Hurricane Ike battered Texas, causing untold damage for millions of home-owners in Houston and Galveston. But some people in Chicago had a pretty bad weekend, too.
After raining all day on September 13 and 14, the Windy City became the flooded city. The far-reaching tendrils of the hurricane dumped 9 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. Roads and basements became water logged. The Chicago River overflowed in some parts, leading to the evacuation of about 300 homes. Flooding in Northwest Indiana led to the closure of Interstate 90.
Can we blame global warming for hurricane-related damage this far north and east? I think so….
At Progress Illinois, a blog post on flooding that occured this summer examines global warming and Midwest floods. Experts seem to think that global warming is certainly leading to more flooding. According to Gene Tackle, an Iowa State University professor quoted in this post, the Midwest will be experiencing more flooding: “There has been in the last 30 years a tendency toward more heavy rainfall events in the central U.S. We have a past trend and our models, based on increased greenhouse gases produced by humans, indicate that the trend will continue.”
So Chicago may be more than 1,000 miles from Texas, but it is still in harms way.
Photo courtesy of Jerry Poluzny at Flickr.
Sarah Pressman Lovinger
In trying to find the most effective way to help other people reduce their carbon footprints, Sarah turned to one of her favorite activities: writing. She started a green business, chicagogreenlife.com, to help her clients plan newsletters for their eco-friendly businesses. She also started her blog, mygreenerlife.blogspot.com, to provide useful advice to anyone who wants to lead a more environmentally friendly life. She also regularly contributes to www.afreshsqueeze.com, to let other Chicagoans know about eco-friendly stores, restaurants, and events. Sarah, an internal medicine doctor, works part-time in community health centers in the Chicago area. She graduated from Barnard College and Columbia University, and she lives in Evanston, IL, with her daughter and her husband. Stop by some time for some delicious, sustainable food--Sarah and her husband love to cook and entertain--any extras will end up outback in their composter.