Module 1 – Hurricane Ike
Within the first paragraph of Module One there is a reference to Hurricane Katrina. However, today I’d like to talk about Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike destroyed the city of Houston and her neighbors on September 1, 2008. After a professional disaster analysis, experts estimate the damage to be around 37.50 billion USD. There were 195 total fatalities. The fastest winds of the hurricane almost reached 143 MPH. There was extensive property damage which we will discuss in future modules. The property damage is what I would like to focus on. Two particular stories that come to mind would come from two different sources. The first is from the New York Times. The first story is titled “The Aftermath of Hurricane Ike”. There were pictures and descriptions of the aftermath of the storm on the website for the New York Times. The second story that peaked my interest came from a source called Fox News.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/15/us/0916-IKE_index.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FHurricane%20Ike&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/09/13/complete-multimedia-coverage-hurricane-ike.html
Module 10 – David Filteau (djf5349)
This week we discussed the three dimensions of vulnerability: Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. We defined exposure as the degree to which people/things could be affected by coastal hazards. When giving examples of the 2004 Tsunami destruction it resounded to me that this concept surely must be entangled with the other two. Secondly, we defined sensitivity as the degree to which humans could be harmed by exposure. Lastly, we stated that adaptive capacity is the degree to which a community could mitigate the potential for harm by taking action to reduce exposure or sensitivity. Reading the definition of adaptive capacity for the first time brought back memories of all of the people who were flooding into my home city of Houston from New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. One thing that resounded to me was that the education level of those affected has a serious impact on their adaptive capacity. When giving this concept more thought I realized that this lack of education would leave you much more exposed when compared to an educated person.
To learn more about how the concept of a lower education affects those after a coastal disaster I decided to do more research to integrate what I had learned with what I was curious about. I wanted to learn more about how the educational system of New Orleans was effected after this great storm. If the school system was to recover fast this was to be an example of a human system possessing high resilience. If the school system went into shambles following the aftermath it obviously could not be classified as resilient. My curiosity led me to “The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education” which specifically described post-Katrina school conditions.
“In late August, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. As a result, 20,000 African-American college students in New Orleans suddenly had nowhere to attend classes. About half of these black students were enrolled at the three historically black universities in the city. Damage estimates from the hurricane at these three institutions reach as high as $850 million.
It is certain that the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina has produced long-lasting damage to African-American higher education, not only in New Orleans, but in the nation as a whole. ” – Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
Simply, the New Orleans school system was not resilient. It was not resilient because a resilient school system would have been able to at least seat students a couple weeks after the storm. This was not the case. If fact, due to the age of most of the buildings combined with their “necessity” to not be coded like newer buildings, many schools in New Orleans had to either rebuild from ground-up or deemed to be too inefficient to rebuild. This created a bottle-neck as these students were then funneled to other schools which were at capacity and under reconstruction. Musical chairs with entire schools if you will.
An article in the Washington Post caught my eye because Education Secretary Duncan stated that he believed Hurricane Katrina was one of the best things that could have ever happened to the Louisiana school system. In his mind he saw the hurricane as a way for the state to start fresh and build a school system founded on a system of unity and preparedness should another such disaster occur. Additionally, Duncan stated that Katrina “forced” the city of New Orleans to address seriously underperforming public schools.
Regardless of if you are looking at the glass half-full or half-empty, you must still be thankful that we live in a nation that has wonderful resources for emergency response as well as citizens that are constantly working to ensure that the response is effective.
Resources:
Washington Post – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012903259.html
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education – http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_hurrican_katrina.html
Earth 107 Course Website – https://cms.psu.edu/section/content/default.asp?WCI=pgDisplay&WCU=CRSCNT&ENTRY_ID=404084F002F44F56AC62114B5A6F469F
Module 9 – David Filteau (djf5349)
While learning about early river construction in unit 9 I was fascinated by the concept of river life. Examples in module 9 of such life were shown in Italy, Thailand and even the USA. I live in Texas so I have always heard about early life on the Mississippi from my Cajun friends. Mark Twain popularized the Mississippi with novels such as Huckleberry Finn. The river was a major resource for transportation of people and goods throughout the Southern United States. This activity led to the popularization of the wooden paddle-boat image used for so many purposes today.
Today, the river is still used for the transportation of goods and people. Many casinos and tourist attractions have been built on the river based upon the market of the tourism industry. Said growth is excellent for the commerce and economy of the receiving-river city however not so wonderful for the local ecosystem. The building of hard structures to protect corporate assets has outweighed the forethought of using soft structure techniques so as to not disrupt those also enjoying the “mighty Mississippi”.
Module 4 _ David Filteau
While reading through module 4 I found the measurement of sea level changes to be particularly interesting. The concept of tide gauges and instruments that allow scientists to learn about the tidal patterns of the ocean was especially interesting. Also, I had had not thought of the possibilities of satellites for the purposes of measuring sea level changes. When we can combine data from multiple locations at the same time using satellites it gives us the ability to compare the changes between bodies of water in real time. For this module I found an article that had to do with the usage of satellites for the purpose of monitoring ocean levels and similar oceanic activity. The article I selected comes from NASA which is a particularly close source being that I’m from Houston, Texas. Titled “NASA, University Study Shows Rising Seas Slowed by Increasing Water on Land”, the passage describes the usage of satellites to observe the global changes in precipitation over all land masses. One interesting fact that I learned from this article is that the 2002 launch of NASA’s twin ‘GRACE’ satellites provided the first tools to quantify land liquid water storage trends. This technology also enables the agricultural regulatory commissions of the world more accurate data to limit or increase the use of specific irrigation methods to help keep the water level at an ideal range.
The contents of this article changes my original thoughts on how the human race uses water for agricultural purposes. In essence, we have to be smarter about how our water consumption and usage has an effect on the environment. I hope to continue learning about how advancements in space orbit technology will allow us to learn more about earth’s oceanic environment.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-university-study-shows-rising-seas-slowed-by-increasing-water-on-land
Module 4 Post – David Filteau (djf5349)
While reading through module 4 I found the measurement of sea level changes to be particularly interesting. The concept of tide gauges and instruments that allow scientists to learn about the tidal patterns of the ocean was especially interesting. Also, I had had not thought of the possibilities of satellites for the purposes of measuring sea level changes. When we can combine data from multiple locations at the same time using satellites it gives us the ability to compare the changes between bodies of water in real time. For this module I found an article that had to do with the usage of satellites for the purpose of monitoring ocean levels and similar oceanic activity. The article I selected comes from NASA which is a particularly close source being that I’m from Houston, Texas. Titled “NASA, University Study Shows Rising Seas Slowed by Increasing Water on Land”, the passage describes the usage of satellites to observe the global changes in precipitation over all land masses. One interesting fact that I learned from this article is that the 2002 launch of NASA’s twin ‘GRACE’ satellites provided the first tools to quantify land liquid water storage trends. This technology also enables the agricultural regulatory commissions of the world more accurate data to limit or increase the use of specific irrigation methods to help keep the water level at an ideal range.
The contents of this article changes my original thoughts on how the human race uses water for agricultural purposes. In essence, we have to be smarter about how our water consumption and usage has an effect on the environment. I hope to continue learning about how advancements in space orbit technology will allow us to learn more about earth’s oceanic environment.
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-university-study-shows-rising-seas-slowed-by-increasing-water-on-land
Rhode Island’s Rising Tide – David Filteau
For my entry I was intrigued by an article published by NOAA on “climate.gov”. The article described how the city of Rhode Island was constantly having to close its hurricane flood gates so as to keep it dry after it RAINED. Clearly there was a geographic issue. I do not live in Rhode Island but the pictures from the article made it seem as if Rhode Island is prone to this sort of flash flooding because of it’s relationship with the coast. This made me think of how we learned about the erosional forces that can occur on a coastline. It is possible that perhaps the coastline has eroded away and now Rhode Island is gradually getting closer and closer to the waterline. I would like to pursue what technologies we are developing to help our living situation while also not being terrible for the environment. For example, perhaps some time of biodegradable barrier? What I have read hasn’t really changed any of my opinions but I definitely believe that people should be careful about where they build homes.
**https://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/rhode-islands-rising-tide**