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The oldest climate story isn’t about a wildfire or a hurricane, a heat wave or a drought. It’s about a flood.
“The deluge is terrifying not just for its destructive capacity but also for the way it undoes all that has been accomplished, brings us back to the fathomless chaos of beginning,” The New Yorker’s Avi Steinberg writes of this most primordial human fear, the story of which has been echoed across cultures and religions from the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh to the Bible’s Old Testament to the Ancient Greek Deucalion Myth to stories told by Native peoples across North America. It might also be humankind’s oldest cautionary tale: When the rain starts and the waters begin to rise, pay attention.
In the United States, floods are the deadliest extreme weather phenomenon after heat waves. In particular, flash floods — which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration distinguishes as flooding that “begins within 6 hours, and often within 3 hours, of ... heavy rainfall” — often take people by surprise, or are dangerously underestimated.
With Hurricane Hilary threatening to dump potentially a year’s worth of rain on parts of the southwestern United States in the span of 72 hours, learning how to react to rising waters ahead of time can be life-saving. This is what you need to know.
Unlike learning your personal wildfire risk, which is relatively easy, it can be frustrating to try to figure out the flood risk of your home.
FEMA publishes flood maps (you can search by your address here), but the shading key can be hard to make out and I had difficulty getting the images to load. I had my best luck navigating to this version of the map, clicking on the location I was interested in, then clicking to the second page of the pop-up information, where you will see “Flood Hazard Zones” followed by a letter. The letters B, C, and X designate moderate- to low-risk flood areas (though the risk in these locations is not non-existent!) while high-risk areas are marked with A or V.
An example of where to find your individual flood hazard zone on the FEMA flood map.FEMA
Personally, I preferred the clear information laid out at RiskFactor.com. The website told me my neighborhood’s risk (I live by the river in New York City, so mine is “moderate”) and the number of properties in the area that have a “greater than ... 26% chance of being severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years” (for my neighborhood, 16%!). The website will even estimate the “max depth of flooding” of a specific home or building for this year and in the next 30 years.
If you are in a moderate- to high-risk area on either map, you should take steps to prepare for a flash flood. Even if you score lower, you might want to consider preparing your house because minimal risk doesn’t denote zero risk.
Either way, you should read the below section about “what to do if you’re in a car during a flash flood,” since such a scenario can happen to anyone.
You don’t have to wait for a flash flood warning to begin to prepare for the worst. But if you’re in a situation where you can anticipate flooding — like much of Southern California, Nevada, and southwestern Arizona can right now — you should prepare ahead of time to run errands so you won’t need to leave the house during the storm. Keep in mind, the best way to stay safe during a flash flood is to not encounter the flood in the first place.
Make sure you have enough food for several days, as well as enough pet food for your animals. Also be sure to pick up any prescriptions or medications you might need. Anticipate any other reasons why you might need to leave your home and try to prevent or limit them ahead of time.
Confirm that the contents of your “go bag” or emergency evacuation kit are up-to-date. Here’s a generic checklist of what should go in it, as well as a version in Spanish.
Check the batteries in your flashlights and charge backup batteries for electronics like cell phones, in case the power goes out.
Clean up your yard if you have time; secure outdoor furniture so it doesn’t get blown around.
Prepare electricity-free entertainment options (now is the time to start brushing up on gin rummy).
Check on neighbors or relatives who might not be aware of the coming storm or have made preparations yet.
I can't believe I have to write this, but absolutely do not order Doordash or Uber Eats or food or products from any other courier service during flash flood conditions. Doing so puts other people in direct danger. Your ramen craving can be satisfied later.
Never wait out a storm in a basement or an apartment that is below ground level if you live in an area with moderate to high flood risk; move to a higher floor or find a different location to shelter in. Even if your home or basement has been okay in previous rainstorms, major flood events can overwhelm city sewer systems and back up water into areas it hasn’t reached before. As Reza Khanbilvardi, a professor of civil engineering and hydrology at City College of New York, told Gothamist after Hurricane Ida killed dozens in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in 2021, “Apartments in cellars and basements can be death traps.” Paved urban areas can be especially dangerous in these conditions.
Follow potential evacuation alerts on your phone or on a radio (yes, they still exist!). Sign up for alerts now if you haven’t already.
Seal your important documents in a gallon-size freezer bag or other waterproof bag if you anticipate needing to evacuate, The New York Times suggests.
Unplug electronics and move any valuables to higher floors or locations if you have time to prepare for an evacuation.
If water enters your home, evacuate immediately with your go bag. Do not wait or try to retrieve any additional items. One of the most common ways people get hurt during flash floods is by waiting too long to evacuate. Use your best judgment — if it feels safer to climb to a higher floor than to try to drive to higher ground, do so, but avoid sheltering in an attic where FEMA warns you could get trapped. “Go on the roof only if necessary,” FEMA writes, and “signal for help.”
Do not attempt to walk or swim through floodwaters. Six inches of moving water is enough to knock an adult off their feet. Electrocution is also the second-biggest cause of death during a flood after drowning; never attempt to turn off a circuit breaker box or touch appliances if you are wet or standing in water.
If you come in contact with floodwaters, be sure to wash that area of your body very well when you reach safety.
If at all possible, avoid driving during flash flood conditions. Of course, this isn’t always possible — often people are out when they get caught in a storm. The National Weather Service reports that nearly half of flash-flood fatalities are vehicle-related and the “majority” of victims are male.
First and foremost, never, ever drive through floodwaters or around a roadblock or barrier. “Turn around, don’t drown” is a well-worn NWS slogan for a reason. Just 6 inches of flowing water can move a car and just 12 inches can carry it away — it doesn’t matter how good of a driver you are.
Additionally, even if the water looks shallow, it might not be. “Do not attempt to cross a flooded road even if the car in front of you made it through,” meteorologist Bonnie Schneider writes in her book Extreme Weather.
If your car stalls in water, first responders want you to remember “seatbelt, windows, out.” Do not waste valuable time trying to call 911 and wait for rescue. Unbuckle immediately so you are free to move. Then roll down the windows so that if the car’s electrical system shorts out, you still have a means of escape. (As a backup, buy a “Lifehammer” to punch your way through the window and out of your car. If you do not have a Lifehammer or something similar, the pointy metal ends of a headrest can work in a pinch, The New York Times reports.)
At this point, there is “no right answer,” Joseph Bushra, the medical director with Narberth Ambulance, told WHYY. You need to assess the situation. If it is safe to exit your car and escape to higher ground, do so, but plan your path before getting out of the car and remember, just 6 inches of water can knock an adult over.
If it is not safe to try to make it to higher ground, then you need to get on top of your car. Turn on your hazard lights to make the car visible to first responders. Evacuate children first, starting with the oldest child, and tell them to hang onto whatever they can, The New York Times advises. Once you have evacuated and are on top of your car, then call 911.
It’s not called a “worst-case scenario” for nothing. So what do you do if you end up in the water during a flash flood?
Your number one priority should be to try to get out of the water as quickly as you can. Climb a tree, a building, a car or truck, or head toward any available higher ground.
If you are forced to swim, move perpendicular to the current. Keep in mind this is a last possible resort: “People need to realize that most people who lose their footing in a flash flood don’t get out,” Julie Munger, the founder of Sierra Rescue International, told The New York Times.
If swimming to safety isn’t possible, the Riverside County Fire Department recommends orienting your body so you’re on your back, with your feet down-current, so you can use them to move debris out of the way. “Most victims in swift water die when they get pinned against obstacles, or get trapped in submerged debris and vegetation,” the department writes. Get out of the water or on top of something as quickly as possible — and hold on tight.
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A war of attrition is now turning in opponents’ favor.
A solar developer’s defeat in Massachusetts last week reveals just how much stronger project opponents are on the battlefield after the de facto repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Last week, solar developer PureSky pulled five projects under development around the western Massachusetts town of Shutesbury. PureSky’s facilities had been in the works for years and would together represent what the developer has claimed would be one of the state’s largest solar projects thus far. In a statement, the company laid blame on “broader policy and regulatory headwinds,” including the state’s existing renewables incentives not keeping pace with rising costs and “federal policy updates,” which PureSky said were “making it harder to finance projects like those proposed near Shutesbury.”
But tucked in its press release was an admission from the company’s vice president of development Derek Moretz: this was also about the town, which had enacted a bylaw significantly restricting solar development that the company was until recently fighting vigorously in court.
“There are very few areas in the Commonwealth that are feasible to reach its clean energy goals,” Moretz stated. “We respect the Town’s conservation go als, but it is clear that systemic reforms are needed for Massachusetts to source its own energy.”
This stems from a story that probably sounds familiar: after proposing the projects, PureSky began reckoning with a burgeoning opposition campaign centered around nature conservation. Led by a fresh opposition group, Smart Solar Shutesbury, activists successfully pushed the town to drastically curtail development in 2023, pointing to the amount of forest acreage that would potentially be cleared in order to construct the projects. The town had previously not permitted facilities larger than 15 acres, but the fresh change went further, essentially banning battery storage and solar projects in most areas.
When this first happened, the state Attorney General’s office actually had PureSky’s back, challenging the legality of the bylaw that would block construction. And PureSky filed a lawsuit that was, until recently, ongoing with no signs of stopping. But last week, shortly after the Treasury Department unveiled its rules for implementing Trump’s new tax and spending law, which basically repealed the Inflation Reduction Act, PureSky settled with the town and dropped the lawsuit – and the projects went away along with the court fight.
What does this tell us? Well, things out in the country must be getting quite bleak for solar developers in areas with strident and locked-in opposition that could be costly to fight. Where before project developers might have been able to stomach the struggle, money talks – and the dollars are starting to tell executives to lay down their arms.
The picture gets worse on the macro level: On Monday, the Solar Energy Industries Association released a report declaring that federal policy changes brought about by phasing out federal tax incentives would put the U.S. at risk of losing upwards of 55 gigawatts of solar project development by 2030, representing a loss of more than 20 percent of the project pipeline.
But the trade group said most of that total – 44 gigawatts – was linked specifically to the Trump administration’s decision to halt federal permitting for renewable energy facilities, a decision that may impact generation out west but has little-to-know bearing on most large solar projects because those are almost always on private land.
Heatmap Pro can tell us how much is at stake here. To give you a sense of perspective, across the U.S., over 81 gigawatts worth of renewable energy projects are being contested right now, with non-Western states – the Northeast, South and Midwest – making up almost 60% of that potential capacity.
If historical trends hold, you’d expect a staggering 49% of those projects to be canceled. That would be on top of the totals SEIA suggests could be at risk from new Trump permitting policies.
I suspect the rate of cancellations in the face of project opposition will increase. And if this policy landscape is helping activists kill projects in blue states in desperate need of power, like Massachusetts, then the future may be more difficult to swallow than we can imagine at the moment.
And more on the week’s most important conflicts around renewables.
1. Wells County, Indiana – One of the nation’s most at-risk solar projects may now be prompting a full on moratorium.
2. Clark County, Ohio – Another Ohio county has significantly restricted renewable energy development, this time with big political implications.
3. Daviess County, Kentucky – NextEra’s having some problems getting past this county’s setbacks.
4. Columbia County, Georgia – Sometimes the wealthy will just say no to a solar farm.
5. Ottawa County, Michigan – A proposed battery storage facility in the Mitten State looks like it is about to test the state’s new permitting primacy law.
A conversation with Jeff Seidman, a professor at Vassar College.
This week’s conversation is with Jeff Seidman, a professor at Vassar College and an avid Heatmap News reader. Last week Seidman claimed a personal victory: he successfully led an effort to overturn a moratorium on battery storage development in the town of Poughkeepsie in Hudson Valley, New York. After reading a thread about the effort he posted to BlueSky, I reached out to chat about what my readers might learn from his endeavors – and how they could replicate them, should they want to.
The following conversation was lightly edited for clarity.
So how did you decide to fight against a battery storage ban? What was your process here?
First of all, I’m not a professional in this area, but I’ve been learning about climate stuff for a long time. I date my education back to when Vox started and I read my first David Roberts column there. But I just happened to hear from someone I know that in the town of Poughkeepsie where I live that a developer made a proposal and local residents who live nearby were up in arms about it. And I heard the town was about to impose a moratorium – this was back in March 2024.
I actually personally know some of the town board members, and we have a Democratic majority who absolutely care about climate change but didn’t particularly know that battery power was important to the energy transition and decarbonizing the grid. So I organized five or six people to go to the town board meeting, wrote a letter, and in that initial board meeting we characterized the reason we were there as being about climate.
There were a lot more people on the other side. They were very angry. So we said do a short moratorium because every day we’re delaying this, peaker plants nearby are spewing SOx and NOx into the air. The status quo has a cost.
But then the other side, they were clearly triggered by the climate stuff and said renewables make the grid more expensive. We’d clearly pressed a button in the culture wars. And then we realized the mistake, because we lost that one.
When you were approaching getting this overturned, what considerations did you make?
After that initial meeting and seeing how those mentions of climate or even renewables had triggered a portion of the board, and the audience, I really course-corrected. I realized we had to make this all about local benefits. So that’s what I tried to do going forward.
Even for people who were climate concerned, it was really clear that what they perceived as a present risk in their neighborhood was way more salient than an abstract thing like contributing to the fight against climate change globally. So even for people potentially on your side, you have to make it about local benefits.
The other thing we did was we called a two-hour forum for the county supervisors and mayor’s association because we realized talking to them in a polarized environment was not a way to have a conversation. I spoke and so did Paul Rogers, a former New York Fire Department lieutenant who is now in fire safety consulting – he sounds like a firefighter and can speak with a credibility that I could never match in front of, for example, local fire chiefs. Winning them over was important. And we took more than an hour of questions.
Stage one was to convince them of why batteries were important. Stage two was to show that a large number of constituents were angry about the moratorium, but that Republicans were putting on a unified front against this – an issue to win votes. So there was a period where Democrats on the Poughkeepsie board were convinced but it was politically difficult for them.
But stage three became helping them do the right thing, even with the risk of there being a political cost.
What would you say to those in other parts of the country who want to do what you did?
If possible, get a zoning law in place before there is any developer with a specific proposal because all of the opposition to this project came from people directly next to the proposed project. Get in there before there’s a specific project site.
Even if you’re in a very blue city, don’t make it primarily about climate. Abstract climate loses to non-abstract perceived risk every time. Make it about local benefits.
To the extent you can, read and educate yourself about what good batteries provide to the grid. There’s a lot of local economic benefits there.
I am trying to put together some of the resources I used into a packet, a tool kit, so that people elsewhere can learn from it and draw from those resources.
Also, the more you know, the better. All those years of reading David Roberts and Heatmap gave me enough knowledge to actually answer questions here. It works especially when you have board members who may be sympathetic but need to be reassured.