Urban flooding.
It just sounds scary.
I expect it to involve graffiti, boarded windows, tattoos and knife fights.
It’s not the kinder, gentler pastoral flooding. Or riparian flooding.
Media in Western Washington seemed to latch onto the phrase this time around: Urban flooding.
Admittedly, the label makes a worthwhile distinction. As our civilization covers the landscape with more asphalt and concrete, we’re going to see more overfilled streets, sidewalks, culverts and storm sewers. It’s not just rivers spilling from their banks in rural areas.
News organizations get excited by severe weather (and, yes, people would say some media get too excited too often).
It is an opportunity for genuine public service – a time when people in our region really need the information we are gathering. Commuters need to know the status of the roadways. Parents need to know the status of schools and other community programs. Residents in some towns and neighborhoods worry they live in harm’s way. Public works officials watch as bridges and road grading dissolve.
Reader response to the coverage we’ve provided this week has been rewarding. If you missed any of it, you can still find:
Stories about the flood’s immediate damage and its long-term effects.
Photos in the newspaper and photo galleries of local and statewide images on this web site.
The HeraldNet’s interactive map identifying trouble spots.
Weather feels so important because it happens directly to us, whether we’re urban or otherwise.
Of course, it turns out, the biggest story in the region wasn’t urban flooding – it was the closure of I-5 in the Chehalis area.
And anyone who has driven that open stretch might be tempted to call it “Flooding RFD.”
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