So just one article today.
What details become apparent when disasters hit close to home?
These days it really seems like US politicians have no forethought. The talking heads do not see how spending money on research and predictive modelling could really benefit people across the country. Then there is a disaster and people question where the research was, what could have been done differently to prevent the loss of human life. The thing though, is that the talking heads have no real desire to preserve life, just ratings.
The only silver lining to events like this is that you can learn from this. We felt this way in Arizona when the Yarnel Hotshots died. It is a tragic event, but what can we learn from this so that no one has to experience it again. Responding to emergency situations produces a lot of data. I think the biggest highlight of this article is the use of UAVs for remote sensing in the flood area, or more to the point, the banning of UAVs in the area. It makes sense that you do not want aircraft flying around post disaster, but to completely ban a remote sensing platform? I am not sure that was an appropriate decision.