Media Watch Archives
After California’s deadly storms left towns and farmland flooded, residents are struggling to recover
NBC News -
“It’s going to take some time to reveal how bad this event is,” said Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. “Consequences of natural disasters can linger for years, and often assistance comes too late for disadvantaged communities.” Sanders is among a handful of researchers at UCI studying how low-income neighborhoods are disproportionately at risk for and affected by flooding. He helped develop a high-resolution flood modeling platform that can assess risk every 10 feet across the 2,700-square-mile expanse of the greater Los Angeles basin. Read More
Los Angeles County’s Black Residents Are Most at Risk in Major Floods
The New York Times -
Brett F. Sanders, lead author of the report and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UC Irvine, noted that Black residents make up only around nine percent of the total population of Los Angeles County, “yet that smaller fraction disproportionately settled in a part of the county that would be highly exposed to river flood risk.” … Another of the study’s authors, Nícola Ulibarrí, an associate professor of urban planning and public policy at Irvine, noted that members of the focus groups said the study’s maps could be used on a micro level for practical action like building bus stops in places residents could reach without walking through flooded streets. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/nytimes] Read More
California’s winter storms have been deadlier than any wildfire since 2018
The Washington Post -
The state’s years-long drought may have also had a psychological effect on residents, who lately have been praying for rain, said Amir AghaKouchak, a civil and environmental engineering professor at University of California, Irvine. “Fire, when you see it, you immediately feel the danger,” he said. “But rain is different, especially in California, where we consider it a good thing.” Floods, then, can blindside people, he said. And it doesn’t take much water — sometimes just a quarter of an inch in a matter of minutes — to transform a benign hill into a mudslide, AghaKouchak said. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/news/post] Read More
California, Inundated
The New York Times -
It doesn’t take much rain for road intersections to wind up underwater, says Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He has worked to develop another effort to educate residents: a hyperlocal forecasting system to inform them of the risk that their neighborhoods — or even streets — face from a coming storm. … “This event is a bit of a wake-up call,” he said. “We haven’t had a really severe urban flooding problem of this scale for at least a couple of decades.” [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/nytimes] Read More
Have the recent storms put a dent in California's historic drought?
KCBS -
The next series of storms will build an even deeper snowpack that is now more than 200% of normal. As it melts into streams, water managers are hoping the water can be captured. However, others are worried that weather extremes caused by climate change could quickly melt the snow and cause devastating consequences. "Snow is like a natural reservoir," said UC Irvine engineering professor Amir Aghakouchak. "It helps but also a lot of snow, especially if you have a warm spring, can increase your chances of flooding." Read More
Los Angeles at Greater Flood Risk Than Government Estimates, Study Shows
The Wall Street Journal -
But the flood risk in Los Angeles is much greater than what the latest storm delivered, according to a study published in October. Hundreds of thousands of residents and billions of dollars in property are exposed to widespread flood risk in Los Angeles, a greater impact than federal flood zones suggest. “Watching these storms roll in really reaffirms how poorly prepared we are for any type of street and road flooding. We’re seeing highways and roads across California being impacted by floodwater, or downright blocked,” said Dr. Brett Sanders, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Irvine, and lead author of the study published in Nature Sustainability. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/news/wsj] Read More
Atmospheric rivers over California’s wildfire burn scars raise fears of deadly mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like
The Conversation -
Amir AghaKouchak, UCI professor of civil & environmental engineering and Earth system science writes, “I study cascading hazards like this, in which consecutive events lead to human disasters. Studies show climate change is raising the risk of multiple compound disasters, including new research showing increasing risks to energy infrastructure. … With compound and cascading events likely to become more common in a warming world, the ability to prepare for and manage multiple hazards will be increasingly essential.” Read More
Hospitals Are at Risk: Smartphone Attacks Could Release Deadly Microbes
SciTechDaily -
A team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine has found that negative pressure rooms, which are used in hospitals and laboratories to prevent the spread of deadly pathogens, can be compromised by an attacker using a smartphone. … “Someone could play a piece of music loaded on their smartphone or get it to transmit from a television or other audio device in or near a negative pressure room,” said senior co-author Mohammad Al Faruque, UCI professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “If that music is embedded with a tone that matches the resonant frequency of the pressure controls of one of these spaces, it could cause a malfunction and a leak of deadly microbes.” Read More
Floods’ Worst Ravages Will Be Visited Upon California’s Poorest
Capital & Main -
Researchers from UC Irvine last year reported that the damage from a “100-year flood,” so named for its rarity and ferocity, would land hardest on Black and low income L.A. residents. The reason? They live disproportionately in the low-lying communities nearest to the region’s dilapidated network of storm drains, dams, basins, levees and other water control mechanisms, which will overflow. In a worst-case scenario, the researchers said, major flooding would push water into Compton, Bell Gardens, Southgate, North Long Beach and other areas between the Dominguez Channel and the Los Angeles River — perhaps six feet deep. Read More
California, Nevada no longer under 'exceptional drought' conditions following severe influx of rainfall
ABC News -
But it will take several seasons at 120% to 200% the normal rain and snowfall to eliminate drought in the West, according to experts. A tough feat, considering the anthropogenic -- or human-induced -- warming many states in the West, including California and Nevada, are experiencing, Amir AghaKouchak, a professor at the University of California, Irvine who specializes in hydrological extremes and drought monitoring, told ABC News. Drought has "many dimensions," and climate change is expected to alter the relationship between drought and flooding in the West, AghaKouchak said. Read More