Tag Archives: Weather

Videos @ LCC 2012 03 13

Here are videos of the entire 13 March 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC).

See separate items on the appointment of Sheila Cook to the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Addictive Diseases Region Four Planning Board and “We expect you to run a clean, quiet establishment” —Ashley Paulk.

Other notable parts of this meeting were when staff said conservation status was a small detail and and Commissioners proceeded to get rid of it in a rezoning.

At the end of the meeting, County Manager Joe Pritchard didn’t listen to Commissioner Powell’s request and proceede to recount details of road paving property signatures until Chairman Paulk nudged him that the question was about tornadoes, after which Pritchard gave a recap of Ashley Tye’s tornado report of the previous morning.

Here’s the agenda. Here’s a playlist:


Videos
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission, (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 March 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

I am very concerned about a community that would purchase an armored vehicle over weather radios —Sharon Flory

Received 17 February. -jsq
My name is Sharon Flory and I am the Sales Representative for Alert Works Products, the company who was working with Lowndes County to distribute roughly 3,500 weather radios to the community. After working for about 8 months with Ashley Tye we were both ecstatic when the grant came through only to be shot down by the newly appointed commissioner. I could not believe what I read below.
She quoted Lowndes County priorities: tanks and lunches for Commissioners, but no lunches for seniors? -jsq
I am very concerned about a community that would purchase an armored vehicle, that would only protect about 5 people at a time, over purchasing weather radios that would protect upwards of 10,000 people when you consider the families that live in each home.

I am a sales rep and my job is to sell radios BUT my job is also my passion. I live in Ohio and have been affected by storms all of my life. I have been down right scared to death from storms and feel that the politics in this town is not moving in the right direction.

I see that you have the same feelings and hope that you can make a difference. Thank you for caring and keep up the good work. Someone will listen!!!

-Sharon Flory
Alert Works
419-779-8132

Hazard mitigation public hearing 6PM today

Found on the Lowndes County government website:
Hazard Mitigation Public Hearing (10/17/2011)
PUBLIC HEARING ON
HAZARD MITIGATION
MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2011
6:00 P.M.
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
327 N. ASHLEY STREET
COMMISSION CHAMBERS – 2ND FLOOR
For more information please contact EMA Director, Ashley Tye, at 671-2790.
SO I called Ashley Tye, who said: Continue reading →

Many small ponds for flood control and irrigation

So Valdosta’s ponds for flood control idea is a good start on local water issues. Rather than a few big antiseptic ponds, how about many small distributed ponds, like the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission’s Ponds Program:
Because of increased irrigation from existing ponds in Southeast Georgia due to saltwater intrusion into groundwater aquifers and moratoriums on well drillings along Georgia’s coast, GSWCC, in cooperation with NRCS, developed the Ponds Program. By helping landowners to construct new and renovate existing ponds for irrigation, the Ponds Program has been able to take advantage of rain harvesting to increase landowners’ irrigation capabilities while simultaneously reducing withdrawal from our aquifers, protecting and improving water quality, capturing sediment to reduce downstream transport, and providing wildlife habitats.

-jsq

Tornado Warning in Lowndes County right now

The National Weather Service map right now shows a tornado warning for part of Lowndes County:

This is at least the second time this month; here another tornado warning for Lowndes County, from 5 April 2011: Continue reading →

Commissioning ceremony cancelled for Wiregrass Solar plant

Yesterday I heard that the commissioning ceremony for the Wiregrass Solar plant was cancelled by VLCIA due to impending weather. Perhaps you didn’t know it was scheduled; I didn’t. Back at the March VLCIA board meeting, they said they would discuss that “later”.

So I called Col. Ricketts this morning to see if it was back on for today, considering that the weather had already passed by. He said no, they had cancelled it, not wanting to chance having people in a tent in bad weather. He also said the press release had gone out yesterday.

I asked him to let me know when it was rescheduled, reminding him that LAKE likes to take videos of VLCIA events, and we like the Wiregrass Solar plant, so it would be a bit of free publicity for them. He said he would, and he expected it to be probably within the next couple of weeks. I asked him to send LAKE a copy of the new press release when it was sent out. He said he would.

We’ll be happy to post such a press release.

-jsq

The politics of climate change denial

Why do some people deny the overwhelming science of climate change in a time when the evidence and analysis is so thorough and so conclusive that no reputable scientific organization in the world doubts any longer that humans are changing the climate of the whole planet for the worse: because it threatens their political and economic beliefs. Naomi Klein: Why Climate Change Is So Threatening to Right-Wing Ideologues:
And the reason is that climate change is now seen as an identity issue on the right. People are defining themselves, like they’re against abortion, they don’t believe in climate change. It’s part of who they are.
It’s like denying the earth goes around the sun. Why would they identify with such a silly thing? Because of what actually dealing with climate change would mean: Continue reading →

Is Dixie Alley spreading?

So today we have a report of a tornado at Poulan (west of Tifton), tornados in Alabama and west, and right now the storm is sitting on top of Tallahassee in a circular pattern:

More maps of Dixie Alley from Is Dixie Alley an extension of Tornado Alley? by P. Grady Dixon, et al.: Continue reading →

A new tornado alley?

Just a couple of weeks ago a local elected official told me “we didn’t live in tornado alley”. Well, after today’s storm in which apparently there were some tornados to the west before it got here, the Washington Post remarks on Mardi Gras storm risk & the new tornado alley:
Despite the lack of historic twister activity around New Orleans, tornado climatology indicates they become much more common due north into south central Mississippi and expanding northeast and northwest from northern Alabama across northern Louisiana, southwest Tennessee and into eastern Arkansas.
As you can see by the map they posted from a recent study, one pocket of this new tornado alley, nicknamed Dixie Alley, is in south Georgia.

The article goes on to quote a different study that said:

…Dixie Alley has the highest frequency of long-track F3 to F5 tornadoes, making it the most active region in the United States. … Based on this analysis, colloquial tornado alley fails to represent the areas of highest activity in the United States, indicating that a more comprehensive analysis of additional tornado alleys in the United States by the NWS may be needed in the future.
So yes, we do live in the new tornado alley.

Sure would be nice for people around here to have NOAA Weather Radios.

-jsq

PS: Nothing but wind and rain on my hill. This time.

Tornado warning: you would have heard this on NOAA Weather Radio

This is what NOAA Weather Radio would tell you right now. I know this stuff because a friend called and told me to check on the Internet. But people who can’t afford $21 for a radio don’t have Internet connections; some don’t have telephones. When there’s severe weather frequently telephones don’t work, either.

The red line is severe weather heading this way fast:

WCTV reports Tornado Watch: Severe Weather Expected Throughout Fla. Panhandle: Continue reading →