It may turn out yet our West Virginia hills are good for something besides admiring.
For those living atop them or on their slopes that may still prove to be a haven from “a floodier future.”
Yes, we know that term was used by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist to describe the high likelihood of increasing tidal flooding along our nation’s coasts.
But judging by this year’s local rainfall to date and recent years’ record and near-record amounts of rain, “a floodier future” looks to apply here, too.
And that doesn’t even account for extreme events like the devastating June 2016 flash flooding and flash flooding two weeks ago.
Even last week, the rain at times appeared to be almost constant, resulting in flooded structures, downed trees, motor vehicle accidents, degraded roads and so on.
Obviously, it appears the future is already here, and it’s “a flash-floodier one” that only looks to get worse.
It’s tempting to diverge here and go on a tirade about the disaster that followed the catastrophic 2016 flooding that claimed 23 lives.
At that time, FEMA deemed more than 3,500 homes structurally damaged from flooding while the state reported 1,500 destroyed.
We are not going to rehash our outrage at the almost drip-like pace of the recovery from that devastation three years later.
Leave it at this: At last count, under the state’s RISE program, work has been completed on 51 homes — 46 of them mobile homes. Enough said.
But there’s a lot more to be said about the even slower pace of our state to act on flood prevention and mitigation.
We applauded the Legislature’s unanimous passage of HB 2935 in 2017 relating to state flood protection planning. That bill established a state Flood Protection Planning Council that reports to a Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding.
This six-page bill does not contain dozens of regulations to impose new rule changes. The idea instead is to get state department heads together and ready recommendation to lawmakers.
Such recommendations as tougher regulations for building in floodplains, improved warning systems, better methods for logging and surface mine operations to minimize rapid runoff, and more public awareness.
Though we are unsure and even doubtful the Legislature has acted on such recommendations, it should.
Aside from getting to the bottom of the abysmal recovery from the 2016 disaster, the Legislature needs to act on flood prevention.
For the record, we’re no experts on climate science. But most of us have the good sense to listen to those who are.
What they tell us is extreme weather events and patterns are only going to become more urgent and complicated every day.
Though heading for the hills might be a short-term solution to flooding, we must do more.
