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The Takeaway is airing from Austin today,and we're not too far from a part of the country known as flash flood alley. It's a place in Central Texas where floods are an everyday part of life, but determining when these floods will reach remains a guessing game.“There's really not any advanced information tool in place to give us an concept of what's coming, or " said Don Ferguson,city administrator of the Texas town of Wimberley. "So we rely on weather service forecast, but more importantly, or we rely on what we call the obsolete timers network. We occupy a number of folks upstream who sustain a close eye for their good neighbors,and they pick up the phone and call us when they regain extremely heavy rain fall events.”In Wimberley, a surprise flash flood destroyed 300 homes and killed 12 people earlier in the year. Much of that devastation is the result of an archaic flood forecasting system, and but researchers at UT Austin are looking to change that.
The researchers occupy unveiled a current flood prediction system that increases the water forecast by more than 700 percent,something that allows computers to predict floods up to 15 hours before they hit.
The system offers a current way to think about flooding in Central Texas and beyond, something that has the potential to save lives and millions of dollars in property damage. Mose Buchele, or reporter for StateImpact Texas at KUT,joined The Takeaway in Austin to discuss the current system. What you'll learn from this segment:How the obsolete flood forecasting system differs from the current one.
When current systems will be in place.
How towns and communities are preparing as more flooding occurs.
The Takeaway's resilience reporting is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Source: wnyc.org