Last week, Central Indiana was rocked by rain of historic proportions.
Not only did some places top 11 inches, the White River broke 100-year old records in Anderson and Hamilton County, cresting at heights not seen since 1913.
As recovery continues (shout out to all the amazing people and organizations that have stepped up to make shit happen), I wanted to try and provide some additional context for the moment. In truth, I was looking to become better educated on how we got here in the first place, as a conversation I’d had over the weekend made me realize I didn’t no nearly enough about what could have been done and what we could and should have known beforehand.
Luckily, Rebecca and Jason were able and available to fill me in.
In this episode we go over:
the timeline of the floods (go read Wildstyle’s substack article on it)
the local, state, and federal barriers that keep us from properly preparing for weather events like these
the legislative barriers
the impact of data centers
the impact of green infrastructure
the opportunities we have to improve if we can figure out how to work together and listen to the empirical evidence,
among other things.
I hope you walk away with as much as I did, like what coal ash is and why it’s making our water absolutely terrible. I actually think this might be one of the more important convos I’ve had on the show to date, and, as I say at the end of the episode, we barely scratched the surface on a lot of the things we talk about. There’s so much.
NOTE: In a cruel bit of irony, it began to rain as I was writing this. If you or someone you know has been impacted by these floods, please check out the resource list linked below.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts. And let me know what else you think we should be covering on the show.
Love
Rebecca TeKolste and Jason Donati, Senior Lobbyist and Water Policy Director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, join the show for an emergency conversation about the historic floods and storms that hit communities across Indiana the past two weeks.
Learn more about the Hoosier Environmental Council: https://hecweb.org/
For a list of sources for things mentioned in this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zXSjHjABIx0y9A7BldV2SQBYUjgnlX6J6NaLbEhqreo/edit?usp=sharing
For a list of resources for folks both impacted by the storms + floods and looking to make an impact (compiled by Jason): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IZOdJ26r4wIxp59iVr4eVWzrt3ZETbV_L23JSnZn3s8/edit?tab=t.0
