Tag: Disaster Recovery

Posted inBreaking News, National Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Wildfire roundup for September 5th, 2017: Washington, Oregon, and Idaho are burning

by Andrew Villeneuve

For months, author­i­ties across the Pacif­ic North­west have been warn­ing that our region was fac­ing an extreme wild­fire risk this sum­mer that would only be exac­er­bat­ed by a lack of pre­cip­i­ta­tion. As we approach the autum­nal equinox, those fears have come to pass, with a series of dev­as­tat­ing fires burn­ing up and down the Cascade […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Hurricane Harvey’s impact worsens as rainfall continues to deluge greater Houston

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last week, as read­ers know, Hur­ri­cane Har­vey roared ashore in Texas, mak­ing its first land­fall at Rock­port around 03:00 UTC. It is the first hur­ri­cane to make land­fall in the south­ern Unit­ed States in twelve years, end­ing a record stretch that began fol­low­ing the dev­as­ta­tion caused by Hur­ri­canes Kat­ri­na and Wilma in 2005. Since then, Harvey […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Horrible tragedy unfolding in Nepal following massive quake; thousands dead and injured

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, as most of the Pacif­ic time­zone was head­ed to bed or snooz­ing away fol­low­ing the end of anoth­er work­week, a mas­sive earth­quake struck Nepal, includ­ing the cap­i­tal of Kath­man­du. Ini­tial­ly report­ed as a mag­ni­tude 7.5 trem­blor by the U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, it was lat­er revised to 7.8. The quake stuck at a depth […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

President Obama signs emergency declaration for Washington State to help mudslide victims

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good news. This just in from the White House: Today, the Pres­i­dent declared an emer­gency in the State of Wash­ing­ton and ordered fed­er­al aid to sup­ple­ment state and local response efforts due to the emer­gency con­di­tions result­ing from flood­ing and mud­slides begin­ning on March 22, 2014, and con­tin­u­ing. The Pres­i­den­t’s action autho­rizes the Depart­ment of Homeland […]

Posted inBreaking News, World Commmunity

Terrible devastation in Philippines prompts renewed call for aid from the United Nations

by Andrew Villeneuve

As pic­tures and eye­wit­ness accounts con­tin­ue to come in from the Philip­pines, depict­ing the ter­ri­ble dev­as­ta­tion wrought by Typhoon Haiyan, the Unit­ed Nations is launch­ing a $300+ mil­lion appeal for aid from the world com­mu­ni­ty to help the more than eleven mil­lion peo­ple affect­ed by the storm. (Many of them are with­out shel­ter after the […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Inslee: We have a plan for making I‑5’s Skagit River Bridge driveable again by mid-June

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (WSDOT) has devised a plan to make Inter­state 5 between Mount Ver­non and Burling­ton pass­able again by mid-June, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee announced this after­noon. State bridge engi­neers have been work­ing fever­ish­ly to fig­ure out how the bridge that car­ries Inter­state 5 over the Skag­it Riv­er might be repaired. The […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Time to give the failed I‑5 Skagit River span a new name: The Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge

by Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day after­noon on Dai­ly Kos, pro­gres­sive activist Wu Ming sug­gest­ed that, in the wake of the fail­ure of Inter­state 5’s Skag­it Riv­er cross­ing, which car­ries more than sev­en­ty thou­sand vehi­cles a day, it would be appro­pri­ate to give the span a new name: The Tim Eyman Memo­r­i­al Bridge. Ming wrote: As I watched the coverage […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Hurray for Amtrak! Third daily Cascades train between Seattle and Bellingham is coming

by Andrew Villeneuve

A big kudos to WSDOT, Burling­ton North­ern San­ta Fe, and Sound Tran­sit for fig­ur­ing out how to pull this new ser­vice togeth­er on short notice: To assist trav­el­ers affect­ed by yesterday’s I‑5 high­way bridge col­lapse in Skag­it Coun­ty, Amtrak Cas­cades will add one round trip route between Seat­tle and Belling­ham, Wash., in the com­ing weeks. Amtrak, […]

Posted inNational Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Governor Inslee: Repair of collapsed I‑5 Skagit River Bridge is estimated at $15 million

by Andrew Villeneuve

It’s only been six­teen hours since a sec­tion of the bridge that car­ries Inter­state 5 over the Skag­it Riv­er col­lapsed, but already the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (WSDOT) is work­ing on a plan to put the span back togeth­er. Experts have esti­mat­ed the cost of a bridge repair at around $15 mil­lion, accord­ing to […]

Posted inBreaking News, National Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Washington’s elected leaders respond to collapse of I‑5 bridge over Skagit River

by Andrew Villeneuve

As the evening goes on, more and more elect­ed lead­ers are react­ing to tonight’s break­ing news out of Skag­it Coun­ty. A sec­tion of the bridge that car­ries Inter­state 5 over the Skag­it Riv­er, just north of Mount Ver­non, has col­lapsed into the water. The cause of the dis­as­ter is believed to be an over­height truck […]

Posted inBreaking News, National Defense, Policy Topics, Public Planning

BREAKING: A section of the Interstate 5 bridge over Skagit River has collapsed

by Andrew Villeneuve

Break­ing, huge­ly con­se­quen­tial news out of Skag­it Coun­ty tonight: A sec­tion of the Inter­state 5 bridge over the Skag­it Riv­er near Mount Ver­non has col­lapsed, accord­ing to the State Patrol and eye­wit­ness reports on Twit­ter. The Seat­tle Times has an even more remark­able pho­to. The struc­tur­al fail­ure occurred just before 7 PM, the State Patrol […]