through the Planning Commission and the City Council. That kind of open season on clearing and building on Virginia Beach’s…
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Along the Back Roads –the Rise and Demise of a Town
Let’s take a break from DEI; the shortcomings of UVa, W&M and the rest of higher education; and all the other issues that get us riled up. Virginia is an interesting state to travel and see. I have always liked to travel the back roads. It is slower than the interstates and the primary highways,…
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Federal Flood Insurance Needs to Cover Its Costs
by James C. Sherlock Virginia is suing FEMA over its new risk rating methodology for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Virginia’s suit says that the new methodology: doesn’t recognize many mitigation efforts, nor does it clearly explain how rates are calculated based on mitigation efforts. This means that (Virginia’s) mitigation efforts don’t result in…
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New Offshore Wind Power Project Proposed to Come Ashore in a Virginia Beach Flood Zone
by James C. Sherlock There is a dominant engineering problem in bringing offshore wind-generated electricity ashore in Virginia Beach. Flooding and water tables very close to the surface are the twin reasons there are few basements in Virginia Beach. And those that have them regret it. The 2020 Virginia Beach FEMA Flood Hazard Map is…
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McKinsey & Company Has You Covered
by James C. Sherlock Ever feel not only disconnected from, but ignored by central planners? Do you run a shoe store in Sterling or work for a hospital in Richmond? Use natural gas in your home or work? Teach in a public school in Wise County? Drive a gas-or diesel-powered vehicle? In other words, do…
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Sinking the Newest Sea Level Rise Exaggerations
by Steve Haner So, let me get this straight. If we willingly keep paying the carbon tax on our electric bills, then thousands of parcels of prime Virginia waterfront won’t slip beneath the waves? Was that the point of these parallel prophecies of doom in the September 12 Richmond Times-Dispatch and Virginia Mercury?
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The Real and Present Threat of Flooding in Virginia Requires Coordinated Action
by James C. Sherlock An editorial in The Virginian-Pilot this morning is titled, “A worrisome, watery future,” and is built around an update on flooding from NOAA. It is a grave situation. NOAA projects one foot of combined sea level rise and subsidence here in Hampton Roads by 2050. The adjacent map has not been…
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Youngkin Backs Virginia Senate, House Bills that Offer Real Coastal Flood Protection
by James C. Sherlock Some of us, led by then-Delegate Jason Miyares, have been trying for years to establish a state authority that finally can bring regional storm surge protections to Virginia. Now we have a chance. For whatever reasons, we could never get a governor behind the proposal. Gov. Youngkin has stepped up and…
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A Regulatory Path to End the RGGI Carbon Tax
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) will proceed to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon tax compact by the same route Virginia entered it: he will push to repeal the underlying regulation. As with much else in his promised “Day…