My Name Is Earl... and I'm A Big Blow Hard!

We are in the middle of a visit from Hurricane Earl. Still a Hurricane (Level 1) as it passes through Nova Scotia but is expected to be Post Tropical when the eye of the storm passes over us on Prince Edward Island. Woke to no power this morning and that was before the winds even picked up, apparently Maritime Electric had equipment failure at our local substation and power is back for now. While we've endured such weather in the past, this is the first time in recent memory that it's come during the day, and so we can view the storm in all it's glory. I'll try to get some photo's / video if I can but our subdivision doesn't have a lot of mature trees, which is both a blessing and a curse. I'm not sure that any images I will be able to capture will be that impressive but then again, it's not likely that a tree will land on my house. I have to admit, I am fond of a good storm and have been ever since I was young, mother nature has always fascinated me. I hope the damage is minimal and that everyone stays safe, but I do enjoy being in the middle of the action. :)

Planning For Disasters Using Video Game Technologies

A former Microsoft product planner, Mike Geersten, has built a business planning for and reacting to disasters based on the knowledge he employed while working on Microsoft Flight Simulator and train sims. With $1.5 million in angel investment Geersten has put together a team of 14 to develop and market his software called Depiction which helps model the effect of disasters on land mass. "Depiction can be used to plan for disasters ahead of time, but it's also useful for collecting and organizing data during a crisis. Citizens can e-mail reports from the field, and emergency workers can feed other data directly into the software to find alternative routes when downed power lines, flood waters or landslides block roads."

This Wired video discusses how Depiction can be used to examine the effect of rising seas on New York City and what might be done to preserve the city from these effects.

The Greenest Town In America

Greensburg Kansas, was devastated by a tornado on May 4th, 2007 with nearly 90% of the city destroyed. When the residents decided to rebuild their community, they made a conscious effort to make it the greenest in the country. "The timing of all this is, in some ways, almost spooky," Daniel Wallach, a nonprofit specialist helping Greensburg rebuild said. "It's like the world was ready for this to happen, for a town to be completely re-imagined. The tragedy was terrible. But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity." CNN video segment here.