The official tropical weather thread - 2012

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ parvin can you get a photo of the hole that the lightning made?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Two shelters have been opened: Diego Martin Central Community Centre and the La Seiva Community Centre

[M_2NR]

As usual for ODPM updates... check their twitter and facebook pages...
https://twitter.com/odpm_tt

excellent stuff bai Duane and it's sad to see the same thing happening again this year.

[Corn Bird]

money doesnt prevent people from dumping garbage in water ways

money could be used to

1. ensure that there is an efficient garbage collection system
2. place dumpsters at strategic locations for those older homeowners who are terrified of going to the Beetham to dispose of rubbish
3. educate the public on the drawbacks of careless disposal of rubbish as was done about twenty years ago

might be useful to remember that foolish habits of people develop over many years; sometimes there are plausible reasons why they started the foolishness in the first place

[firstchoicett]

I hear one soul was lost may he/her find peace.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

waysssssss,all dat damage for ah small system,could imagine if it was a more adverse weather system.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

money doesnt prevent people from dumping garbage in water ways

money could be used to

1. ensure that there is an efficient garbage collection system
2. place dumpsters at strategic locations for those older homeowners who are terrified of going to the Beetham to dispose of rubbish
3. educate the public on the drawbacks of careless disposal of rubbish as was done about twenty years ago

might be useful to remember that foolish habits of people develop over many years; sometimes there are plausible reasons why they started the foolishness in the first place

can't argue with that, however even in places like POS where there is efficient garbage collection every day you still have people littering and throwing waste into the river

the "chase Charlie away" was a great campaign and a good spend, that was about 30 years ago IIRC. I think it's attitude change more than education needed today.

judging from the amount of water, no amount of garbage collection and/or planning could prevent a valley from flooding due to torrential rain.

Take a look at the flooding in Beijing and Hong Kong in July 2012.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/26/world ... index.html
Beijing hosted the Olympics in 2008 and Hong Kong is one of the biggest cities in the world - yet they are susceptible to flood if there is too much rain.

Flooding in Hong Kong and Beijing despite great infrastructure


no one can spend enough to prevent natural disaster.

[Monk BANzai]

money doesnt prevent people from dumping garbage in water ways

money could be used to

1. ensure that there is an efficient garbage collection system
2. place dumpsters at strategic locations for those older homeowners who are terrified of going to the Beetham to dispose of rubbish
3. educate the public on the drawbacks of careless disposal of rubbish as was done about twenty years ago

might be useful to remember that foolish habits of people develop over many years; sometimes there are plausible reasons why they started the foolishness in the first place

can't argue with that, however even in places like POS where there is efficient garbage collection every day you still have people littering and throwing waste into the river

the "chase Charlie away" was a great campaign and a good spend, that was about 30 years ago IIRC. I think it's attitude change more than education needed today.

judging from the amount of water, no amount of garbage collection and/or planning could prevent a valley from flooding due to torrential rain.

Take a look at the flooding in Beijing and Hong Kong in July 2012.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/26/world ... index.html
Beijing hosted the Olympics in 2008 and Hong Kong is one of the biggest cities in the world - yet they are susceptible to flood if there is too much rain.

Flooding in Hong Kong and Beijing despite great infrastructure


no one can spend enough to prevent natural disaster.

^^ but look..money has been spent by China for Support Infrastructure....those vehicles look specific for that sort of situation....

[5onDfloor]

I have NO CONFIDENCE in the ODPM.....

[eliteauto]

I have NO CONFIDENCE in the ODPM.....

Why?

[5onDfloor]

Cause there is a perception that they are never on top of situations... we always get Bulletins on or just before the disaster occurs.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^^ but look..money has been spent by China for Support Infrastructure....those vehicles look specific for that sort of situation....

not sure what those vehicles are - water pumps? could be

what I'd like to see if the use of portable bailey bridges like they do in Jamaica after floods wash away existing bridges and roads cave away.

absolutely spend more money on aftermath, rescue and recovery.

[xtech]

live media brief from disaster site just finished... where the prime minister announced 2 dead 2 missing, we won gold and bronze today and declared the west a national disaster zone.

[Corn Bird]

judging from the amount of water, no amount of garbage collection and/or planning could prevent a valley from flooding due to torrential rain.

no one can spend enough to prevent natural disaster.

don't know if that is what we just had in diego martin.


the questions are: what is an acceptable threshold? is the amount of rain that fell this morning enough to be classified as a natural disaster? i don't believe so but i am not a meteorologist or a planning engineer. but at least someone (in odpm) should know..

if we have an idea what the threshold is (call it x_0 mm of rainfall) then we can say

x> x_0 and floods => we really couldn't do anything
x<x_0 and floods => we're playing the arse and really need to implement some measures

[eliteauto]

Cause there is a perception that they are never on top of situations... we always get Bulletins on or just before the disaster occurs.

In a case like this other than a weather bulletin there is no advance notification to be had, the ODPM is a coordinating agency, they work with first responders to get things in a gear, quite frankly in that aspect they do quite well, there are already shelters organised, heavy equipment dispatched and debris being cleared, utilities are working to restore service as we type. They are not responsible for the flooding, their task is to mitigate the effects of same in this instance

[Monk BANzai]

^^ but look..money has been spent by China for Support Infrastructure....those vehicles look specific for that sort of situation....

not sure what those vehicles are - water pumps? could be

what I'd like to see if the use of portable bailey bridges like they do in Jamaica after floods wash away existing bridges and roads cave away.

absolutely spend more money on aftermath, rescue and recovery.

I really hope ODPM and the Protective Services use this "dry run" to iron out its bugs. use of social media to alert the masses is great, and I hope that there was a media bulletin about the do's and dont's ..

Same for TSTT and PowerGen. Better back-up systems need to be well thought out and implemented. Given that this has happened twice in as many years, the Country (not just the West, because in years past we've had disasters in Central and South, not forgettign Tobago) needs to tighten up on its Emergency and Disaster response Plans.

ODPM did good information control here. Its the aftermath we need to look at.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

if we have an idea what the threshold is (call it x_0 mm of rainfall) then we can say

x> x_0 and floods => we really couldn't do anything
x<x_0 and floods => we're playing the arse and really need to implement some measures

honestly and despite my arguments, I believe it is the latter

"we're playing the arse and really need to implement some measures"

we cannot and should not be in this position from ITCZ activity alone, though it is possible that since the system started to weaken it also slowed down, spending more time over west trinidad and so dumping unusal amounts of rain there, instead of what we would usually get from a westward moving tropical wave.

but like you said, neither of us are meteorologists.

[Trinisan]

Well is a good thing i livin south caus we dont get flood out in *the bush*

[Chimera]

does car insurance locally usually cover flood damage?

[Corn Bird]

we cannot and should not be in this position from ITCZ activity alone, though it is possible that since the system started to weaken it also slowed down, spending more time over west trinidad and so dumping unusal amounts of rain there, instead of what we would usually get from a westward moving tropical wave.

this i think is a good explanation but is this what happened in maraval last november?

Well is a good thing i livin south caus we dont get flood out in *the bush*

Floods hit Penal homes
...clogged drains, land developers blamed
Published:
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Kevon Felmine

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-07-12/floods-hit-penal-homes

[hustla_ambition101]

Continue cutting down the Northern Range for scenic homes and quarrying.......

[Parvin]

@ Duane

I'll see what I can do tmrw. Co worker had a lame BB pic else I would have taken it from him.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

we cannot and should not be in this position from ITCZ activity alone, though it is possible that since the system started to weaken it also slowed down, spending more time over west trinidad and so dumping unusal amounts of rain there, instead of what we would usually get from a westward moving tropical wave.

this i think is a good explanation but is this what happened in maraval last november?

not sure, but it was not from a Tropical Storm or Hurricane

[TriP]

PM ADDRESSES NATION LIVE ON TV.

Time: @ 5:30PM

[*$kїđž!™]

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pray we dont ever experience a hurricane

[sMASH]

drainage.

where i work, there is a sump (basically a very deep swimming pool) to receive water for wasa, as we can't connect pumps to wasa line to pull directly from them. this sump would collect the water that wasa pumps and then we would pump it from the sump.

what was saying for the last 4 years, is that sumps can be made in the low lying areas which collect water first. they would have strainers and gratings to block debris from goin into the sump. when it reaches a certain level, pumps would come on and pump the water out to some wasa place to process into fresh water.

if u can't move the people, move the water.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

@ Duane

I'll see what I can do tmrw. Co worker had a lame BB pic else I would have taken it from him.

still post it up. something better than nothing

[SRASC]

Agreed ^^^

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

drainage.

where i work, there is a sump (basically a very deep swimming pool) to receive water for wasa, as we can't connect pumps to wasa line to pull directly from them. this sump would collect the water that wasa pumps and then we would pump it from the sump.

what was saying for the last 4 years, is that sumps can be made in the low lying areas which collect water first. they would have strainers and gratings to block debris from goin into the sump. when it reaches a certain level, pumps would come on and pump the water out to some wasa place to process into fresh water.

if u can't move the people, move the water.

well this morning in some cases the water moved the people

they would have to build catchments or drainage up in the hills before the populated areas.

[geodude]

dread i saw the first few post on tuner this morning as i was finishing my shift, i went to bed and just came back on shift, that seems like real pressure, i was thinking the same thing that Xtech said