Growing Storm Intensity

No matter where you receive your news from, it is likely you saw a news report covering the devastating rain storms which swamped Texas.  This lead to Gov. Greg Abbott declaring 70 counties as disaster areas because of all the flooding and severe damage caused.  This year has been witness to an extremely active hurricane season so far and the past two winters have set records for snowfall in many parts of the country.  With all of these storms and higher than normal precipitation levels it is more important now than ever before for people to properly prepare themselves and their property for flooding conditions.

In case you’re thinking this is just a small blip on the radar, and it isn’t worth investing in protecting your property, scientists are saying these increasingly destructive storms are here to stay for the foreseeable future.  As the climate changes more energy is being released into the atmosphere and this is pushing normally powerful storms over the top and turning them into what we saw in Texas last month.

For home and property owners it is important to have your property set up to protect against this more common threat of flooding.  Tsurumi submersible pumps installed in your basement and set up to pump flood water away to the nearest storm drain system or away to a more distant location is one of the best things you can do.  Running a pump in your basement to keep the flood water rising more than a foot or two in your basement will protect the rest of your home’s belongings and help protect your foundation.  In addition to installing this set up home owners should keep sand bags in a dry area which they can access quickly to put in front of basement windows when flooding is eminent.  Trying to install or purchase supplies along these lines when a storm is eminent will be too late.

With flooding becoming more likely for regions of the U.S. it is more necessary now for families and businesses to have emergency plans for how to deal with these storms.  This means having emergency kits with food, flash lights, batteries and more ready and in a high location so that they aren’t caught by the flooding.  A good first aid kit is important, too.

While Texas and Oklahoma may be sighing in relieve because they have finally received a reprieve from the rain, the Pacific Ocean has already had more tropical storms on the ACE index in eight days than the entire Atlantic Ocean ACE index had in 2013.  Part of this spike in ACE units is due El Nino warming the Pacific basin ocean waters, so Pacific coast residents need to be extra vigilant this year.