New Tool for Assessing Effects of Hurricanes on the Workforce

According to a July 12, 2010 news release, the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Weather Service have released a new Web-based tool to provide workforce data for areas impacted by hurricanes. OnTheMap for Emergency Management: Hurricanes allows users to see characteristics of the local workforce including affected industries, ages of workers, and workers' earnings. The site also includes historical data.

Rebuild a Sustainable Houston

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, Houstonians are discussing what they will do differently in the future to prepare for hurricanes. After days without electricity neighborhoods with overhead power lines are longing for buried ones. In a Houston Chronicle article Houston City Councilman Peter Brown mentions ideas for making Houston more hurricane-proof and sustainable including retrofitting the city's electrical infrastructure, improving flood control, and adopting better building codes. In Texas SECO (State Energy Conservation Office) has gathered Sustainable Building Links to help transform ideas into reality.

Regardless of what happens in the future, Houstonians would like to thank local crews and all those who came from out of town and out of state to help get us functional again. Seeing a rescue truck from Los Angeles or a power truck from Florida or Ohio or a tree cutting service from Alabama helping our local workers literally made and continue to make our days brighter physically and emotionally.

Hurricane and Flood Information

As tropical storms and hurricanes make their presence known in the Gulf Coast area, helpful information is available from three government sites. Two branches of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are especially useful when the skies are stormy. NOAA's National Weather Service makes a quick visual survey of weather easy with its map of the United States color-coded for various weather conditions. It also offers links to weather-related RSS feeds and warnings by state or city. The service even offers an experimental UV Alert Forecast Map.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center also offers hurricane advisories and local forecasts available by city or zip code. You can even sign up to receive hurricane advisories on your cell phone. Their hurricane awareness page contains online guides, brochures, and miscellaneous current and historical hurricane-related information including some written in Spanish.

On the local level the Harris County Flood Control District has "full and lite" versions of hurricane trackers to download. You can use their floodplain mapping tool to find out if you live in or near a floodplain, and their flood preparedness link to "learn facts that could save your life." The site also contains information about who needs flood insurance.