Pirate's Cove

Well, of course it was. This is what a cult does, make everything fit into their cultish beliefs

‘Expect More’: Climate Change Raises Risk of Dam Failures

The dam that failed in Central Michigan on Tuesday gave way for the same reason most do: It was overwhelmed by water. Almost five inches of rain fell in the area in the previous two days, after earlier storms had saturated the ground and swollen the Tittabawassee River, which the dam held back.

No one can say yet whether the intense rainfall that preceded this disaster was made worse by climate change. But global warming is already causing some regions to become wetter, and increasing the frequency of extreme storms, according to the latest National Climate Assessment. The trends are expected to continue as the world gets even warmer.

No one can say it, but the Warmists at the NY Times will give it a shot

That puts more of the nation’s 91,500 dams at risk of failing, engineers and dam safety experts said.

“We should expect more of these down the road,” said Amir AghaKouchak, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Irvine. “It’s unfortunate but this is what the trend is going to be.”

Overall, he and others say, dams in the United States and elsewhere are unprepared for the changes coming in a warming world.

ZOMG!

The dam, at Edenville Township, about 30 miles upstream from Midland, had severe design problems: It had been cited for having spillways that were inadequate to handle a maximum flood, whether affected by climate change or not. (A second dam at Sanford, 10 miles downstream, was overrun by the arriving floodwaters but did not collapse.)

Oh, so, the dam had serious issues?

As Breitbart News reported, federal authorities revoked the license of the private company that owns the Edenville Dam in 2018 due to fears the dam could not withstand heavy floods, and the company’s failure to expand the spillway.

But as Karen Drew and Derick Hutchinson of WDIV channel 4 reported Wednesday evening, the State of Michigan failed to take corrective action once it assumed greater responsibility for oversight of the dam in October 2018:

Excitable Gretchen is also blaming ‘climate change’, rather than the failure of her administration to properly fix the dam. Back to the Times

The average age of dams in the United States is nearly 60. And nationwide, about 15,500 are classified as having a high hazard potential; in Michigan, more than 170 dams are in that category, as was the Edenville Dam. Repairing and upgrading high-hazard dams alone could cost tens of billions of dollars.

So, bad dams, but, hey, it’s got to really be about you eating burgers and driving a fossil fueled vehicle

And there is little doubt that extreme rainfall events are getting more frequent. The fourth National Climate Assessment, issued in 2018, showed that the number of heavy precipitation two-day events has increased in all regions except the Southwest since the early 1900s. And since 1950, extreme events increased by more than 50 percent in the Midwest.

But Bill McCormick, who is in charge of dam safety for the state of Colorado and is the incoming president of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, said short-duration extreme precipitation wasn’t the only problem.

Rainfall of longer duration but less intensity — an overall wetter climate, which climate models forecast for parts of the United States in coming decades — can contribute to the risk.

None of that proves anthropogenic causation. Also, consider that when those dams were built there was a lot less human construction in terms of roads and buildings, and more trees and land which took up the water. But, hey, the Cult always goes with witchcraft as their excuse.