[sbe-eas] WEA in RI during severe rain

[Aaron Read]

On Monday Sept 5th there were severe (and I do mean SEVERE) heavy rains
across parts of Rhode Island, esp in Providence, North Providence, and
Cranston.  The estimate is 5 to 8 inches of rain was falling *per hour* at
some points, which puts the storm well into the "100 year storm"
territory.   There was localized flooding all over the place and a lot of
it was pretty bad; the drainage infrastructure literally isn't designed to
handle more than about 2in/hr and only for one hour, tops.

I got two WEA alerts on my Verizon iPhone about flash flooding alerts,
albeit both were several hours after the flooding had started.

Mind you, this happened not two weeks after similar storms with similar
flooding roared through on August 23rd.  No WEA alerts that time.

But the main artery through Providence, I-95, was completely closed for 4
or 5 hours (by the Thurbers Ave exit) due to this flooding.  The nearest
highway-level detour (Rt.10) and several of the surrounding surface roads
also had flooding so bad they had to be completely closed for hours.  I saw
a lot of tweets from angry drivers who got caught in the traffic jam,
wondering why WEA alerts weren't sent telling people the interstate was
closed?

And I have to wonder the same question myself!  WEA is authorized to send
out messages about roads being closed due to severe, but temporary, events
like rain-induced flooding, aren't they?

-- 
------------------------------------------
Aaron Read
readaaron at friedbagels.com
www.friedbagels.com
"Engineering: it's like math but LOUDER!"
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