The media last week was full of dramatic images of flooding in London: the disruption to Tube stations and two major hospitals causing particular concern. But, exactly two years ago, we were facing an even more serious flooding incident here in the High Peak. Sustained rainfall through late July 2019 had filled Toddbrook Reservoir to …
Two reports have now been completed into the cause of the failure of the slipway at Toddbrook Reservoir in Whaley Bridge on 1st August 2019: The “Toddbrook Reservoir Independent Review Report” by Professor David Balmforth, commissioned by DEFRA; and “Report on the Nature and Root Cause of the Toddbrook Reservoir Auxiliary Spillway Failure on 1st …
Understandably, media attention in the UK is focused on the growing threat of Coronavirus and the two recent severe weather events. However, as well as these ongoing high-profile stories; there has also been a recent spate of food product recalls. We have been tracking the number of food product recalls on the FSA website for …
It often feels like the news is filled with stories of more and more devastating natural disasters around the world. Even here in the UK, the perception is of an increasing incidence of extreme weather events; but, interestingly, data would suggest that this is not the case. I recently came across the excellent EM-DAT Emergency Events …
Impact of Severe Weather Events Falling (at Least in the UK) Read More »
I came across a fascinating article recently by Andrew Healy and Neil Malhotra entitled “Myopic Voters and Natural Disaster Policy”. The authors reconciled local data from across the US on government spending on various aspects of disaster preparedness and disaster relief, with election results in each area. Their key finding was that politicians were rewarded, …
Voters Reward Disaster Relief but not Disaster Prevention Read More »
It has just been announced that the production of Carr’s Water Biscuits has been halted for a couple of months due to the recent floods in Carlisle during December 2015. United Biscuits have run advertisements in The Times explaining that they had been unable to source alternative ovens that were suitable for making the biscuits. …
