{"id":31646,"date":"2025-07-12T09:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T09:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31646"},"modified":"2025-07-12T09:25:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T09:25:57","slug":"flash-floods-are-the-hardest-kind-of-disaster-to-prevent-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31646","title":{"rendered":"Flash Floods Are the \u2018Hardest Kind\u2019 of Disaster to Prevent, Experts Say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scholars and designers of early warning systems say that there are still huge gaps in our ability to predict flash floods and warn those at risk.<\/p>\n

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Officials in Texas are under scrutiny for a string of refusals<\/a> to fund early warning systems for flash floods in an area where sudden, intense rainfall is frequent.<\/p>\n

Those measures could have included river gauges and warning sirens that could have alerted people that their lives were in imminent danger. The floods that raged down the Guadalupe River eight days ago killed at least 121 people, including at least 36 children.<\/p>\n

But global experts in early warning systems said that there are few examples of places around the world that have mastered the choreography of forecasting and communication needed to prevent loss of life in extreme rain events. And in many cases, like in Texas this month, accurate forecasting alone is not enough to prevent calamity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlash floods are the hardest kind of disaster to prevent,\u201d said Erin Coughlan de Perez, who studies disaster risk management at Tufts University. She said that both rich and poor countries have grappled with funding for systems that ultimately either fail or create enough false alarms to erode public confidence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For instance, in Valencia, Spain, a lack of sufficient warnings contributed<\/a> to a catastrophe where more than 200 people died in flash floods last year. An alert system was in place, but was not activated until it was already too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the alert came, my grandpa had already drowned,\u201d one resident told The Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a major \u2018cry wolf\u2019 issue because flash floods are so hard to predict,\u201d Dr. Coughlan de Perez said. \u201cAnd they are pretty infrequent in most places, so it\u2019s hard to motivate investment. But of course, with climate change, they are also getting stronger and more common.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Scholars and designers of early warning systems say that there are still huge gaps in our ability to predict flash floods and warn those at risk.Officials in Texas are under scrutiny for a string of refusals to fund early warning systems for flash floods in an area where sudden, intense rainfall is frequent.Those measures could have included river gauges and warning sirens that could have alerted people that their lives were in imminent danger. The floods that raged down the Guadalupe River eight days ago killed at least 121 people, including at least 36 children.But global experts in early warning systems said that there are few examples of places around the world that have mastered the choreography of forecasting and communication needed to prevent loss of life in extreme rain events. And in many cases, like in Texas this month, accurate forecasting alone is not enough to prevent calamity.\u201cFlash floods are the hardest kind of disaster to prevent,\u201d said Erin Coughlan de Perez, who studies disaster risk management at Tufts University. She said that both rich and poor countries have grappled with funding for systems that ultimately either fail or create enough false alarms to erode public confidence.For instance, in Valencia, Spain, a lack of sufficient warnings contributed to a catastrophe where more than 200 people died in flash floods last year. An alert system was in place, but was not activated until it was already too late.\u201cWhen the alert came, my grandpa had already drowned,\u201d one resident told The Times.\u201cThere\u2019s a major \u2018cry wolf\u2019 issue because flash floods are so hard to predict,\u201d Dr. Coughlan de Perez said. \u201cAnd they are pretty infrequent in most places, so it\u2019s hard to motivate investment. But of course, with climate change, they are also getting stronger and more common.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31648,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31649,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31646\/revisions\/31649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}