U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Congressmen Dave Reichert and Adam Smith have called on the Departments of Commerce and Interior to provide critical weather forecasting and river monitoring resources from the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey to address the flood threat posed by structural damage to the Howard Hanson Dam, in a letter sent yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The representatives urged Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to provide additional resources that may improve the accuracy of weather models and provide better data to local officials and the Corps as they work to minimize the threat of flooding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about utilizing all available tools in order to take every possible precaution,\u201d said Senator Murray. \u201cThis additional monitoring equipment can play an important role in providing the early and accurate warnings we\u2019ll need to best protect homes, businesses, and residents in the event of a flood in the Green River Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWashington State experiences some of the worst weather in the nation, yet it has the worst weather radar coverage of any U.S. coastline,\u201d said Cantwell. \u201cWhile I have been able to secure funding for a new Doppler Radar on the Washington Coast the additional tools we are requesting today could help Army Corps of Engineers better manage water flows on the Green River valley. Given that homes, businesses, and communities are at stake, we need to do everything possible to help deal with this winter\u2019s storm season.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlood season is rapidly approaching, and the Corps needs every possible tool at its disposal to avert disaster,\u201d Reichert said. \u201cWe are all working together to protect our citizens and their property, and having the most advanced radar systems, precipitation gauges, and technologically advanced infrastructure possible will assist us in mitigating a flood event that could wreak havoc throughout our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event of a flood, it is vitally important that we make decisive, data driven decisions to mobilize our resources in the most effective and timely way possible,\u201d said Smith. \u201cIn order to do this, we must have the most accurate and up-to-date information at our disposal. These additional tools will help provide that information and allow authorities to make more informed decisions and better coordinate their efforts to prevent and mitigate flooding damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specifically, the representatives requested the following:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Additional Gauges With Telemetry \u2013 That the U.S. Geological Survey install additional precipitation gauges and gauges to measure flows into the Howard Hanson Dam in order to assist the Corps in deciding when and how much water to release;<\/p>\n
\u2022 Relocations of Mobile Doppler Weather Radar Systems \u2013 That the National Weather Service relocate the Experimental Atmospheric River System (ARO) to Washington State this fall to enhance weather forecasting capabilities that inform Corps decisions about operations at the Howard Hanson Dam; and,<\/p>\n
\u2022 Modeling and Computer Programming Staff and Technology \u2013 Additional staffing resources and technology would be beneficial in the event of a storm at regional National Weather Service and Northwest River Forecasting Center to update and fine tune forecasting models for the Green River Basin. The representatives have requested these agencies shift additional resources to the Northwest this fall to assist the Corps in making critical operational decisions related to the dam.<\/p>\n
Additionally, a meeting was requested with the respective agencies within Commerce and Interior departments to discuss these items and any additional resources that may be available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Congressmen Dave Reichert and Adam Smith have called on the Departments of Commerce and Interior to provide critical weather forecasting and river monitoring resources from the National Weather Service and the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6103"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}