Thunderstorms bringing heavy rain to the Northwest, Southwest, and South will threaten at least 13 states with flooding. On the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, lessons are still not learned. Today’s weather news and alerts.
Today’s weather alerts
Here are Wednesday’s weather alerts from the National Weather Service (NWS).
Flash flood warning: southeastern Texas; southwestern, central and northeastern Louisiana, central Mississippi, west-central Alabama.
Flood warning: central, eastern and southern Mississippi; southeastern Louisiana, southern and extreme southwestern Texas, southeastern Arizona, southeastern New Mexico.
Flood watch: northeastern and eastern Washington; northern and central Idaho; western and northwestern Montana; southern, southwestern, and southeastern California; southern Nevada; western Arizona; southeastern Texas; southeastern Arkansas; Louisiana; Mississippi.
Heat advisory: western Washington.
Major flooding threat for at least 13 states
Thunderstorms will stretch along the southern corridor from the Southwest in California to the Carolinas in the southeast.
Another band of thunderstorms stretches from Washington in the Northwest to Michigan and over the Great Lakes in the upper Midwest, while a third band of thunderstorms will hover over the Northeast.
At least thirteen states will be under the threat of flooding Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Western Florida Panhandle, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Hurricane Andrew 30th anniversary: America still hasn’t learned its lesson
On the thirtieth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, experts say America still hasn’t learned many lessons from the August 24, 1992, Category 5 storm that destroyed 63,000 homes and damaged 124,000 others, The Hill reported. Wind gusts measured 177 mph in some areas, producing a storm surge of up to 17 feet in Biscayne Bay and a tornado 20 miles wide, Fox reported.
Experts say while jurisdictions in South Florida passed the strongest building codes in the country, many Florida communities have not improved the way houses are built and how communities are braced for disasters, especially in low-income and minority communities. Experts say storms can tear apart the fabric of towns and decimate local economies for years and decades.
Hurricane watch: 2 systems active in the Atlantic
Meteorologists from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) are watching two disturbances currently in the Atlantic that are slowly moving westward. “Disturbance 1” is currently east of the Windward Islands and is expected to move into the central Caribbean Sea late this week, with forecasters giving the system a 20% chance of cyclone formation in the next five days.
“Disturbance 2” is currently off the coast of west Africa, and forecasters are giving it a 20% chance of cyclone formation within the next five days. However, they say “environmental conditions could support some slow development of this system late this week or over the weekend.”
