Hurricane Irene
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Sea level “jumps” 5 inches. Probably nothing to worry about
Every once in a while, Mother Nature throws a curve ball.
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Buy a $150,000 bag of onions to save a family farm
Oh man, you're probably wishing you hadn't spent that $4,500 on a Rick Perry head planter yesterday. If you'd saved it, you could have put it towards ... well, a bag of onions, but also they'll throw in some dirt!
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After the flood [VIDEO]
Late summer is time most farmers have been working for all year, and when your crop gets wiped out, it can mean losing the bulk of your income.
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It takes a village to save a drowning farm
After Hurricane Irene, soaked farmers are trying to get by with a little help from their friends.
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How to assess hurricane damage using waffles
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has an idiosyncratic (and tasty) way of determining the damage caused by a hurricane: the Waffle House Index. The iconic Southern chain is so widespread -- and so stalwart -- that you can gauge a storm's severity based on whether the local Waffle Houses closed.
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Here's a quick roundup of the insane ways the right is reacting to Irene
If you thought Katrina represented the pinnacle of storm-related fail for right-wing politicians ... well, you're right. But that doesn't mean they don't really reach for the crazy when a lesser storm hits the East Coast. Current and former Republican presidential candidates and their little dog Fox were all whipped to great heights of lunacy by Irene's winds, and they busted out some grade-A artisanal tomfoolery over the weekend.
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How the smart grid of the future will prevent power outages for millions
Right now there are millions of people without power thanks to the wind and heavy rainfall that accompanied hurricane Irene, and I'm one of them. It sucks. Having to call the utility company just to let them know that they've failed me once again is a symptom of our antediluvian electricity distribution system.
Commonwealth Edison of Northern Illinois thinks so, too. Recently, they explained to the Daily Herald how a smart grid would have prevented outages for hundreds of thousands of their customers in the wake of recent July storms.
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Global warming will make future hurricanes worse, full stop
Ignore the members of the peanut gallery bleating about whether or not we can blame hurricane Irene on global warming. What matters is that in the future, warmer temperatures will mean more moisture in the air, so more flooding. And higher sea levels will make cities, especially New York, substantially more vulnerable to storm surges.
Elizabeth Kolbert, in The New Yorker:
Are more events like Irene what you would expect in a warming world? Here the answer is a straightforward “yes."
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Jaded New Yorkers aside, Irene was serious business
With Hurricane Irene, now a tropical storm, going relatively easy on Gotham, some New Yorkers are feeling ripped off. The New York Times quotes several locals furiously white-whining about extra batteries, too much tuna fish, and the general "buzz kill" of not being subject to death and property damage.